1895 Coffee Designers by Lavazza - Specialty Coffee Shop & Roaster in Milan

1895 Coffee Designers by Lavazza is the specialty coffee line of the Turin coffee company. Its coffee designers travel to find rare terroirs and farms, and the line is built from seasonal coffees traceable to the plantation, bought from independent cooperatives and farms, among them the Guaxupé farm in Brazil, where black-and-white photographs show Giuseppe Lavazza choosing coffee. The range falls into three groups: microlots, single origins and specialty blends.

The coffees are roasted in small batches at Factory 1895 in Settimo Torinese, where Lavazza’s master roasters give the single origins and the blends each their own roast profile. An optical sorter checks the colour of every bean before roasting, and Lavazza was the first in Europe to install a roaster built on a fluid-dynamic system. The Factory also has a Coffee Cave, where Coffeliers guide tastings of the 1895 coffees.

The current coffees include Flor De Oro, a Castillo from Diego Bermúdez’s Finca El Paraíso in Cauca washed with an anaerobic thermal shock, Inti, a limited-edition geisha from Huila grown by smallholders supported by the Qima Foundation, and Kafa Forest Cru from the Mankira Forest in Ethiopia. Petal Storm, Cocoa Reloaded and Noble Volcano are the specialty blends. Its ambassadors include the pastry chef Iginio Massari, whose Sinfonia del Maestro blend was created with 1895, and the Del Cambio restaurant. In Milan, Marchesi 1824 sells its Milan Heritage Blend made with 1895.

The line is served at Lavazza’s two flagship stores. The Milan store, a few steps from the Duomo and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, pours 1895 coffees alongside coffee design drinks, special preparations, pastries and aperitivo cocktails. The London store has a ground-floor caffetteria, grocery and takeaway, with its own 1895 Specialty Coffee selection.