Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g
Three people in a house drinking coffee, one of whom likes it strong, is exactly the problem this bag solves. Balance is the entire design: caramelised, faintly nutty, a cocoa edge, full and slightly syrupy as espresso, with just enough bitterness left standing to stay legible under steamed milk. Nothing in it competes to be the loudest note, which is why nobody has ever described it as exciting and why it is the one everybody in the kitchen can live with. Against a cleaner all-Arabica Italian bag it gives up aroma and crema definition. It takes them back the moment milk is involved, and for a home machine turning out flat whites that is the question that actually matters. It is the bag to buy when the machine is making milk drinks and the household is not made of purists.
Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, in brief.
Costa Mocha Italia is the brand's signature blend in whole beans, Arabica with a proportion of Robusta for body and crema, roasted medium-dark, balanced rather than loud, picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the house-blend bean for anyone making flat whites at home.
A 200g bag of whole beans, so you need a grinder. That is the point of them: a bean holds its aroma for weeks where the same coffee ground holds it for days. Expect about 11 double espressos at 18g, or around 16 mugs as cafetiere at 12g, worked out from the bag weight rather than a pack claim. There is no chocolate in it; mocha here is the old port name, not the drink.
Costa Mocha Italia is the blend the name above the shop door is built on, sold in a 200g bag for the kitchen at home. Costa describes it as its signature blend, and that word is doing real work here: this is not a supermarket-only line invented to fill a shelf, it is the house style the brand is known for, put into whole beans for anyone who owns a grinder.
The word mocha in coffee naming comes from the Yemeni port of Mokha, which was the route most European coffee arrived by for a long stretch of history. It is a place name that got attached to coffee and then, much later, to a chocolate drink. There is no chocolate in this bag. If you are buying it expecting a mocha in the coffee-shop sense, you are buying the wrong thing; what you are actually getting is a balanced espresso-leaning house blend, which is the better purchase anyway.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Bag
Costa began as a London roastery run by two brothers supplying coffee to caterers, and the high-street chain came afterwards. That order is worth knowing, because it means the retail bags are not a brand name licensed onto somebody else's coffee: roasting was the original trade, and Mocha Italia is the blend that came out of it.
Costa's published description of the blend has it built from Arabica with a proportion of Robusta in it, and that combination is a deliberate engineering decision rather than a cost-cutting one. Arabica carries the aromatics and the sweetness; Robusta brings body, a firmer bitterness and a thicker, more persistent crema. A pure Arabica espresso in a milk drink tends to vanish underneath it. The Robusta component is what keeps the coffee audible in a flat white or a latte, which is exactly the problem a coffee-shop house blend exists to solve. We will not print a ratio: the bag does not publish one and the proportions are not ours to estimate.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- The bag that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than a grey import on a different roast specification.
- Whole beans generate a spent puck and a bag and nothing else. No capsule, no plastic pod, no aluminium, and no filter paper if you are pulling it as espresso. The grounds go on the compost.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Costa
Costa is the British coffee chain that grew from a Lambeth coffee bar to the UK's biggest cafe brand. Their retail range includes ground coffee, instant, and pods designed to deliver the cafe drink experience at home.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
The taste profile
How does it compare
This is an espresso-leaning blend and it rewards being treated as one, but it is not so dark that it falls apart in a cafetiere. The one thing worth saying plainly is that you must grind it yourself, which is the whole reason to buy beans: a bean holds its aroma for weeks, the same coffee ground holds it for days.
The Home Espresso
The Cafetiere
Made with this tea
The Starting Espresso Recipe
How to make The Starting Espresso Recipe with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 18g Costa Mocha Italia, ground fine
- A set of scales
- A timer
- Filtered water in the machine
- Weigh 18g into a standard double basket and level the bed before you tamp.
- Tamp firm and flat. An uneven bed is the usual reason a shot runs fast down one side.
- Pull to about 36g of liquid in the cup, which is double the dose.
- Time it. 25 to 30 seconds is the target: faster means grind finer, slower means grind coarser.
What you'll end up with: A balanced double with a thick crema. This is a starting point rather than a rule; change one variable at a time and you will find your own numbers within a week.
Flat White
How to make Flat White with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 1 double shot of Costa Mocha Italia
- 130ml cold whole milk
- A milk thermometer, or a hand on the jug
- Pull the shot into a warmed cup first, so it is not sitting waiting.
