# Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £19.60 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/lavazza-decaf-intenso-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-intenso-coffee-beans-500g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Lavazza **Price:** £19.60 GBP **Caffeine:** Decaffeinated **GTIN:** 8000070075160 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Lavazza Decaf Intenso is the decaffeinated whole bean from the Turin coffee house, sold here in a 500g bag and roasted to the darker, heavier end of the Lavazza range so it still makes a proper espresso. Almost all supermarket decaf is ground or instant; this is the bag for a household that owns a grinder and wants to keep using it after six, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the evening coffee that does not taste like a compromise.Ingredients and dietary suitability: decaffeinated roasted coffee beans only. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; foil, valve and label can require different disposal routes.Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description, and the brewing figures are our recommended starting points rather than pack instructions. Decaffeinated is not caffeine free. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Grind settings, storage windows and extraction ranges are set out in full in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description Lavazza Decaf Intenso is a decaffeinated whole bean from the Turin coffee house, sold in a 500g bag and roasted to the darker, heavier end of the Lavazza range. The name is the brief: this is not a gentle after-dinner decaf that apologises for itself, it is a bean built to make a proper espresso, and it is aimed at the household that owns a machine and wants to use it after six in the evening. Most people buy decaf for a reason rather than a preference. Somebody in the house is sensitive to caffeine, or is pregnant, or simply wants a second coffee at nine without lying awake at one. The problem with the supermarket decaf shelf is that almost all of it is ground or instant, so if you own a grinder you are pushed back to pre-ground coffee for half your drinking. A 500g bag of decaf beans solves that. The Taste Profile Roast Depth: ●●●●○ (4/5) Dark. Decaffeinated beans behave differently in the roaster, and Lavazza has pushed this one hard to get body back into the cup. Body: ●●●●○ (4/5) Full and round, with enough weight to hold its shape under milk. This is the part most decaf gets wrong and this one gets right. Bitterness: ●●●○○ (3/5) Moderate and warm rather than sharp. Cocoa and toasted bread rather than ash. Acidity: ●●○○○ (2/5) Low. The roast has taken most of it out, which is exactly what you want from an evening coffee. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.5 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk. The Story Behind Lavazza Lavazza is a Turin coffee house and one of the names that taught Britain what Italian coffee is supposed to taste like. The house style runs through everything it makes: blended rather than single origin, roasted for consistency, built to be drunk short and often. That is heritage rather than a claim about where this particular bag was filled. Decaf sits awkwardly inside that tradition, because Italy drinks a great deal of it and never treats it as a lesser product. Intenso is the range’s answer to a real complaint: that decaf usually tastes thin. Roast level, bean composition, the decaffeination method used and any certification marks are printed on the current bag and can change between production runs, so read the bag in front of you rather than a figure quoted online, ours included. What Decaffeination Actually Does Caffeine is removed from green coffee, before roasting, while the beans are swollen with water. Several processes are in commercial use and they differ in what carries the caffeine away, but all of them face the same difficulty: caffeine is not the only thing that leaves. Some of the compounds that become flavour during roasting go with it, and the bean itself is left softer and more fragile. That is why decaf is roasted differently. A softened bean browns faster and burns sooner, so the roaster has a narrower window to work in, and why a lazy decaf tastes flat while a carefully built one does not. A dark roast is the traditional way to put body back, which is the route taken here. It also explains the one thing worth knowing at the machine: decaf beans grind finer than caffeinated ones at the same setting, so your usual grind will almost certainly choke the shot. Packaging: bean bags of this type are sealed foil with a one-way degassing valve, letting carbon dioxide out of freshly roasted beans without letting oxygen in. Follow the current UK pack and your local authority guidance for disposal; foil, valve and label can require different routes. How Does Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g Compare To: Lavazza Decaf Classico Coffee Beans, 500g: the same bag in the lighter of the two decafs. Classico is medium, rounder and easier to drink black; Intenso is darker, heavier and better under milk. If you drink flat whites in the evening, buy this one. L'Or Espresso Ristretto Decaf, 10 Capsules: the convenience answer to the same problem. A capsule costs several times what a shot from this bag costs and involves no grinder at all. Buy the capsules if you make one evening coffee a week; buy the bag if you make one a night. Ideal Extraction Conditions Decaf beans are