# Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £16.40 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/lavazza-decaf-classico-coffee-beans-500g/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/lavazza-decaf-classico-coffee-beans-500g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Lavazza **Price:** £16.40 GBP **Caffeine:** Decaffeinated **GTIN:** 8000070027442 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Lavazza Decaf Classico is Lavazza's decaffeinated Classico as whole beans in a 500g bag: a medium roast with delicate fruity notes, per Lavazza, aimed at the after-dinner cup rather than the breakfast one.Picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the decaf worth grinding.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.Around 27 double shots from one bag. Decaffeinated is a regulated term rather than a marketing one, so this is a trace of caffeine rather than none; if you are avoiding caffeine on medical advice, speak to your GP or pharmacist.Curator notes: the tasting profile reflects our own editorial review of the current pack format and the brand's published description for this blend. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Storage notes, grind guidance and brewing temperature ranges are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description Lavazza Decaf Classico is the answer to the problem of wanting a proper coffee at four in the afternoon and still wanting to sleep. It is whole bean rather than ground, which matters more for decaf than for anything else in the range, because decaffeinated coffee loses its aroma faster than caffeinated coffee does and grinding to order is the only real defence against that.Lavazza describes Decaf Classico as a medium roast of Arabica and Robusta, intensity 3 out of 10 on its own scale, with delicate fruity and dried-fruit notes and a silky texture, decaffeinated with carbon dioxide before roasting. Taking the caffeine out changes the bean's behaviour, but the blending brief here is clearly to land somewhere close to the caffeinated Classico rather than to make a separate, apologetic product. That is the point of buying a named decaf rather than whatever jar is nearest. The Taste Profile Roast Depth: ●●●○○ (3/5) A medium roast, per Lavazza. Body: ●●●○○ (3/5) Round and pleasant. Decaffeination costs a little weight and this is honest about it. Bitterness: ●●●○○ (3/5) Moderate and structural rather than harsh. Acidity: ●●○○○ (2/5) Low and soft, which is a large part of why it works late in the day. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.8 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk. The Story Behind Lavazza Lavazza began in Turin in 1895, when Luigi Lavazza started blending green coffees from different origins in his grocer's shop because no single sack gave him a cup he could reproduce week after week. Consistency has been the house argument ever since, and a decaf is where that argument is hardest to win: the process changes the bean before it ever reaches the roaster, so hitting the same profile as the caffeinated version takes deliberate work rather than luck. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. How Does Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g Compare to: Lavazza Qualita Rossa Coffee Beans: the caffeinated everyday bean. Rossa is brighter and sharper; the decaf Classico is softer and rounder, which is exactly what you want in the evening and slightly less of what you want at seven in the morning. Taylors of Harrogate Decaffe Beans: the Taylors sits a little lighter and more everyday British in style. The Lavazza leans Italian, darker and more espresso-shaped, and is the better pick if it is going through a machine rather than a cafetiere. Instant decaf granules: not a fair fight. The gap between a freshly ground decaf bean and a spoon of decaf granules is wider than the gap between their caffeinated equivalents, because aroma is most of what decaf has left to work with. Ideal Brewing Conditions Decaffeinated beans behave differently and it is worth knowing how before you blame the coffee. The process is done on green beans before roasting, and it leaves them more porous and more brittle. They grind finer at the same setting, they roast faster, and they give up their solids more readily. The practical upshot is that a decaf usually wants a slightly coarser grind than the caffeinated bean you were using yesterday. The Espresso Serve Dose:18g in a double basket. Start one grind step coarser than your usual setting. Water:92 to 93 degrees Celsius. Decaf turns bitter earlier than caffeinated coffee, so keep the heat honest. Time:25 to 30 seconds for around 36g in the cup. Finish:The crema comes thinner than on the caffeinated Classico. That is normal for a decaf and not a fault in the bag. The Evening Cafetiere Grind:Coarse. Decaf shatters finer than you expect, so