by Nigel Ong
Lavazza is one of the largest coffee roasters in Europe, producing coffee roasts, instant coffees, and pods. It also offers coffee machines and equipment. Their roasts are wide-ranging, too, across all roast-level, with single-origins and decaf versions also on offer.
One of Lavazza’s most popular roasts is the Qualita Rossa. This medium roast is, in fact, one of the most popular roasts from Lavazza. How good is the Lavazza Qualità Rossa? I picked up a bag to find out.
In this post, I will review the Lavazza Qualita Rossa roast. I will first brew it several ways before trying the coffee with popular flavorings. Finally, I will compare the coffee with other medium roasts and regular brewed coffee.
About Lavazza Qualità Rossa
Lavazza is a popular coffee brand, especially in Europe. It was founded in Turin, Italy, in 1895. Today, Lavazza offers a wide range of roasts, blends, and instant coffee worldwide.
Within its roasts, Lavazza is probably most known for its Qualita Rossa roast. However, other offerings exist, such as the Oro, Crema e Gusto, Dek, or Tierra For Planet. These roasts focus on different aspects of coffee for drinkers who seek specific styles.
What I have today is the Qualita Rossa. It is a medium roast with an intensity of 5. That’s smack in the middle within Lavazza’s scale of 1 to 10. The beans are 100% Arabica, and the coffee bag has 250 g (about 9 oz) of beans inside.
First Impression
The bright packaging invokes some emotion and shows the quality and effort of making the coffee. There is one annoying detail, however, that I think Lavazza needs to be shot at for missing it.
Once I opened the coffee bag, there was no way I could reseal it back. With American roasters, there’s usually a tab attached to the coffee bag that you can fold over to seal the coffee bag. Not with the Lavazza Qualita Rossa. I have to use an external food clip.
Once I looked into the beans, they looked like a good medium roast. The beans are quite even and in good shape, meaning Lavazza uses high-quality beans to make this. The beans are also brownish and have a matted look instead of shiny and oily.
I put the beans side by side with other roasts for you to compare their color and shapes. Clockwise from 12 is the Starbucks House Blend (Medium Roast), Lavazza Qualita Rossa, and Starbucks Blonde Espresso (Light Roast).
The coffee smells pleasant and drives up my appetite for coffee. You may first pick up a smoky, toasty smell before noticing the beans’ strong, nutty tone. If you do not smell the coffee too intensely, you may notice whiffs of chocolate notes too.
Will all these notes show up during tasting? Let’s get brewing and sample some Qualita Rossa, then.
How Does Lavazza Qualità Rossa Taste?
To sample the coffee, I decided to brew the coffee three ways for various reasons.
French Press: French press brewing allows me to enjoy the coffee with all its oils and particles. I expect a ‘dirty,’ murky, full-flavored coffee with floating particles, giving me all the smoke it can pack.
Pour Over With Filter Paper: This best simulates the regular coffee brewer most of us have at home. Plus, the filter paper helps to filter away coffee particles and some coffee oils, allowing me to enjoy a ‘cleaner’ version of the coffee.
Espresso: Lavazza Qualita Rossa is a medium roast, but I still want to make an espresso. The idea is to see if I can concentrate the flavor at the crema and taste the coffee even better.
French Press
I pulled out my trusty Bodum Caffettiera French press for the French press and brewed a 2-cup batch. I used the 1:12 coffee-to-water ratio recommended by Illy Coffee, similar to my other coffee reviews.
I added 15 grams of coffee and 180ml of hot water at around 185°F (about 85°C). After stirring the coffee ground, I let the concoction brew for 4 minutes before pouring myself a cup.
The aroma is delicious. A rich, nutty, sweet aroma accompanies me as I sip the coffee for the first time. However, this is where the pleasantness ends.
Taste-wise, I get a flat, bitter taste, similar to regular coffee from gas stations. Surprised, I checked the packaging again to ensure I did not buy an expired coffee. The coffee is far away from that.
The flat, bitter taste later opens up to a slight hint of cocoa-like bittersweetness, but it does not do enough to take my mind off the flat, bitter taste.
I waited for the coffee to cool down slightly before trying again. The flatness is slightly less prominent this time, although I cannot pretend it is not there.
I am very surprised at how the taste is very underwhelming compared to the aroma it gives. Perhaps this coffee is not suitable for the French press. Let’s try to pour over; maybe it will help make a better cup of Lavazza Qualita Rossa.
Pour Over With Filter Paper
For this method, I use the following gear for this brewing method:
I use the pour-over brewing method from Starbucks. I added 20 grams of ground coffee and slowly poured 360ml of water.
When I started, I first focused on wetting and blooming the coffee ground and slowly added more water. The whole process took me around 5 minutes.
This cup of coffee definitely looks slightly lighter in color, and the sedimentation on the bottom of the cup is also lesser. Filter paper in action, I suppose.
However, the same issue happened. The aroma is very enticing, but the taste does not match. The flat bitterness remains, only slightly lesser. The cocoa bitterness became stronger, but again, not enough to remove the flat bitterness from the coffee.
I am unsurprised if very serious coffee drinkers would spit the coffee out and say it tastes like dirt.
