It would be hard to say what is Italy’s best gourmet coffee. There are a number of brands that are fairly well-known and available in the United States. If you are looking to try some Italian gourmet coffee, that would be the best place to start.

Illy not only makes a whole line of coffee products, they produce some of the finest espresso machines on the market as well. They sell both whole bean coffee, as well as ground. Their ground coffee comes in several coarsenesses, to suit your personal coffee brewing style. You can order their coffee from their website. Though Illy is Italian, they have facilities in the United States, so you aren’t getting your coffee actually shipped from overseas. Makes for faster and fresher delivery. Gourmet food stores and upscale coffee shops usually carry Illy products as well.

Another excellent brand of gourmet coffee from Italy is Segafredo. Definitely not as well-known a name as Illy, but its getting there. You can buy their coffee from their online shop, in whole bean, ground or in pre-packaged pods (used in many newer coffee and espresso machines). Segafredo also has decaf and instant coffee.

And one final Italian gourmet coffee that you should watch for is Lavazza. It’s better known in Europe where Lavazza has several chains of espresso bars and coffee shops.

A “coffee shop” used to refer to a casual diner where you could order a burger and pie along with your coffee. These days, coffee shops are focuses almost solely on the coffee. And not just coffee either. A gourmet coffee shop will offer you a huge range of freshly-brewed coffee and espresso drinks, roasted coffee by the bag and maybe some pastries or biscotti.

Add some comfortable chairs to relax in while drinking your coffee, and you have the perfect modern-day coffee shop. Of course, you’ll also have modern coffee shop prices as well. Many fancy coffee or espresso drinks can easily cost you $4 or more apiece, which is a step above a simply black coffee at a regular restaurant.

The best known gourmet coffee store would have to be Starbucks. They have locations all across the world, and is becoming synonymous with coffee. With convenient locations, a very diverse menu of coffee and espresso drinks and plenty of space to lounge around while you drink, its no wonder that Starbucks is a popular choice for gourmet coffee.

But by no means is Starbucks the only option out there. Many other gourmet coffee store chains are making names for themselves, and giving Starbucks a run for its money.

Coffee stores such as Caribou Coffee, Peaberry Coffee, and the Daily Grind are just a few examples of spreading franchises that may be in your city.

In Canada, the Second Cup gourmet coffee store chain is nearly as wide-spread and popular as Starbucks.

Its easy to discuss the major chains, who have many locations and stores. That doesn’t mean that smaller individually owned coffee stores offer anything less than an amazing cup of coffee as well. Check your local yellow pages, and you might find a gourmet coffee oasis nearby.

There are far too many online coffee sellers to possibly provide any lists for your shopping. A quick check with a search engine should provide you with more shops than you’ll know what to do with. There are major sellers who carry styles and varieties from across the globe, and can be a great one-stop-shop for any coffee whim you might have. Even so, you shouldn’t forget the smaller coffee suppliers that perhaps only specialize in their own local coffee regions. If you want to try some Hawaiian coffee, why not give your business to someone actually living and working there? Going closer to the source can also give you fresher coffee in the end.

And speaking of freshness, that can be the one big problem when buying gourmet coffee online. Whole bean roasted coffee will stay at its best for about 2 weeks, and then start to go stale. So the more hands your coffee goes through before getting to your kitchen, can take a bite out of that freshness window. Check roasting dates and shipping methods before placing your order. Granted, shipping several pounds of coffee via overnight express from someplace like Indonesian or Kenya might be a bit on the costly side. On the other hand, regular postal service won’t likely be fast enough to save your precious gourmet beans.

You can always order green (unroasted) beans instead, which will last quite a bit longer. You do lose some of that regional appeal if you do the roasting in your own home.

The most popular non-electric coffee maker would have to be the moka pot. It’s more of an espresso maker, but since it’s not as strong as typical espresso, some people would consider it a coffee-maker instead. To brew in a moka pot, all you need is a heat source like a stove burner. These little pots have been around for a long time, and are very easy to use.

The two little chamber parts screw together in the middle, where a funnel for the coffee grounds fits between them. It looks like a little metal tea kettle, with a narrow waist. Water in the bottom gets heated, and is forced up through the coffee grounds. Your finished espresso coffee is collected in the top half. Moka pots are often used to just make a single cup at a time, but you an buy larger units to brew 6 cups or more. They are fast, quiet and really do make good coffee.

