Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g
Nothing in this bag is chocolate. The cocoa note everyone reaches for when describing it is what a dark roast does to the sugars already in the bean, so there is no ingredient to hunt for on the back of the pack and nothing added to find. What is genuinely there is weight: a full body, very little acidity, and nothing sharp anywhere in the cup. That suits people who have tried the brighter end of the shelf and found it thin. It is a medium grind, so a cafetiere or a filter; an espresso machine will not get on with it however hard you tamp.
Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, in brief.
Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g is the darker, fuller end of the Italian style in a ready-ground pack, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the heavy, cocoa-led cup to move to when an everyday breakfast blend starts to feel thin.
Full body, very low acidity, dark chocolate and toasted nut rather than fruit. The grind is a medium cut for a cafetiere or a filter, not for an espresso machine, and it has enough weight to survive a home flat white.
Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee is a 200g pack of ready-ground coffee built around the darker, fuller end of the Italian style. The name points at Rome, and the cup goes where that suggests: heavier than a breakfast blend, low in acidity, with a thick cocoa-and-toasted-nut middle and a long finish that holds on after you have swallowed. It is shelved among the stronger ground coffees rather than the everyday ones, and it drinks that way.
The grind is a medium cut, which means a cafetiere or a filter machine rather than an espresso machine, and it means you can make the coffee without owning anything more specialised than a kettle.
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. Dose, water temperature and the moka pot build are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Lavazza
Lavazza is a Turin coffee house and one of the names that taught the rest of the world what an Italian blend is supposed to taste like. That is heritage rather than a statement about where this particular pack was roasted or filled, and we do not make one. What the heritage does explain is the house approach: Italian roasting treats a blend as an assembly problem, putting several origins together so the result is consistent year after year rather than showcasing any one of them.
Tales of Roma sits at the fuller end of that catalogue and is sold alongside the stronger ground coffees rather than the everyday ones.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Grind: a pre-ground medium cut for a cafetiere or a filter machine. It is too coarse for an espresso machine, and no amount of tamping will fix that.
- Roast style: the darker Italian end. Full body, very low acidity, cocoa and toasted nut rather than fruit or flowers.
- Built for milk as well as black: a heavy blend is one of the few that survives a flat white made at home, because there is enough in the cup to read through dairy.
- Freshness clock: ground coffee stales from the moment the seal is broken. A 200g pack is sized to be finished inside a fortnight by one or two people, which is exactly right for this format.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 92 to 94 degrees, off the boil rather than on it.
- Measure: 7g per 200ml, or a heaped dessertspoon per cup.
- Brew time: four minutes in a cafetiere, then pour it all out.
- Method: cafetiere or filter, and a moka pot at a push. Not an espresso machine.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry, and finished inside a fortnight of opening.
- Best with: dark chocolate, biscotti, the end of a long lunch, or anything you would want an espresso after.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g, 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
A dark blend is less forgiving than a medium one, because the compounds that turn harsh are already closer to the surface. Dose, water temperature and contact time are the three things that decide whether this tastes rich or burnt, and all three are easy to get right once you know what you are aiming at.
The Proper Cup
Getting More Out of the Pack
Made with this tea
The Proper Cafetiere
How to make The Proper Cafetiere with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- 7g Lavazza Tales of Roma per cup
- 200ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- A cafetiere and a timer
- Boil the kettle and let it rest thirty seconds. A dark roast scorches faster than a light one.
- Add 7g per 200ml to a warmed cafetiere and pour the water on in one go so every ground is wetted.
- Wait four minutes with the lid on and the plunger up.
- Plunge slowly and pour the whole pot out. Left on the grounds this blend turns harsh quickly.
What you'll end up with: A full-bodied, cocoa-led cup with a long finish. If it tastes ashy, the water was too hot or the pot stood too long.
The Moka Pot
How to make The Moka Pot with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- Enough Tales of Roma to fill the basket level
- Hot water to the valve in the base
- A moka pot and a low flame
- Fill the base with hot water up to the valve, not cold. Cold water sits on the heat longer and stews the grounds above it.
- Level the basket with coffee and do not tamp it. A supermarket grind is coarser than a moka pot wants, and tamping it makes the pot struggle rather than helping.
