Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g
Grinding it is half of what you are paying for. Barista Intenso throws an enormous cocoa and toasted hazelnut smell across a kitchen the moment the burrs start, which is a real part of why people stay loyal to a bag and not a thing a pre-ground tin can give you. In the cup it is thick, coating and bitter-sweet, with very little acidity and the sweetness sitting over the bitterness rather than under it. Half a kilo goes quickly once you get the habit.
Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, in brief.
Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso is the darker member of Lavazza's bar-style Barista line, sold as whole beans in a 500g bag, roasted for a short shot in a small cup with a thick, lasting crema. Picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the home espresso bean that holds its shape under milk.
A fortnight of daily doubles from one bag, priced in the step-up tier rather than the everyday one, and worth it if your flat whites have been coming out thin on a cheaper bean.
Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso is the bar-style bean, sold in the 500g size that a home espresso machine gets through in about a fortnight of proper use. The Barista line is Lavazza's answer to the question of what the caffes actually pull, and Intenso is the darker, heavier member of it: built for a short shot in a small cup, with enough weight left over to survive steamed milk.
If you have been working through supermarket beans and finding that your espresso either runs sour and thin or turns to ash the moment you lengthen it, this is a useful bag to try next. It is forgiving in the middle of its range, which is not the same as being bland. The roast is deliberately pushed, the crema comes thick and lasts, and the finish is long rather than sharp.
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.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Lavazza
Lavazza started in Turin in 1895, when Luigi Lavazza was running a grocer's shop and began blending green coffees from different origins to get a more consistent cup than any single sack could give him. That idea, that a blend is more reliable than an origin, is still the house argument and it is what the Barista range is for: a bean whose job is to taste the same on a Tuesday in November as it did in June.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Storage, Allergens And Small Print
Storage: Seal the bag properly after every use and keep it in a cupboard rather than on the worktop by the kettle, where steam and daylight both get at it. Room temperature, not the fridge. A 500g bag is roughly a fortnight of daily doubles, which is about the window in which beans stay genuinely fresh anyway.
Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Lavazza
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
This is an espresso bean before it is anything else, and everything below assumes a pressurised extraction or something close to it. It will work in a moka pot and a cafetiere, but it was designed for a basket and a pump, and it rewards you for treating it that way.
The Espresso Serve
The Moka Pot Serve
Made with this tea
The Dialled In Double
How to set up a new bag of Barista Intenso so every shot after it is right.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso, ground fine
- Water at 92 to 94°C
- Scales that read to 0.1g
- A timer
- Grind 18g of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g into the basket, level it, tamp flat and firm.
- Pull and weigh the shot. You want about 36g out in 25 to 30 seconds.
- Adjust the grind only, one step at a time: finer if it ran fast and tasted thin, coarser if it crawled and tasted drying.
- Leave the dose alone while you do this. Changing two things at once teaches you nothing.
What you will end up with: A repeatable shot with a thick hazelnut crema, and a grinder setting you can leave alone until the bag runs out.
Cortada, The Small Strong Milk Drink
How to make a cortado where the coffee is still the loudest thing in the cup.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso
- 60ml whole milk or barista oat
- A 4oz glass
- A small steaming jug
- Pull a short 27g shot of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g rather than a full 36g, so the cup stays heavy.
- Steam 60ml of milk to about 60°C with almost no stretch, so it is warm and glossy rather than foamy.
- Pour straight in, one steady movement, no latte art required.
What you will end up with: A four ounce glass that tastes of coffee softened by milk, not milk flavoured with coffee. The short shot is what makes the difference.
Flat White
How to build a flat white with this bean under it.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso
- 130ml whole milk or barista oat
- A warmed 6oz cup
- A milk jug
- Pull a 36g double of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g into a warmed cup.
- Steam 130ml of milk to 60°C, stretching for two or three seconds only, then swirl the jug until the surface looks like wet paint.
- Pour from height first to cut through the crema, then drop the jug close to the surface to finish.
What you will end up with: A six ounce cup with a glossy surface and a long cocoa finish. If your flat whites usually taste thin, the roast weight here is the reason this one will not.
Moka Pot, The Italian Stovetop
How to work a moka pot without the burnt, metallic edge most people get.
- 17g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso, ground medium-fine
- Hot water to the valve line
- A three cup moka pot
- A cloth, the handle gets hot
- Fill the base with hot water up to just below the valve, so the coffee does not sit stewing over a slow heat.
