Lavazza: Turin coffee out of this world

Up your hand if you love Italian coffee?

Lavazza logo

How many brands of Italian coffee do you know?

Stop for a moment and think about Italians, their love for coffee and you will quickly understand how easily you can make any Italian feel at home just by offering the right cup of espresso ;)

As for you, no matter where you are, look around and chances are, you will see some Turin coffee brand. That's because after cars, sport, fashion, aperitifs and chocolate, Turin is also THE coffee trend-setting city of Italy and one of the Turin coffee brands you might happen to like and find everywhere is Lavazza. 

Lavazza story started in Turin at the end of 19th century, so old our local passion for coffee blends is. After all though, it shouldn't come as a surprise given our long history of coffee and chocolate houses you can still visit these days.

Back in 1894, in Via San Tommaso 10, Luigi Lavazza bought a small drogheria - the grandmother of our contemporary grocery stores, where you could buy lose spices, teas, coffees and everything else you actually needed, concerning foods and household products, just in a family owned scale. 

Via San Tommaso 10, Turin today: Lavazza coffee shop and restaurant

This is still a Lavazza location, right downtown and you can drop in for a coffee, lunch or dinner after your shopping or visiting a museum; as for the company, it is still run by the 3rd and 4th generations of the Lavazza family!!

Following his passion for coffee, Luigi studied the different coffee plants and aromas and was the first one in Italy to create coffee blends to best satisfy his customers. Even today, we still drink Lavazza coffee blends that present great balance and unique flavors.

The Lavazza company was registered in 1927 in Turin and around the same years, a two layer paper was introduced in the packaging to keep the coffee fragance and allow consumers to buy larger quantities and coffee to keep at their homes.

In fact, these were the same years Italians could buy a coffee pot to make "an espresso as good as the coffee shop one" thanks to the Bialetti moka (also from Piedmont!).

In 1946, after  WWII and the coffee embargo, the Lavazza sons decided to sell coffee in packages  -like those we buy today, instead of lose coffee, as they had done up that time. 1950 marked the arrival of the coffee vacuum sealed tins that allowed for a longer lasting aroma and a broader distribution.

In the 1950s, all the roasting process was completed in the Turin headquarters thanks to a highly innovative system that produced more than 40,000 kg (88,185 lb) of coffee a day. The Lavazza coffee cup was literally on top of Italy!

In 1959 Lavazza dec (decaf) was launched) and in 1965, the largest roasting plant in Europe was opened in the Turin suburb.

To come out of the economical crisis Italy was going through, in 1971 Lavazza designs the new vacuum sealed coffee pack, the new version of that old double layer pack that in the late 1920s had allowed many Italian families to stock up coffee.

Lavazza Rossa was the first blend to be sold in the new pack

The Luigi Lavazza Center for Research and Coffee studies was also opened in 1979 and it is still the largest coffee academy for the training and innovation of the espresso culture in the world.

In 1982, the first Lavazza subsidiary opened in France and Lavazza Ltd. opened in London in 1990 after the launch of the first coffee machine to use coffee capsules.

1992 marks the beginning of the Lavazza calendars and the production of the first one is given to Helmut Newton who highlights the relationship between the company and coffee.

In 2004, the Lavazza Foundation was born to improve living conditions in coffee growing countries. In the same year, the Lavazza Blue system arrived in many offices to allow all workers to enjoy their "heaven in a cup" - the first Lavazza slogan "Lavazza il paradiso in tazza".

Lavazza break for Italian astronaut Capt. Samantha Cristoforetti in the space station

A consistent commitment for sustainability and environmental engagement has been leading Lavazza up to the 2015 challenge: allowing Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to enjoy her espresso high up in the outer space. How else could she have ever survived for 6 months without a drop of coffee worth this name??

So, yes, here in Turin, we're rather proud of our brands, products and national symbols, and if our Unesco Wine districts, chocolate, cars and history weren't strong enough to pull you over, we're sure our coffee will irresistibly convince you to enjoy an espresso cup in one of our elegant piazzas ;)

Even though you can taste it everywhere, coffee like wine must be drunk where it's made, come to Turin and ... taste more :D