Every day, 5 million cups of illy coffee are enjoyed around the world. It's impressive, if you consider that illycaffè produces a single, exclusive blend of 100 percent Arabica.

Wherever you live in the world you can enjoy the consistency of all the aroma and quality of illy coffee in your cup. It's all due to pressurization, a special way of packaging that maintains the coffee's characteristics and preserves its full fragrance and freshness.

In Brazil, the first academic institute dedicated to coffee producers, called Universidade illy do cafè, was established in collaboration with the University of San Paolo.
The goal? To transfer illycaffè knowledge to growers, operators and technicians in the coffee production chain, in order to enrich and perfect their production management and commerce practices. Why Brazil? Because it is the world's largest producer of green coffee – an excellent basis on which to form the best blends.

The choice of the coffee: the ritual of tasting and selecting the beans. illycaffè only purchases the best Arabica coffee available on the market. Arabica coffee has a rich flavor with a caffeine content lower than Robusta coffee. Caffeine content of Arabica is 1.5% while Robusta may have a caffeine value twice that amount. Before the purchase, samples of coffee lots are analyzed and tasted by expert tasters, many with decades of experience.

Once the best lots have been singled out further tests are performed. illycaffè sorts all beans using electronic instruments which evaluate the color and automatically reject the defective beans. This is the only possible way to ensure a consistent quality of green coffee. It takes approximately fifty beans to make a cup of espresso, but it takes only one defective bean to spoil the flavor.