the one case where copying your normal settings reliably fails. They are softer, they grind finer, and they extract faster. Expect to make one adjustment and then leave it alone. The Espresso Serve Dose: 18g into a standard double basket, distributed evenly and tamped flat. Grind: start two or three steps coarser than your caffeinated setting. If the shot chokes or drips, that is the reason, not the machine. Water: 92 degrees Celsius. A dark decaf reaches its bitterness limit early, so heat is the first thing to bring down if a shot tastes harsh. Yield: 36g in the cup, a 1:2 ratio, in 25 to 30 seconds from the pump starting. Read the shot: ashy and drying means coarser or cooler. Sharp and thin means finer, but go one step at a time. The Bean To Cup, Milk And Cold Serve Bean to cup: middle grind, medium strength. Many machines have a second hopper or a bypass chute for pre-ground: that chute is the civilised way to make one decaf without emptying the main hopper. Flat white: where this bag earns its place. The dark roast survives 130ml of steamed milk, which is more than most decaf manages. Americano: pull the shot into the cup first, then add 120ml of hot water on top. Lengthening a decaf is forgiving because there is little acidity to expose. Cold brew: coarse grind, 70g per litre, 14 to 18 hours in the fridge. A decaf cold brew is one of the few genuinely refreshing evening drinks that is not sweet. Grinding, Dosing And Storage Grind to order: decaf stales slightly faster than caffeinated coffee, so the argument for buying beans is stronger here, not weaker. Keep two settings: write down your caffeinated number and your decaf number. Switching back and forth from memory wastes coffee. Storage: sealed, cool, dark, never the fridge. Condensation does more harm than air. Open bag window: finish an opened 500g bag inside about a month, and keep the bulk sealed rather than standing in a warm hopper. Safety, Allergens And Caffeine Ingredients and dietary suitability: decaffeinated roasted coffee beans and nothing else. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Allergen note: plain roasted coffee contains no cereals, dairy, nuts or soya as ingredients. Caffeine: decaffeinated is not caffeine free. A small residual amount remains after processing, and the legal limit that applies is printed on or referenced by the current UK pack rather than restated here. If you are avoiding caffeine on medical advice, or are pregnant, follow NHS guidance and read the pack rather than relying on the word decaf alone. Traditional use: the evening coffee. In Italy a decaffeinato after dinner is ordinary rather than a compromise, and it is drunk short, like any other espresso. ## Product Questions Is decaffeinated coffee completely caffeine free?No. Decaffeinated is not caffeine free. A small residual amount always remains after processing, and the limit that applies is printed on or referenced by the current UK pack rather than restated here. If you are avoiding caffeine on medical advice, or are pregnant, follow NHS guidance and read the pack rather than relying on the word decaf alone.Is this whole bean or ground?Whole bean, 500g. You need a grinder, or a bean-to-cup machine with one built in. That is the point of it: nearly all supermarket decaf is ground or instant, so a household with a grinder usually has to give up half its coffee drinking to pre-ground.My decaf shot keeps choking the machine. Why?Because decaf beans are softer. Caffeine is taken out of the green bean while it is swollen with water, which leaves it more fragile, so it shatters finer at the same grinder setting. Start two or three steps coarser than your caffeinated setting and adjust from there. This is the single most common complaint about decaf beans and it is a settings problem, not a machine fault.How is the caffeine removed?Several processes are in commercial use and they differ in what carries the caffeine away from the green bean. Which one was used for this coffee is stated on the current pack, and we do not restate it here because it can change between production runs. What all methods share is that caffeine is not the only thing that leaves, which is why decaf is roasted differently.Why is this one roasted so dark?To put the body back. Decaffeination softens the bean and takes some of the compounds that would have become flavour in the roaster, so a lazy decaf tastes thin. A darker roast is the traditional way to rebuild weight and sweetness, and it is the route Intenso takes. It is also why this bag stands up under milk when most decaf does not.What settings should I start on?18g in, 36g out, 25 to 30 seconds, water at 92 degrees Celsius, on a grind two or three steps coarser than your usual. If the shot tastes ashy and drying, go coarser again or drop the water a degree. Heat is the usual culprit with any dark roast.Does it work with milk?This is the reason to buy it. The dark roast gives enough weight to survive 130ml of steamed milk instead of disappearing into it, which is more than most decaf manages. An evening flat white made from this bag tastes like a coffee rather than like hot milk.What is the difference between Intenso and Classico?They are the two decafs in the same range and the difference is roast depth. Classico is the medium one, rounder and easier to drink black. Intenso is darker and heavier, and better under milk. If your evening coffee has milk in it, this is the one.Can I make cold brew with decaf?Yes, and it is one of the better uses for it. Grind coarse, use 70g