- Heat on a low flame with the lid open so you can see it run.
- Pull the pot off the heat the moment it starts to gurgle and run pale, then close the lid.
What you'll end up with: A short, thick coffee much closer to an espresso than a cafetiere gets. The gurgle is the signal to stop, not to wait.
Long Black, Done Properly
How to make Long Black, Done Properly with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- 14g Lavazza Tales of Roma
- 200ml water at 92 to 94 degrees for the brew
- 100ml hot water to lengthen
- Brew 14g in 200ml for four minutes, which is double strength.
- Pour the hot water into the mug first, then the coffee on top of it.
- Resist the temptation to brew weak instead. A weak brew and a strong brew lengthened with water are not the same drink.
What you'll end up with: A long mug that still has body at the bottom of it. This is the difference between an americano and a disappointment.
Home Flat White
How to make Home Flat White with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- 14g Lavazza Tales of Roma
- 150ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- 80ml whole milk, heated but not boiled
- Brew 14g in 150ml for four minutes. You want a small, dense coffee rather than a mug.
- Heat the milk to steaming and whisk or froth it briefly. Boiled milk tastes of boiled milk and nothing else.
- Pour the milk into the coffee rather than the other way round, and use less than feels right.
What you'll end up with: One of the few supermarket grinds with enough weight to read through dairy. Too much milk is the only way to spoil it.
Overnight Cold Brew
How to make Overnight Cold Brew with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- 60g Lavazza Tales of Roma
- 600ml cold filtered water
- Ice to serve
- Stir 60g into 600ml of cold water in a sealed jar.
- Leave it in the fridge for twelve hours. Beyond sixteen it turns woody.
- Strain through a paper filter into a clean bottle.
- Serve over ice, cut with water or milk to taste. The concentrate keeps three days in the fridge.
What you'll end up with: Sweet, heavy and almost edgeless, because cold water never pulls the bitter compounds. A dark roast makes a better cold brew than a light one.
Affogato
How to make Affogato with Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee.
- 14g Lavazza Tales of Roma
- 100ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
- Brew 14g in only 100ml for four minutes so the coffee is short and thick.
- Put two scoops of vanilla ice cream into a cold glass.
- Pour the hot coffee over at the table and eat it immediately, while the contrast is still there.
What you'll end up with: The low acidity is an advantage here: a bright coffee fights vanilla, a dark one sits under it. This is the best five minutes the pack offers.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted ground coffee | the whole pack | The only ingredient. Roasted towards the darker Italian end and cut to a medium grind for a cafetiere or a filter machine. |
| Roast depth | dark | Where the body and the cocoa notes come from, and why the acidity is so low. Stops short of the ashy end where a roast stops tasting of coffee. |
| Grind | medium, pre-ground | No grinder needed. Too coarse for espresso, right for a cafetiere or filter, workable in a moka pot if you fill level and do not tamp. |
| Pack format | 200g | About twenty-eight cups at a 7g dose. Sized to be finished inside a fortnight of opening, which is when ground coffee is at its best. |
Pack: Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g; roughly twenty-eight 200ml cups at a standard 7g dose. The ingredient list, the bean composition, the allergen advice and the best-before date are printed on the current UK pack; read them there rather than here.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g comes from a Turin coffee house that is one of the names which taught the rest of the world what an Italian blend tastes like. That is heritage rather than a claim about where this pack was roasted or filled, and we do not make one. What it explains is the approach: Italian roasting treats a blend as an assembly problem, putting several origins together so the cup is the same from one year to the next rather than showcasing any single farm.
What's in Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g, and what isn't:
- In: roasted ground coffee and nothing else, brewed with hot water only.
- Ground, not whole bean: a medium cut for a cafetiere or a filter machine. Not fine enough for an espresso machine, and no setting on the machine will change that.
- No milk, no sugar, no flavouring: this is plain black coffee in a pack. What goes in the cup afterwards is your decision rather than the manufacturer's.
- Packaging: follow the current UK pack and your local-authority guidance; the outer pack and any inner liner can take different disposal routes.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Lavazza Tales of Roma Ground Coffee, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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