err on the side of too coarse. Ratio:60g per litre, or roughly 15g for a large mug. Steep:Four minutes, break the crust, skim, plunge slowly and decant straight away. Brewing Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g Water temperature: 92 to 93°C. Decaffeinated beans are more porous and over-extract sooner, so boiling water is a worse idea here than usual. Grind: One step coarser than your caffeinated setting, for every method. Dose: 18g per double espresso, 60g per litre for cafetiere and filter. Time: 25 to 30 seconds for espresso, four minutes in a cafetiere. Service: Good black, good with milk, and the natural base for a decaf flat white after dinner. Best with: A slice of cake after dinner, dark chocolate, or nothing at all at the end of a long evening. Storage, Allergens And Small Print Storage: Sealed, cool, dark, room temperature, in a cupboard rather than beside the kettle. This matters more for decaf than for a caffeinated bean; the decaffeination process leaves the bean more porous, so it takes on kitchen smells and loses aroma more readily. Buy it in sizes you will finish and keep the bag properly shut. Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Decaffeination: check the current pack, where the method is usually declared. ## Product Questions Is decaf completely caffeine free?No, and no honest seller will tell you it is. For most people that is immaterial. If you are avoiding caffeine on medical advice, speak to your GP or pharmacist rather than to us.Does it taste like the caffeinated Classico?Close, and deliberately so. What decaffeination costs is a little body and a little aromatic lift, so the cup is softer than the caffeinated version rather than different in kind. That softness is exactly what suits it to the evening.Why does my usual grind setting not work?Because decaffeinated beans are more porous and more brittle than caffeinated ones, so they shatter into a finer grind at the same setting and choke the machine. Go one step coarser than your usual number as a starting point, then adjust from there. This is the single most common complaint about decaf and it is almost never the coffee.Why is the crema thinner than usual?Crema is carbon dioxide held in suspension from roasting, and decaffeinated beans generally hold less of it. A thinner, paler crema on a decaf shot is normal and is not a sign of a stale bag. Judge a decaf on the taste rather than on the look of the top of the cup.What water temperature should I use?92 to 93 degrees Celsius, and be stricter about it than you would be with a caffeinated bean. The porous structure that makes decaf grind finer also makes it give up its solids sooner, so water off the boil pushes it into bitterness faster than it would a standard roast.How many shots do I get from 500g?About 27 double shots at an 18g dose, or roughly 33 large cafetiere mugs at 60g per litre. Both figures are arithmetic on the pack weight rather than claims printed on it. Because decaf is usually an evening habit rather than an all-day one, a 500g bag tends to last longer than the same size of caffeinated beans.Can I really drink it before bed?Decaf is traditionally the after-dinner coffee for exactly that reason, and most people find it sits fine late in the evening. It still contains a trace of caffeine, and sensitivity varies enormously between people, so the honest answer is to try it early in the evening first and see how you get on.Does decaf need different storage?Same rules, applied more strictly. Sealed, cool, dark, room temperature, in a cupboard away from the kettle. The porosity that changes how decaf grinds also makes it pick up kitchen smells and lose aroma faster, so a properly shut bag matters more here than it does for a caffeinated roast.Does it work in a flat white or a latte?Yes, and an after-dinner decaf flat white is arguably what this bean is for. Pull the shot a little shorter than usual, around 27g out rather than 36g, so the cup keeps enough weight to read through the milk. Barista oat works as well as dairy here.Who are Lavazza?A Turin house founded in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza, who began blending green coffees from different origins in his grocer's shop to get a cup he could reproduce.Is decaf cold brew worth making?It is one of the better uses for it. Grind coarse, 80g per litre of cold filtered water, 16 hours covered in the fridge, then strain through a paper filter without pressing the bed. You end up with a jug of iced coffee you can drink at any hour, which the caffeinated version does not allow. What decaffeination process does Lavazza use?Carbon dioxide, per Lavazza: CO2 draws the caffeine out of the green beans before roasting. Decaffeinated coffee still contains a trace of caffeine. ## Ingredients & Nutrition IngredientProportionWhat it bringsRoasted decaffeinated coffee beans100%The only ingredient. Whole bean coffee is a single-ingredient product: no flavouring, no carrier, no bulking agent.Classico roast profileNot quantified on packPack: Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g; whole roasted decaffeinated beans. Around 27 double espressos at an 18g dose, or roughly 33 large cafetiere mugs at 60g per litre.Proportions shown are the ones we can stand behind.Sourcing & blend. Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g comes from Lavazza, founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza, who started blending green coffees from different origins because no single sack gave him a cup he could repeat. A decaffeinated bean is the hardest version of that job. The caffeine is taken out of the green coffee before roasting, which changes the bean's density and structure, so landing on the familiar Classico profile afterwards takes a separate roast plan rather than simply running the same one. Green coffee is bought to a fixed specification and the finished roast is tasted against the standard batch by batch.What is in Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g, and what is not:In: roasted decaffeinated coffee beans, whole, and nothing else in the bag.No artificial flavourings, colours, preservatives or added sugar: the sweetness in the cup is caramelisation from the roast, not an ingredient.Not caffeine free: decaffeinated means under a regulated maximum, so a trace remains.Packaging: follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the bag, its one-way valve and the label can require different disposal routes. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the cup tastes the way it does from the first lift of steam to the last swallow. With a decaffeinated bean there is a fourth thing going on underneath all three, because the coffee was altered before the roaster ever saw it.The outer layer is aromatic, and it is the layer decaffeination costs most. The structure left behind is also more porous. In practical terms that means a decaf bean holds its aroma less securely and loses it faster once ground, which is the whole argument for buying decaf as whole beans and grinding at the last minute. Open the bag, smell it, and you will find the top note lighter than a caffeinated Classico.The flavour spike arrives mid palate, and here the roast does the repair work. Decaffeinated beans roast faster and darken sooner than caffeinated ones, so this is a roast plan written specifically for them rather than the standard one reused. The compounds it produces are highly soluble in a bean that is already more porous than usual, which is why a decaf gives up its solids quickly and why the gap between correct and over-extracted is narrower than you are used to.The base structure is the finish, and this is where a decaf is honest about its limits. Melanoidins built in the roast give the cup its viscosity, and this one reads round and comfortable rather than heavy. The bitterness sits low and the acidity lower still, which is precisely why it works at nine in the evening when a caffeinated Classico would feel like a mistake on two counts. A good decaf should be pleasant on the last mouthful rather than merely tolerable, and that is the test this blend is built to pass.Getting it right in the cup. The one adjustment that matters: go one grind step coarser than your caffeinated setting. Decaffeinated beans are brittle and shatter finer at the same number, which is why a machine that ran fine yesterday chokes today. For espresso, 18g in a double basket, water at 92 to 93 degrees, about 36g in the cup in 25 to 30 seconds; pull it shorter, to around 27g out, if it is going under milk, because the lighter body needs concentrating to read through a flat white. Expect a thinner, paler crema than the caffeinated version gives; that is normal for a decaf and tells you nothing about freshness. For a cafetiere, 60g per litre, coarse, four minutes, break the crust, skim, plunge slowly, decant at once. Under-extraction tastes thin and sour; over-extraction tastes papery and drying, and with decaf it arrives sooner than you expect.How water and temperature change it. The same beans give a measurably different cup depending on how you treat the water, and a decaf is less forgiving than a caffeinated roast on both counts. Because the bean is more porous, hot water penetrates it faster and the extraction curve is steeper: 96 degrees will make this taste harsh and hollow where 92 keeps it sweet and round. Cooler water or a shorter contact protects the sweetness at the cost of some depth, which for an evening cup is usually the right trade. Water chemistry matters as much as heat. Very soft or distilled water lacks the dissolved minerals that carry flavour out of the grounds and gives a flat, sour result, which a decaf can least afford; very hard water over-extracts the bitter end and scales the machine. A