- Level 17g of medium-fine ground Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g into the basket without tamping it.
- Heat on medium with the lid open and watch it.
- Pull the pot off the hob the moment the stream turns pale and begins to gurgle, and run the base under a cold tap to stop it.
What you will end up with: A thick, concentrated brew for two small cups. The gurgle is steam, not coffee, and everything that comes out after it is what makes moka taste burnt.
Iced Latte
How to make an iced latte that holds its strength to the bottom of the glass.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso
- A glass filled to the top with ice
- 150ml cold milk or oat milk
- 1 teaspoon sugar syrup, optional
- Pull a 36g double of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g and stir in the syrup while it is still hot.
- Fill a tall glass completely with ice, then pour in 150ml of cold milk.
- Float the espresso over the back of a spoon so it sits in a layer on top.
- Stir once when you sit down.
What you will end up with: A layered glass that does not go watery. A full glass of ice melts more slowly than a half one, which is the whole trick.
Affogato
How to turn one shot into a pudding in two minutes.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso
- 1 scoop vanilla ice cream
- A chilled glass
- Toasted hazelnuts, optional
- Scoop the ice cream into a chilled glass and return it to the freezer while the machine warms.
- Pull a 36g double of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g.
- Pour it over at the table and eat straight away.
- Chopped toasted hazelnuts on top pick up the nutty side of the roast.
What you will end up with: The best pudding in the house for two minutes of work. The roast bitterness is what stops it being simply sweet.
Espresso Martini (Adult)
How to get a proper tan foam without cheating.
- 18g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso
- 50ml vodka
- 15ml coffee liqueur
- 5ml sugar syrup
- Plenty of ice
- Pull a 36g double of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g and let it stand two minutes so it is warm rather than hot.
- Shake it hard with the vodka, coffee liqueur, syrup and a shaker full of ice for a full fifteen seconds.
- Double strain into a chilled coupe and leave the foam to settle for ten seconds before carrying it.
What you will end up with: A cold, bitter-sweet drink with a tight head. The foam comes from fresh crema and hard shaking, which is why instant coffee never quite manages it.
Tiramisu Soak
How to make the coffee part of a tiramisu the part people notice.
- 36g Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso, for 4 double shots
- 200g savoiardi sponge fingers
- 500g mascarpone, 3 eggs, 90g caster sugar
- 30ml marsala, optional
- Cocoa powder to dust
- Pull four doubles of Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g into a shallow dish and let them cool completely. Warm coffee turns sponge fingers to mush.
- Whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale, fold in the mascarpone, then fold in the whites beaten to soft peaks.
- Dip each finger in the cooled coffee for one second per side, no longer, and layer into a dish alternating with the cream.
- Chill for at least six hours and dust heavily with cocoa just before serving.
What you will end up with: Six servings that keep two days covered in the fridge. A dark espresso is the only coffee strong enough to read through mascarpone.
Brewing the perfect cup
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted coffee beans | 100% | The only ingredient. Whole bean coffee is a single-ingredient product: no flavouring, no carrier, no bulking agent. |
| Dark roast development | Not quantified on pack | The Intenso profile is taken further into the roast than the rest of the Barista line. That is where the cocoa depth, the syrupy body and the low acidity come from. |
| Blend components by origin and species | Not published | Lavazza do not publish an origin or species split for this blend in a form we can verify, so we do not restate one. Check the current pack for the composition printed on it. |
Pack: Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g; whole roasted beans, caffeinated. Around 27 double espressos at an 18g dose, which is roughly a fortnight at two a day.
Proportions shown are the ones we can stand behind. Black coffee carries no meaningful calorie load; anything added in the cup is yours, not ours.
Sourcing & blend. Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g comes from Lavazza, founded in Turin in 1895 by Luigi Lavazza, who began blending green coffees from different origins in his grocer's shop because no single sack gave him a cup he could repeat. That is still the house method: green coffee bought to a fixed specification and roasted to a set profile, so the bag opened in November tastes like the one opened in June. For an espresso bean that consistency is not a nicety, it is the whole point, because a shot is dialled in to a specific bean and every change of character means starting again on the grinder.
What is in Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g, and what is not:
- In: roasted 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 decaffeinated: a fully caffeinated coffee. Lavazza Decaf Classico is the same house style without the caffeine.
- Packaging: follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; the bag, its one-way valve and the label can require different disposal routes.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Lavazza Espresso Barista Intenso Coffee Beans, 500g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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