Lavazza is not great IMO, but you can find much worse. I think Illy is a better brand of "canned" (i.e., not freshly roasted by a local coffee rooaster) beans. Illy is known as an innovative Italian coffee company wiith a real focus on quality control and roasting.

If you can't get a good mediium-roast blend (or other espresso blend) fresh from a local roaster, I would go with Illy.

FWIW, Illy produces some of the best espresso cups too.

www.illy.com

[This message has been edited by Pietro (edited Feb 22, 2004).]