Espresso
For espresso, I grabbed my Wacaco Minipresso GR and pulled a shot. What I get is a great-smelling coffee with rich, thick crema. Presentation-wise, it is good enough to rival the best espressos your Baristas can make.
On the taste, the crema tasted slightly acidic, with citrusy undertones. This, to me, helps to cut into the flat bitterness of the coffee and removes it slightly.
I also get more nutty tones from the coffee instead, which is rather relieving. The cocoa bitterness at the finish also strengthens, and the espresso rounds up.
To my palate, at least, espresso is the best way to enjoy the Lavazza Qualita Rossa, even when it is a medium roast. Surprising, but feel free to experiment and see if you agree.
What Flavorings Works Best With Lavazza Qualità Rossa?
Sweeteners
Here is a disclaimer. I don’t like my coffee sweetened, but bitter and natural. However, I’ll try to be as neutral as possible here since some people like sugar with their cup of joe.
Here, I prepared some brown, granulated sugar and Equal artificial sweetener. I poured out two new fresh cups of Lavazza Qualita Rossa coffee. I added a drop of Equal artificial sweetener into one cup and a stick of brown sugar into the other.
The coffee tastes much more drinkable. The sweetness helps to cut into the flat bitterness of the Lavazza Qualita Rossa. It helps to enhance the cocoa note at the finish.
However, the sweetness does not remove the flat bitterness but masks it. This means the bitterness is still there. Using sweetness to mask the flat bitterness makes the coffee a little less natural to drink.
I would say the same with equality. The sweetness seems stronger at the finish, a characteristic of Aspartame, the sweetener behind Equal.
Milk
With milk, I added a shot (about 30ml) of fresh, whole, UHT cow’s milk into a regular cup of pour-over brew. I believe the milk’s fat and cream may help remove the flat bitterness, making the coffee easier to drink.
The taste is as I expected. The slight sweetness from the lactose in the milk feels natural to my palate. The creaminess from the milk also blends well with the coffee without overpowering it.
It does cut away the coffee’s flat bitterness, making it more enjoyable to drink. The whole package tasted more natural than one with sugar or sweetener.
I think milk blends well with Lavazza Qualita Rossa and does a very good job of mellowing and evening out the rougher edges of this coffee.
Creamer
With lactose intolerance growing, more are switching to non-dairy creamer. In this case, I turned to the trusty Coffee Mate and poured a stick of it into a fresh cup of Lavazza Qualita Rossa.
The creamer adds more cream to the coffee than the milk, that’s for sure. It also made the coffee look paler than milk. The fatty richness helps cut into the flat bitterness, making the coffee much more palatable.
The coffee also becomes slightly sweeter, making it much nicer to sip. It somehow does not deliver the milky goodness and milk, which is expected since this is a non-dairy creamer.
If I choose between creamer and milk, I think the milk version of the Lavazza Qualita Rossa tastes nicer.
Ice
Finally, I wonder how the coffee tastes iced. Ice has a way of muting certain flavors and boosting others in the coffee, making it worth trying. I added half a cup of coffee into a glass stuffed with ice.
The ice made the coffee worse. My palate picked up a stronger flat bitterness and a bit of acidity from the coffee. The flat bitterness is miles away from an iced Americano’s rich, satisfying bitterness.
I think this is the worst way to drink Lavazza Qualita Rossa.
Lavazza Qualità Rossa vs Popular Medium Roasts
Since Lavazza Qualita Rossa is a medium roast, I thought I’d compare it with other medium roasts in my collection. These are all grocery store, popular medium roast blends, making them an apples-to-apples comparison.
I brewed a regular cup of coffee out of these blends and sipped them side by side with the Lavazza Qualita Rossa:
- Gevalia Colombia Blend
- Folgers 1850 Pioneer Roast
- Starbucks House Blend
- McCafe Premium Roast
Of these roasts, I would place the Lavazza Qualita Rossa dead last. The flat bitterness kills it for me and makes it unable to compete against other roasts.
Lavazza Qualità Rossa vs Regular Brewed Coffee
Finally, I always place any coffee I review to a simple test, comparing it against regular coffee you can get from gas stations and convenience stores.
The idea here is to see if the coffee is good enough that you would rather make it at home than buy these cheap but (usually) junk cups of coffee.
I went ahead and picked up a cup of 7-Eleven Americano and sipped it side by side with the Lavazza Qualita Rossa.
For the first time, I actually chose the 7-Eleven Americano. The reason? It does not taste as flat as the Lavazza Qualita Rossa. Sure, it does not smell as good, but the taste matters more to me, and I would happily sip my 7-Eleven cup over the Lavazza Qualita Rossa.
Who Is Lavazza Qualità Rossa For?
I am completely surprised at how the Lavazza Qualita Rossa tasted. It has a great nutty aroma, but the coffee tastes flat and bitter, with little notes of flavor.
Perhaps the Italians (and the Europeans) love their coffee this way, but I do not think this flavor profile works for me. I drank mostly American roasts, which means, in many ways, many American palates may agree with me, too.
The coffee may be much nicer to sip with milk, which means you could use it to make great cups of Latte, Cappuccino, Cortado, or more. But I do not think drinking it black would be a great idea.