Their blonde roast is the only roast they sell that comes from beans roasted optimally.
Other interesting things I learned:
- coffee beans are actually the pits of a cherry plant
- the higher the bean is grown from sea level, the better the quality
- good beans roasted properly create a coffee that is naturally sweet requiring no additional flavours or creams and tastes great just black
- Ily, the Italian coffee brand, sells one of the highest quality coffee grinds you can get from a supermarket
- coffee commodity prices are cyclical and producers will hold back or flood the market depending on the commodity price. As a result, you can time which beans will be fresh and which ones will be stale because they were held back during low price periods
Wrong: if you go in a bar and order an Illy espresso you'll pay more or less 1 euro. This price is the same as any other brand, even the cheapest ones. There seem to be no price difference in Italy based on brand (in bars). If you go to Venice St. Marco's square where a coffee at the table will cost you easily 8 euro, and you order it at the bar ans drink it standing (the standard way), it will still cost you 1 euro. It's like a political price, as could be beer in Prague or fried rice in Bangkok. Don't touch those prices or you'll get a revolution :)
Right: at the supermarket Illy is one of the most expensive brands. It's about 5,5 euro for 250 grams, compared to 3 euro for a good Arabica brand or even 2 euro for a cheap brand.
Mind: the bar and the supermarket Illy coffees are different, the bar version being much superior.
I like Illy (if you love it, you may want to go to Trieste and enjoy it there) but I still prefer to get it freshly grinded from somebody who toasts in place. I especially like one in Venice, where it goes from 12 to 25 per Kg, the good one costing as much as the Illy. Nothing compares to a freshly grinded good coffee.