What is the Tablì Tabs Variety Collection?
Five blends, twelve tabs of each, and the only small quantity Lavazza sells.
Every other Tablì box is 48 tabs of one blend. This one is 60 tabs across five: Super Crema, Espresso, Espresso Lungo, Espresso Double and Decaf, twelve of each, for $60.00. That works out at a dollar a tab, the same as the everyday boxes and less than the $1.10 the Lungo and Double cost when bought on their own.
It exists for the problem the range otherwise has. Committing to 48 shots of a blend you have never tasted is the main thing that makes buying into a new system uncomfortable, and this is Lavazza's answer to it.
What is in it, and what each one is for
- Espresso Lungo, intensity 6. The mildest, and the only one made for the machine's lungo button.
- Decaf, intensity 7. The evening option, close in strength to the Espresso tab.
- Lavazza Tablì Espresso Tabs, intensity 8. The middle of the range: 100% Arabica, floral and fruity in Lavazza's description.
- Tablì Super Crema tab, intensity 10. The full-bodied, hazelnut one, and the pick for milk.
- Espresso Double, intensity 11. A dark roast that brews two shots at once, with cocoa and toasted biscuit notes.
Between them they cover all three things the Tablì machine does, which a single-blend box cannot: a single shot, a double and a lungo.
The two blends you can only meet here
Two of the five are not single shots at all. The Espresso Lungo is built for the machine's long button, and the Espresso Double brews two shots from one tab, so a household that drinks doubles gets 48 drinks from a Double box rather than 24. Both are sold on their own in 48-count boxes at $52.80, the dearer end of the range.
Twelve of each inside this pack is the only way to find out whether either suits you before paying $52.80 to stock it, and they are the two blends most likely to change how you use the machine rather than just what it tastes like.
What it costs, and what it does not solve
$60.00 for 60 is a dollar a tab, the same rate as the single-blend boxes. Nothing is saved and nothing is charged for the variety, which is fair.
What it does not do is make the system cheap to sample. Sixty dollars is still a real commitment next to the ten-capsule sleeves Nespresso Original sells, and twelve tabs of the blend you settle on will be gone in under a fortnight, after which the only refill is 48 at a time. This box solves the "which blend" problem, not the "how much up front" one.
Sixty tabs, five open boxes
The pack is five 12-count boxes rather than sixty loose tabs, which matters more than it sounds. Tabs have no individual wrapper, so the box is what protects them, and a variety pack means five boxes open at once rather than one. Twelve of a blend goes quickly if it is the one you like and slowly if it is not, and Lavazza publishes nothing about how long an opened box keeps.
The practical answer is to treat them as ground coffee: closed, cool and dark, and drink the ones you are unsure about first rather than saving them. How to store coffee covers why. Twelve tabs is under a fortnight at a cup a day, so in practice the pack is gone long before any of it is old, which is the other quiet advantage of buying small.
As a gift, which is what it is shaped like
Five blends in one box at a round $60.00, alongside a $129.99 machine, is a gift set in everything but name, and it is the obvious thing to buy with the machine for somebody else. It also solves the problem a gifted single-serve machine usually creates: the recipient cannot choose a coffee they have never tasted, and a 48-count box is a heavy first decision to hand someone.
One caution if you are buying both as a present. Everything that machine will ever drink comes from Lavazza, in 48-count boxes, and the person unwrapping it is being signed up to that. It is a good gift for somebody who already drinks Lavazza and a poor one for somebody who likes trying roasters.
Is it worth it?
For anyone who has just bought the machine, this is the right first box, and buying a 48 blind is the wrong one. Twelve shots is enough to know whether a blend suits you, and the pack removes the one decision a new owner has no way to make.
For an owner who already knows what they drink, it is worse value than it looks: you are buying 48 tabs you did not choose in order to get twelve you did. Buy the blend.
Who should buy it (and who should not)
Buy it if
- You have just bought a Tablì machine, or are buying one as a gift.
- You want to try the lungo and the double without buying 48 of each.
- Your household drinks both caffeinated and decaf.
Skip it if
- You already know which blend you drink.
- You want the lowest price per cup; it is the same dollar either way.
- You do not own the machine, because nothing else brews a tab.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many tabs are in the Variety Collection?
Sixty: one 12-count box of each of the five blends.
Which blends are included?
Super Crema, Espresso, Espresso Lungo, Espresso Double and Decaf.
Is the Variety Collection cheaper per tab?
No. It is $1.00 a tab, the same as the 48-count boxes of Espresso, Super Crema and Decaf, and less than the $1.10 of the Lungo and Double boxes.
Can I buy Tablì tabs in smaller quantities?
Only in this pack. Every single-blend box holds 48.
What machine does it work with?
The Lavazza Tablì machine, which is the only machine that takes tabs.