Another way to make coffee without electricity would be with a plunger pot, also known as a French press. These tall pots have a plunger that comes down through the center of the pot, with a fine mesh filter at the end. You mix hot water and coffee grounds in the pot and let it steep until it’s at your desired strength, then press the plunger down. The filter pushes through the water, and forces all the grounds to the bottom. You’re left with filtered coffee in the carafe, ready to pour. Just don’t let it sit for too long. The grounds and coffee are still in contact through the mesh filter, and it will continue to get stronger over time.

Both methods do require that you have a separate way to heat the water, though only the moka pot needs an actual hot surface. You can make coffee with a simple tea kettle, when you have a good French press. French presses can be purchased in unbreakable lexan or plastic, which makes them a nice addition to your camping supplies. For those who hate to be without their morning coffee, even when roughing it.

But for many folks who enjoy gourmet coffee, that’s just not good enough. A coffee is more of a creation than just a drink, and there are many traditional gourmet drinks to choose from.

Most gourmet coffee drinks are actually made with espresso rather than coffee, but for anyone brewing at home without an espresso machine, you can easily use strong brewed coffee instead. Won’t be quite the same, though. Still worth experimenting with if you want something different in the morning.

You’re probably pretty familiar with most drinks even if you haven’t enjoyed them personally. The best known gourmet espresso drinks are the cappuccino, the latte and the macchiato. They sound wonderfully Italian, and actually aren’t all that hard to make yourself.

How to Make Gourmet Coffee Drinks

Macchiato

A macchiato is just a sophisticated way of saying “with a spoon of foamed milk on top”. That’s it. Add some foamed milk on top of your coffee or espresso, and you have yourself a macchiato. Possibly the easiest gourmet coffee drink there is.

Latte

A latte isn’t that much more complicated either. You can make a latte with 1 part coffee, and 2 parts hot or steamed milk. A simple ratio would be a half cup of coffee, with 1 cup of steamed milk added. It’s a very creamy and milk coffee drink.

Cappuccino

And the final gourmet coffee drink would be the cappuccino. This time, you use equal parts hot coffee and steamed milk (so perhaps 1 cup of coffee and 1 cup of steamed milk). On top there is also a layer of foamed milk. A stronger coffee drink than the latte.

The final variation that you usually see in the coffee shop is the addition of some chocolate syrup to either drink, to make a mocha latte or a mochaccino.

There is really no limit to what type of coffee you can order anymore. Freshly roasted beans can come from Indonesian, Kenya, Hawaii or Jamaica just as easily as coming from the next state.

Your best bet for having your coffee still be fresh when it arrives is ordering whole bean coffee, rather than ground coffee. Whole beans stay fresh for a couple of weeks, which should be plenty of time to account for shipping and your usage time. Just make sure the coffee sellers does the roasting immediately before shipping. If the coffee was roasted a week before it gets sent out, then you are not going to have much time to use it up before you end up with stale coffee. And the last thing you want is for your precious Kona or Blue Mountain beans to be stale before you can enjoy them.

Ordering from smaller coffee roasters located right where the coffee is grown can also increase your chances of getting really fresh coffee. Large coffee distributors can end up passing your order through too many hands, and take up time to get to your door.

The most interesting way to get gourmet coffee delivered is through a coffee-of-the-month plan. Many large coffee bean sellers have these now, and they really give you a chance to try a number of different coffees. Each month, you can get set amount of coffee beans, usually from a different coffee region or perhaps a different flavour each month. Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re going to get.

The best gourmet coffee is still brewed from freshly roasted and ground beans, rather than instant. But when you really want some coffee in a hurry, you might as well use good quality instant.

Even very expensive gourmet coffee can be found as instant. You can get instant Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee with the brand name Jablum, and it’s sold from several different Jamaican coffee sellers online. Hula Girl makes a freeze-dried instant Kona coffee from Hawaii.

In case you are not sure what is actually in instant coffee, here is a bit of information on the stuff. It’s not made with some kind of artificial chemicals or fake coffee. Instant coffee is made with actual brewed coffee. The process usually involves spraying the coffee as a fine mist into a hot air tank, where it dries almost immediately into dehydrated coffee crystals. That’s pretty much all there is to it. So instant coffee, is actually just dry pure coffee.