per litre and leave it in the fridge for 14 to 18 hours. A decaf cold brew is one of very few genuinely refreshing evening drinks that is not sweet, and a 500g bag makes a great deal of it.How long does an opened bag stay good?Aim to finish an opened 500g bag inside about a month. Decaf stales slightly faster than caffeinated coffee, so the argument for grinding to order is stronger here rather than weaker. Keep the bag sealed, cool and dark, and never in the fridge: condensation does more harm than air.Is the bag recyclable?Bean bags of this type are sealed foil with a one-way degassing valve, which lets roasting gas escape without letting oxygen in. The foil, the valve and the label can each need a different disposal route, so follow the guidance printed on the current UK pack and your local authority rules. ## Ingredients & Nutrition IngredientProportionWhat it bringsDecaffeinated roasted coffee beans100%The whole of the product. Caffeine is removed from the green bean before roasting, then the bean is taken to a dark roast to rebuild the body and sweetness that decaffeination costs it.Bean composition and roast levelPrinted on the packLavazza states these on the bag and they can change between production runs. Read the bag rather than a figure quoted online.Decaffeination methodSee current packSeveral processes are in commercial use and they differ in what carries the caffeine away. Which one applies to this bag is stated on the current UK pack and is not restated here.Additives, flavourings, sugarNoneNothing is added to roasted coffee beans. The cocoa and toasted-bread notes are roast development, not flavouring.Pack: Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g; whole decaffeinated roasted beans. Best before date printed on the bag; aroma is at its best within about a month of opening.Roast level, bean composition, decaffeination method and any certification marks are printed on the current pack.Sourcing & roast. Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g comes from Lavazza, the Turin coffee house and one of the names that taught Britain what Italian coffee is supposed to taste like. The house style runs through everything it makes: blended rather than single origin, roasted for consistency, and built to be drunk short and often. Decaf sits inside that tradition rather than outside it, because Italy drinks a great deal of it and has never treated it as a lesser product. Intenso is the range's answer to the usual complaint about decaf, which is that it tastes thin, and the answer is roast depth. The beans arrive in a sealed foil bag with a one-way valve that lets roasting gas escape without letting oxygen back in.What's in Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g, and what isn't:In: decaffeinated roasted coffee beans, and nothing else in the bag.No artificial colours, preservatives, flavourings or added sugar: any sweetness is developed during roasting.No dairy, cereals, egg, soya or nuts as ingredients: black coffee brewed without milk or sugar carries effectively no calories.Caffeine: decaffeinated, which is not the same as caffeine free. A small residual amount remains after processing and the applicable limit is a pack-level statement, so no figure is published here. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the shot tastes the way it does from the moment the grinder runs to the last swallow.The outer layer is aromatic: dark cocoa and toasted bread, warm rather than sharp, with none of the citrus lift a light roast leads with. These volatile compounds form late in the roast and sit loosely on the surface of the bean, so they reach the nose first and leave first. Decaffeinated coffee has slightly fewer of them to begin with, because caffeine is not the only thing removed from the green bean, and it sheds what it has a little faster once ground. That is the whole argument for buying decaf as beans rather than pre-ground, and it is the opposite of what most people assume.The flavour spike arrives in the middle of the shot and is where the roast decision shows most plainly. Decaffeination leaves the bean softer and lower in some of the sugars and acids that would otherwise have become flavour in the roaster, so a decaf roasted like a normal medium coffee reads hollow. Pushing the roast further builds the heavy bittersweet molecules back in, and under nine bars of pressure those are exactly the compounds that come out in a usable form. The result is a middle that reads dark, warm and full rather than bright. That is a deliberate repair, not a shortcut.The base structure is the finish: round, cocoa-led and moderately long, fading without drying the palate. Body is what decaf usually lacks and what this one has, and it matters more here than in a caffeinated coffee because there is no stimulant arriving to distract from a thin cup. It is also the reason this bag holds up under 130ml of steamed milk instead of vanishing. The line to watch is between warm and ashy: a good shot finishes round, an over-extracted one finishes dusty and keeps drying the tongue a minute later.Getting it right in the cup. Start at 18g of coffee to 36g in the cup over 25 to 30 seconds with water at 92 degrees Celsius, on a grind two or three steps coarser than your caffeinated setting. That grind adjustment is not optional. A decaffeinated bean is physically softer and shatters finer at the same setting, so your usual number will choke the machine or drip, and the resulting shot will taste bitter and hollow at the same time. If the finish is