- Steam the milk with the wand just under the surface for the first few seconds to fold air in, then drop it deeper to spin the jug.
- Stop at 60 to 65 degrees, or when the jug is too hot to hold comfortably. Past that the milk sugars taste cooked.
- Pour from a height to break the crema, then drop in close to finish.
What you'll end up with: The drink this blend was designed for. The Robusta component is what keeps the coffee audible underneath the milk instead of disappearing into it.
Cafetiere, No Machine Needed
How to make Cafetiere, No Machine Needed with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 24g Costa Mocha Italia, ground coarse
- 400ml water at about 93 degrees
- A spoon for the crust
- Grind coarse, like coarse sea salt. Fine grounds in a cafetiere give sludge and an over-extracted cup.
- Pour water that has stood thirty to forty seconds off the boil, lid on, plunger up.
- Break the crust at four minutes and skim the foam off.
- Plunge slowly and pour the whole jug out at once, including what you are not drinking yet.
What you'll end up with: Two mugs that taste the same as each other. This blend is not so dark that it falls apart outside an espresso machine, which makes it a more flexible bag than the Intense Amazonian.
Shakerato
How to make Shakerato with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 1 double shot of Costa Mocha Italia
- 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
- A cocktail shaker full of ice
- Pull the shot straight into the shaker and stir the sugar in while it is hot, if you are using it.
- Fill the shaker with ice and seal it.
- Shake hard for fifteen seconds, until the outside frosts over.
- Strain into a chilled glass, leaving the ice behind, and drink it while the foam is still standing.
What you'll end up with: A cold espresso with a thick collar of foam on it. The crema this blend produces is what makes the foam hold; a thin-crema Arabica shot gives a flatter result.
An Actual Mocha
How to make An Actual Mocha with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 1 double shot of Costa Mocha Italia
- 20g dark chocolate, chopped
- 180ml milk
- A pinch of salt
- Melt the chopped chocolate in the bottom of the mug with a tablespoon of the hot shot, stirring to a gloss.
- Add the rest of the shot and the pinch of salt.
- Steam or heat the milk to 60 to 65 degrees and pour it in.
- Taste before sweetening. The chocolate is usually doing enough.
What you'll end up with: The drink the name misleads people into expecting, made properly with real chocolate. There is no chocolate in the bag itself, so this is where you add it.
Coffee Sugar For Baking
How to make Coffee Sugar For Baking with Costa Mocha Italia.
- 20g Costa Mocha Italia, whole beans
- 300g caster sugar
- A clean jar with a tight lid
- Bury the whole beans in the sugar in the jar and seal it.
- Leave it somewhere cool for a week, shaking it once a day.
- Sieve the beans out, or leave them in and spoon around them.
- Use it in shortbread, in a crumble topping or on top of a coffee cake.
What you'll end up with: Sugar that smells of coffee and carries it into baking without adding liquid or grit. Whole beans work here where ground coffee would just make the sugar dusty.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted coffee beans, whole | the whole bag | There is nothing else in it. No flavouring, no chicory, no filler. Whole beans also hold their aroma for weeks where the same coffee ground holds it for days. |
| Measure per serving | 18g espresso / 12g filter | About 11 double espressos at 18g, or roughly 16 mugs at 12g per 200ml in a cafetiere, worked out from the bag weight. |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Roasted Coffee Beans.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g; whole roasted coffee beans, medium-dark. Best before the date printed on the pack, and best used within a few weeks of opening while the beans are still aromatic.
The current UK pack carries the full ingredient, nutrition and allergen statement and is the version to trust at the point of purchase.
Sourcing & blend. Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g is made by Costa, which began as a London roastery run by two brothers supplying caterers before it became the high-street chain. Mocha Italia is the house blend that came out of that trade rather than a supermarket line bolted on afterwards. Costa's published description has it built from Arabica with a proportion of Robusta, and the reason is functional: a pure Arabica espresso disappears under milk, while the Robusta component gives the cup the body and crema it needs to survive a flat white. The exact proportions are not published on the bag, so we name both species without a ratio. The bag you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import on a different roast specification.
What is in Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g, and what is not:
- In: roasted coffee beans, and nothing else. No flavouring, no added sugar, and despite the name, no chocolate of any kind.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: any sweetness in the cup comes from roast development, not from the ingredients list.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Costa Coffee Mocha Italia Signature Blend Coffee Beans, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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