How I Finally Stopped Overpaying for Bad Coffee — My Honest Review of Lavazza Crema e Gusto

14 giugno 2026

Lavazza Crema e Gusto Dark Roast Ground Coffee 250g bags — showing the iconic red and gold Lavazza packaging of the Crema e Gusto Classico blend, a premium Italian ground coffee ideal for moka pots, filter machines and French presses

I have a confession to make: I was spending nearly £200 a month on coffee shop coffee.

Not because I particularly wanted to. It was a habit that had built up gradually over a few years. I'd tried making coffee at home repeatedly and kept being disappointed. The supermarket own-brand stuff tasted flat and thin. The mid-range bags I'd tried were better but inconsistent — sometimes good, sometimes not, with no reliable way of knowing which you were going to get. The expensive specialty bags were genuinely good but cost more per cup than just going to the café, which defeated the point.

So I kept going to the café. Every morning on the way to work. Sometimes at lunch. Occasionally in the afternoon when the day was going badly. The cost added up in a way I'd been successfully not thinking about until I actually looked at my bank statements and did the maths.

£200 a month. On coffee. I needed a better solution.

What I Was Actually Looking For

I want to be clear about what I needed, because I think it's different from what a lot of coffee content assumes you need. I wasn't looking for a single-origin Ethiopian natural process with notes of blueberry and dark chocolate. I was looking for a coffee that tasted reliably good, worked in the equipment I already owned (a moka pot and a French press), and cost significantly less per cup than a café.

I also wanted something I could buy in bulk without worrying about it going stale before I used it. Ground coffee has a shorter shelf life than beans, but if you're going through it at the rate I was planning to, that's not a problem.

Lavazza kept coming up when I asked people who actually knew about coffee what they used at home. Not the specialty coffee people — they have their own thing going on — but the people who just wanted a consistently good cup without making it a project. Lavazza Crema e Gusto specifically was mentioned more than once.

Lavazza Crema e Gusto Dark Roast Ground Coffee — close-up of the 250g bag showing the Crema e Gusto Classico branding, the intensity rating and the Arabica and Robusta blend information on the distinctive red and gold Italian packaging

Why I Chose the Lavazza Crema e Gusto 10-Pack

The Lavazza Crema e Gusto Dark Roast Ground Coffee 10-Pack stood out for a few specific reasons:

The Arabica and Robusta blend. This is the combination that gives Italian espresso its character — Arabica for complexity and flavour, Robusta for body, crema, and caffeine. The beans are sourced from South America and South East Asia, which is a classic combination for this style of coffee. It's not trying to be a single-origin specialty product; it's trying to be a reliably excellent everyday coffee, which is exactly what I needed.
The 7/10 intensity. Dark enough to stand up to milk — I drink flat whites and occasionally a long black — but not so dark that it becomes bitter and unpleasant. The intensity rating is a useful guide when you're buying without tasting first.
The versatile grind. Designed for moka pots, filter machines, and French presses. I have both a moka pot and a French press, and I wanted one coffee that worked in both rather than buying separate products for each.
The 10-pack format. Buying in bulk means a lower per-bag cost and fewer trips to the shop. Ten 250g bags is a meaningful supply — enough to last a couple of months at my rate of consumption.
Lavazza's reputation. They've been roasting coffee in Turin since 1895. The Crema e Gusto blend specifically has been around for decades. This is not a product that's been optimised for marketing; it's a product that's been refined over time because it works.

Lavazza Crema e Gusto Ground Coffee — multiple 250g bags of the 10-pack shown together, demonstrating the bulk value of the dark roast Italian ground coffee collection and the consistent Lavazza packaging across the range

The First Week

The first morning I used it in the moka pot, I made a flat white with oat milk. It was good. Not "good for home coffee" — just good. The kind of good where you finish the cup and immediately want another one.

The crema was there — that layer of emulsified coffee oils that sits on top of a properly made espresso-style coffee and indicates that the extraction has gone well. I'd never reliably achieved crema with supermarket coffee. With the Crema e Gusto, it appeared consistently from the first cup.

The flavour is bold and full-bodied with a slight spiciness that I associate with the Robusta component. It's not subtle — this is not a coffee for people who want delicate floral notes. It's a coffee for people who want their morning coffee to taste like coffee, emphatically and without apology.

I tried it in the French press the following day. Different character — more body, slightly less intensity, a longer finish. Both methods worked well. The grind is genuinely versatile.

Lavazza Crema e Gusto Dark Roast Ground Coffee — product detail showing the ground coffee texture and the bag's resealable design, demonstrating the quality of the dark roast grind suitable for moka pots and filter coffee machines

Three Months Later

I haven't bought a takeaway coffee in three months. That's not a sacrifice — I'm not sitting at my desk wishing I was at the café. The coffee I'm making at home is good enough that I don't feel like I'm missing out.

A few things I've noticed over three months of daily use:

The consistency is excellent. Every bag tastes the same as the last. This sounds like a low bar but it isn't — inconsistency was one of the main problems with the mid-range coffees I'd tried before. With Lavazza Crema e Gusto, I know exactly what I'm going to get.
It works well with milk. The boldness of the dark roast means it doesn't disappear when you add oat milk or regular milk. The coffee flavour comes through clearly, which is what you want in a flat white or latte.
The bags stay fresh. The packaging is well-sealed and the coffee has maintained its quality from the first bag to the most recent one. No staleness, no loss of flavour.
The maths work out significantly in my favour. I've done the calculation. I'm spending a fraction of what I was spending at the café, for coffee that I genuinely prefer to most of what I was buying there.

Lavazza Crema e Gusto Ground Coffee — single 250g bag shown in a kitchen setting, demonstrating how the Italian dark roast ground coffee integrates into a home coffee routine with a moka pot or filter machine

What I'd Tell Another Coffee Drinker

If you're spending money at coffee shops because you can't make something as good at home, the problem is probably the coffee rather than your technique. A good moka pot or French press is not complicated to use. What it needs is good coffee.

Lavazza Crema e Gusto is good coffee. It's not trying to be the most interesting coffee in the world — it's trying to be the most reliably excellent everyday coffee, and it succeeds at that. The Arabica-Robusta blend gives it the body and crema that supermarket coffees lack. The dark roast gives it the boldness to stand up to milk. And the consistent quality means you know what you're getting every time you open a bag.

Buy the 10-pack. Make it at home. Stop giving money to the café queue.