ashy, go coarser again or drop the water a degree before you change anything else. In a bean-to-cup machine, use the pre-ground bypass chute if you have one rather than emptying the hopper. A cafetiere will brew it at 60g per litre for four minutes. Cold brewed at 70g per litre for 14 to 18 hours in the fridge it becomes something genuinely different: cold water leaves most of the bitter compounds in the grounds, so a decaf cold brew reads sweet and clean and is one of the few refreshing evening drinks that is not sugary.How water and temperature change it. The same beans give a measurably different shot depending on how you treat the water, and a dark roast is the most temperature-sensitive thing in any coffee cupboard. Two degrees hotter pulls noticeably more bitterness; two degrees cooler leaves the structure intact and the finish cleaner. Hard water flattens what acidity survives the roast and pushes the cup chalky, while very soft water sharpens the bitter edge, which on this coffee is the direction you least want to travel. Filtered water is worth it for the taste and for the boiler. None of this is a fault in the roast, it is the same bean responding to the cup you build around it, and once you have found the setting that suits you it repeats every evening without further thought. ## Recipe Ideas Lavazza Decaf Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g is an evening bean, so the serves below assume you want a coffee at nine o'clock and still want to sleep. Six builds cover the reference shot, two milk drinks, an americano, a cold brew and an after-dinner affogato. Brewing methods and serving ideas, born here first The Reference Double Shot How to pull a balanced double of Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 3 min 1 double Easy You'll need 18g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans Filtered water at 92°C Scales that read to 0.1g A warmed cup Method Set the grinder two or three steps coarser than your caffeinated number. Decaf beans are softer and shatter finer. Grind 18g fresh into a dry double basket, level and tamp flat. Pull to 36g in the cup over 25 to 30 seconds. Ashy and drying, go coarser again or drop the water a degree. What you'll end up with: A round, cocoa-led shot with real weight to it. Judge every other setting on the machine against this one. The Evening Flat White How to make a flat white with Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 5 min 1 cup Medium You'll need 18g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans 130ml whole or oat milk, fridge cold A milk thermometer if you have one A 160ml cup Method Pull a 36g double straight into the warmed cup. Steam the milk to about 60°C, stretching for two seconds only, then folding it into a glossy whirlpool. Pour from height to combine, then drop the jug to the rim to finish. If the coffee is lost under the milk, raise the dose to 19g rather than grinding finer. What you'll end up with: The serve this bag exists for. Most decaf disappears under milk; the dark roast here does not. Americano After Dinner How to make an americano with Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 4 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 18g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans 120ml hot water A warmed 250ml mug Method Pull the 36g double into the mug first. Add 120ml of hot water on top, not the other way round; pouring espresso into water flattens the crema. Lengthening a decaf is forgiving, because there is little acidity left to expose. What you'll end up with: A full mug that still tastes of coffee at the bottom. The sensible last drink of the evening. Cafetiere For The Table How to make cafetiere coffee with Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 6 min 3 mugs Easy You'll need 36g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans 600ml water just off the boil A three-mug cafetiere A long spoon Method Grind 36g coarse, like coarse sea salt, and add to the warmed jug. Pour 600ml of water just off the boil, stir the crust once at 30 seconds. Wait four minutes, skim the foam, then plunge slowly. Decant immediately. Coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter. What you'll end up with: Enough decaf for three people after a meal, without anyone having to stand at the machine. Decaf Cold Brew How to make cold brew with Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 10 min + 16 hours 1 litre Easy You'll need 70g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans 1 litre cold filtered water A large sealed jar Ice Method Grind 70g coarse and stir into 1 litre of cold water. Seal and leave in the fridge for 14 to 18 hours. Strain through a paper filter, slowly, without pressing the bed. Serve over ice, neat or cut with a splash of milk. What you'll end up with: One of very few refreshing evening drinks that is not sweet. Keeps in the fridge for about five days. Affogato Without The Insomnia How to make an affogato with Lavazza Decaf Intenso. 2 min 1 serving Easy You'll need 18g Lavazza Decaf Intenso beans Two scoops of vanilla ice cream A small spoon and a cold glass Method Scoop the ice cream into a chilled glass and take it to the machine. Pull a 36g double and pour it over immediately. Eat it now, while the shot is still hot and the cream is still cold. What you'll end up with: The classic Italian pudding, made at the hour people actually eat pudding. The dark roast cuts the cream rather than being buried by it. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._