When using instant coffee, a couple teaspoons in a cup of hot water is all you need. Sometimes you just can’t beat the convenience of an instant coffee.

Their signature line of coffee has a mix of roasts that range from light to dark French and espresso roast. The beans themselves are a blend from many sources. For those who like to choose their beans by region rather than roast, Gevalia has a line of Select Varietals from all over the world. Coffee regions such as, Peru, India, and Kenya are represented. They also have the popular Kona and Blue Mountain beans as well. Some are certified organic.

Most of Gevalia’s products highlight the different flavours you can naturally find in coffee, through roasting or choosing certain regions. They do have a few choices of flavoured coffees though, as well. Traditional tastes like hazelnut, French vanilla and mocha to name a few.

You can specify whether you want your coffee in whole bean form, or ground. Most of their blends also come in regular or decaf. You just have to let them know how you want your order.

Though they may be the most famous for their lines of gourmet coffee, Gevalia does have all kinds of other gourmet products too. They carry several varieties of tea, hot chocolate, kitchen accessories and even some sweet treats too. If you can’t decide on something, they have mixed gift baskets for holidays, or just as a way to get a sampling of products. Gevalia even makes some of its own coffee and espresso machines.

And if you are a true fan of Gevalia coffee, you can join their delivery program and have several half pound bags of beans automatically delivered every 6 to 8 weeks. You’ll never run out of gourmet coffee again.

DaVinci Gourmet Coffee Syrups

An alternative to getting flavoured coffee, is adding a shot of flavoured syrup to your cup. Syrups can be an awesome way of some variety to your coffee drinks, one cup at a time.

DaVinci is a well-known brand of coffee flavouring syrups, frequently seen in homes and coffee-shops alike.

What makes DaVinci a great brand is the range of flavours and products. You can find just about any taste you could want, ranging from apple to white chocolate. Have you ever seen anyone else offering kiwi, cookie dough, watermelon or toasted marshmallow syrups for your coffee?

Sometimes people shy away from sweet additives because they are on a diet or simply watching their sugar intake. That doesn’t mean you have to skimp on taste. DaVinci has a very nice selection of sugar-free syrups as well. Not quite as many as their classic lineup, but you won’t get bored too quickly either. Pumpkin pie, butterscotch, egg nog and amaretto all come in sugar-free, along with a few dozen more.

Bottles come in 750ml size, which may be great for a coffee shop, though might be a bit large for home use. Thankfully, their prices are reasonable, making it easy to amass a nice little collection of delicious syrups for your coffee experiments. If you want to hear about their newest creations, you can sign up for their online newsletter.

You can order any of DaVinci’s 120 flavours of syrups directly through their website, or from a number of other online coffee sellers. Or if you prefer to shop in person, they can be found at stores like Costco, Safeway, TJMaxx and Marshalls.

And though coffee syrups are their main product, DaVinci also has a chai tea concentrate syrup for making hot or iced chai tea drinks.

Using syrups in your coffee is really easy and quick. Just brew up your regular cup, and add a squirt of syrup. Syrups melt into your coffee quicker than powdered products, so just a stir with your spoon is enough to blend it in. They work in iced coffee drinks too.

There are many different coffee-growing regions considered to produce high-quality and gourmet coffee. You should be able to find decaffeinated beans from any of them. Whether you prefer the mild coffee from the Blue Mountain, the bold taste of Kona, or the fruity aroma of Ethiopian Yrgacheffe beans, you will be able to indulge in your gourmet coffee even without caffeine.

Most decent online sellers who carry these exclusive beans will also carry the decaf versions.

If your idea of gourmet doesn’t involve geography, but rather a spectrum of flavour choices, you are still in luck. You can find a huge selection of fun flavoured coffees online, and all in decaf. No reason to do without anymore. A quick search, and you can find decaf butterscotch toffee, raspberry cream or rum raisin coffee beans. All that taste, with no caffeine.

Be sure to also check on how the beans had their caffeine removed before buying any coffee. Gourmet coffee shouldn’t suffer the indignity of chemical processing as it becomes decaffeinated. Good beans will be marked as Swiss water decaf, meaning the caffeine was removed with nothing but pure water. It is the best method for retaining all the natural flavour in your coffee beans, and it’s more environmentally friendly too.

Other methods can use solvents such as ethyl acetate. Even though some coffee sellers may label this as an “all-natural” method, it is still an inferior process.