After returning from Venice I fired up my 15 years (stll as good as on the first day) old Pavoni Europiccola Pro which is the undisputed godfather or ur-mother of all espresso machines ever produced in hard-core espresso geek circles.

A comparison between the small italian private roasters coffee and the also italian 800 pound gorilla in international coffee business Illy was for me, a long-term critic of all big corporations, indeed sobering.

Small and green may be beautiful elsewhere but the red metal-boxed Illy coffee still tastes a notch better then anything else on the market. Point.

Thought taste is always a discussable item - Illy has evidently more resources in securing worldwide uniform standard quality. Illy beats all competitors in quality since many years - Illy coffee may be more expensive then (some of) the rest but the higher price is indeed reflected in uniform quality. No matter where you buy a box - the quality is the same - the freshness is protected for about 3 years in Illys special sealed and pressurated metal boxes