jug filter in a hard water area does more for this coffee than any change of grinder. Cold water changes the rules completely, and decaf is where that is most useful: cold brewed coarse at 80g per litre for sixteen hours in the fridge, this blend comes out sweet, round and almost entirely free of bitterness, and it is one of the very few coffees you can pour at ten at night without regretting it. None of this is a fault in the coffee. It is one roast responding to the cup you build around it, and once you have found your version it repeats every evening. ## Recipe Ideas Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g is an evening coffee, so the builds below are weighted towards the end of the day: the after-dinner shot and flat white it was made for, a cold jug you can pour at any hour, and two puddings that would be unwise with a caffeinated bean. Brewing methods and serving ideas, born here first The After Dinner Shot How to pull a decaf espresso that is worth drinking on its own. 3 min 1 double Easy You will need 18g Lavazza Decaf Classico, ground one step coarser than usual Water at 92 to 93°C Scales A warmed cup Method Grind 18g of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g one step coarser than your caffeinated setting, because decaf shatters finer. Tamp level and pull to about 36g out in 25 to 30 seconds. Expect a thinner, paler crema than the caffeinated Classico. That is the decaf, not the bag. Taste before adjusting. Papery and drying means go coarser again. Evening Flat White How to keep a decaf flat white from tasting like warm milk. 5 min 1 cup Medium You will need 18g Lavazza Decaf Classico 130ml whole milk or barista oat A warmed 6oz cup A milk jug Method Pull a short shot of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g, about 27g out rather than 36g, so the lighter decaf body is concentrated. Steam 130ml of milk to 60°C with barely any stretch, then swirl until glossy. Pour from height to cut the crema, then drop close to finish. What you will end up with: A milk drink where the coffee still leads. The short shot is the whole trick, because decaf has less body to spare. Late Cafetiere For Two How to brew a jug at nine in the evening without ruining the night. 6 min 2 mugs Easy You will need 30g Lavazza Decaf Classico, ground coarse 500ml water at 92°C A spoon for the crust Milk to taste Method Grind 30g of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g coarse, coarser than you would grind a caffeinated bean. Pour 500ml of water at 92°C over and set four minutes. Break the crust, skim the foam, plunge slowly. Decant both mugs immediately rather than leaving the jug standing. Decaf over-extracts sooner than caffeinated coffee, so decanting on time matters more here than usual. Any Hour Cold Brew How to keep iced coffee in the fridge that you can drink at ten at night. 10 min + 16 hours 1 litre Easy You will need 80g Lavazza Decaf Classico, ground coarse 1 litre cold filtered water A lidded jar Ice to serve Method Stir 80g of coarsely ground Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g into 1 litre of cold filtered water until every ground is wet. Refrigerate covered for 16 hours. Strain through a paper-lined sieve without pressing the bed. Serve over ice, neat or cut with cold milk. What you will end up with: A litre that keeps about five days covered. Cold water leaves the bitterness behind, so a decaf cold brew comes out sweeter than its hot cup does. Decaf Affogato How to serve a coffee pudding to people who cannot drink coffee at night. 2 min 1 serving Easy You will need 18g Lavazza Decaf Classico 1 scoop vanilla ice cream A chilled glass Grated dark chocolate, optional Method Scoop the ice cream into a chilled glass and put it back in the freezer while the machine warms. Pull a short 27g shot of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g, so it is concentrated enough to stand against the sugar. Pour over at the table and eat immediately. What you will end up with: A pudding you can serve at the end of a dinner party without anyone lying awake. Pull it short or the ice cream will win. Decaf Tiramisu How to make the classic pudding without the after-effects. 20 min + chill 6 servings Medium You will need 36g Lavazza Decaf Classico, for 4 double shots 200g savoiardi sponge fingers 500g mascarpone, 3 eggs, 90g caster sugar Cocoa powder to dust Method Pull four doubles of Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g into a shallow dish and cool completely. Whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale, fold in the mascarpone, then fold in the whites beaten to soft peaks. Dip each sponge finger for one second per side only and layer with the cream. Chill six hours and dust with cocoa just before it goes to the table. What you will end up with: Six servings that keep two days covered. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._