Testing La Genovese Oro Supreme Blend

I bought a one-kilogram bag of La Genovese Oro Supreme Blend with one idea in mind: espresso.

It felt like the obvious choice. A medium-roasted Italian coffee blend, created with coffees from Central and South America and India, with a profile that seemed made for something rich, round, and comforting. On paper, it sounded like the kind of coffee I would enjoy as an espresso: chocolate, toasted nuts, warm spices, maybe that classic Italian structure that feels familiar even before tasting it.

But coffee does not always follow the plan we have for it.

I went on vacation, and during those days I did not have my espresso setup with me. What I had was my 4-cup Bialetti induction moka pot, my Kingrinder K6, and a new little piece of equipment I was very curious to test: the E&B Lab Competition Moka Filter.

So this coffee, originally bought for espresso, became something different. It became a moka experiment. And maybe that was even more interesting.

A coffee bought for espresso, tested with a moka pot

During these last months, I have slowly been trying to understand the moka pot better. Not as a nostalgic object, not only as the coffee maker many of us know from home, but as a real brewer, with its own logic and its own sensitivity. The more I use it, the more I realize that the moka pot is simple only on the surface.

You can use it casually, of course. But if you start paying attention, it becomes a small laboratory.

Grind size, water quantity, dose, heat, distribution, filters, timing — every variable changes something. Sometimes in a very small way. Sometimes completely.

This test with La Genovese Oro Supreme Blend was not just about finding a good recipe. It was about seeing if the ideas I had built little by little with my moka pot could actually help me improve the cup.

A new filter, and one more variable to understand

I used the E&B Lab Competition Moka Filter from the beginning of the experiment. The idea behind this filter is very interesting: reduce the amount of fine particles that end up in the cup, and help the moka produce a cleaner and more balanced drink.

I liked the idea very much because one of the things I have been learning with the moka pot is that bitterness does not always come from the same place.

So this test became a way to understand not only the coffee, but also the role of filtration.

My vacation setup

This whole experiment happened in a rented house during vacation.

That detail matters. I was not in my usual kitchen. I was not using my gas stove. I was using an induction hob, set at level 5 out of 9, with my 4-cup Bialetti induction moka pot.

The water was filtered and at room temperature. I used a dosing funnel, distributed the grounds with WDT, tapped lightly to settle the coffee bed, and then leveled everything without tamping.

This is an important part of my moka routine now. I do not want to press the coffee bed like espresso. The moka pot does not work like espresso, and I do not think it should be treated as a small espresso machine.

Test 1 — a good taste, but too diluted

The first test was 17.2 g of coffee, 165 g of water, and 65 clicks on the K6.

I filled the funnel completely, which gave me around 17 g of coffee, and filled the boiler just below the valve with about 165 g of filtered water.

The result was too watery. But not bad. And that is an important difference.

The coffee had a pleasant taste. It was not unpleasant, not empty, not completely wrong. But it lacked concentration. It felt like the flavor was there, but stretched too far.

Test 2 — more aroma, but a small bitter shadow

The second test was 19 g of coffee, 120 g of water, and 60 clicks on the K6.

This time, I increased the dose, reduced the water, and ground a little finer. The coffee immediately became more aromatic. At the nose, it was much more expressive. It had more presence, more character, and more of that warm profile I expected from this blend.

In the cup, it was light but quite balanced. Still, there was a small bitter aftertaste. Not a huge bitterness. Not the kind of bitterness that ruins the cup. More like a little shadow at the end, enough to tell me that the recipe was not fully where I wanted it to be.

If a coffee tastes light, the temptation is often to grind finer. But because I already had a small bitter note, I did not want to push extraction further through the grind. So for the third test, I kept the grind the same. I changed the water instead.

Test 3 — the first cup that really made sense

The third test was 20.2 g of coffee, 100 g of water, and 60 clicks on the K6.

This was the first cup that made me think: okay, now we are close.

The coffee became more intense, more aromatic, and more balanced. Reducing the water to 100 g made a big difference. The cup felt more focused, more structured, and more satisfying.

This was probably the first real lesson of the experiment. In moka brewing, reducing water can improve concentration without necessarily making the coffee harsher. It depends on how the other variables are managed.

Test 4 — the paper filter made the cup cleaner, but did not erase the bitterness

The fourth test was 20.2 g of coffee, 100 g of water, 60 clicks on the K6, and one AeroPress paper filter.

For this test, I humidified the E&B Lab metal filter and placed an AeroPress paper filter against it before assembling the moka. This was a small experiment inside the experiment.

The result was clear: the cup became much cleaner. It was similar to the third test, but visually and sensorially clearer. The texture felt lighter, and the profile was more transparent. It was like the coffee had been polished.

But the small bitter note was still there. The paper filter improved clarity, but it did not fix everything. This told me that the bitterness was not only coming from fines in the cup.

A recipe that will probably change

There is one thing I want to be honest about.

This recipe was created during my vacation, on an induction hob in a rented house.

When I go back home, I will use my gas stove again. And I already know that something will change.

Gas and induction do not behave in the same way. The heat transfer is different, the response of the moka pot is different, and the moment when I need to remove the brewer from the heat may also change.

So I do not see this recipe as an absolute truth. I see it as the best recipe I found in that specific context.

And honestly, I like that. Because the more I learn about coffee, the more I realize that recipes are not fixed answers. They are snapshots of understanding. They show where you were, what you noticed, and how you reacted to the cup in front of you.

La Genovese Oro Supreme Blend gave me the perfect opportunity to test what I had been learning: how water changes concentration, how filtration changes clarity, how grind size changes balance, and how the moka pot can become much more precise when treated with attention.

The final cup was not only better than the first one. It was cleaner, more aromatic, more balanced, and more intentional. And for me, that is exactly what makes this little moka journey worth writing about.