The Lavazza Tablì brewer with milk frother and tabs set out. All photos courtesy of Lavazza.

Italian espresso large Lavazza has opened U.S. preorders for Tablì, a brand new single-serve espresso system involving tablets manufactured from compressed floor espresso with no plastic capsule, particular person wrapping or coating.

The corporate is pitching the product primarily as a handy, quality-focused espresso expertise that engages a number of senses, moderately than as a direct response to the industry-wide drawback of plastic waste from single-serve pods and capsules.

“Tablì eliminates the trade-off between high quality and comfort fully — it’s a real multisensory expertise: espresso you possibly can scent, really feel, and see earlier than it ever brews,” Daniele Foti, VP of Advertising and marketing, Lavazza North America, stated in a press launch on Monday, June 8. “And what’s within the cup matches what’s in your arms: the right espresso, each single time.”

With the Tablì launch, Lavazza seems locked in a market race with Keurig Dr Pepper for plastic-free single-serve espresso tablets. Keurig launched its imaginative and prescient for the Alta brewer in 2024, alongside plastic- and aluminum-free pods then referred to as Okay-Rounds and now referred to as AltaRounds.

The Lavazza Tablì

Below Tablì’s plastic hood, the machine can brew single or double doses of what the corporate calls espresso or lungo. Customers can program the water quantity robotically added to lungos.

The house kitchen-friendly machines are slated to start transport in August. Every stands 12.9 inches tall, 6.5 inches extensive and 15.4 inches deep, and weighs 9.9 kilos.

A reduced preorder bundle for the U.S. market — together with a machine, 5 12-packs of Tabs, a separate electrical milk frother and “tab tweezers” — has already bought out. The retail worth of the bundle will later be $250.

Lavazza is launching the U.S. system with 5 blends, together with one decaf possibility. As soon as the plastic movie on a sleeve of tabs is opened, Lavazza recommends refrigerating them for as much as 45 days. At room temperature, tabs keep contemporary for as much as 14 days, in keeping with the corporate.

The 131-year-old Lavazza firm says it spent 5 years on analysis and growth for proprietary know-how that compresses exact doses of floor espresso right into a strong, ready-to-use tab that holds its form with out a capsule or coating. Lavazza developed Tablì following its 2020 acquisition of the Italian startup Caffemotive and its tab idea.

Capsules, Pods, Balls and Tabs

Past fillable, reusable pods or capsules — which have struggled to search out widespread adoption within the single-serve automated class — the primary huge splash in packaging elimination got here from the Espresso Ball in 2022.

CoffeeB, the Swiss model behind the product, promised a sphere of pressed floor espresso encased in a skinny, plant-based protecting shell. One principal part is alginate, which is extracted from algae. Brewed in a proprietary brewer, the used Espresso Balls might be composted after brewing.

In 2024, Coffeeb mum or dad firm Delica entered right into a strategic partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) involving use of its alginate membrane know-how for the latter to provide “Okay-Rounds,” that are related tablets brewed in a proprietary brewer of KDP’s personal. 

Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Timothy Cofer not too long ago instructed traders that the Keurig Alta platform, which KDP now says is deliberate for fall 2026, is slated to play a big function within the firm’s continued development because it prepares the launch of International Espresso Co., the large coffee-focused spinoff deliberate by KDP following its acquisition of JDE Peet’s.

Plastic Discount

Each launches seem to reply partially to rising demand amongst customers for single-serve choices that preserve comfort and meet or exceed high quality expectations whereas lowering non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging waste.

Some packaging corporations have launched recyclable or biodegradable choices appropriate with current single-serve machines, whereas at the least one model, BestCup, has come to market with compostable bio-plastics for Keurig-compatible pods.

One other main participant within the single-serve brewer class, Nestle-owned Nespresso, piloted a compostable paper-based espresso capsule in 2023 in France and Switzerland. Availability expanded additional into Europe in 2025, although the paper possibility has not but launched in america.

Nevertheless, efforts to advertise recyclability and compostability inside the single-serve {industry} proceed to be hampered by fragmented native infrastructure and uneven client participation. 

Public estimates recommend tens of billions of single-serve capsules are used globally annually. Plastics {industry} group AMI reported that greater than 80 billion single-serve capsules had been crammed globally in 2022, together with 27 billion aluminum capsules and 53 billion plastic capsules. Peer-reviewed literature has individually cited estimates of 59 billion espresso capsules produced in 2018 and roughly 56 billion capsules landfilled that yr. 

After testing the Tablì system in Italy, Lavazza selected the U.S. as its first area for the worldwide product launch.

“The US is likely one of the most dynamic markets on the earth, and the momentum we’ve constructed right here throughout our completely different segments is precisely why we’re bringing Tablì right here as the primary market outdoors Italy,” Foti stated. “That is our greatest wager on this market but, and we intend to form what comes subsequent.”

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