Lavazza Launches Tablì Brewer with Plastic-Free Coffee Tablets

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

Italian coffee giant Lavazza has opened U.S. preorders for Tablì, a new single-serve espresso system involving tablets made of compressed ground coffee with no plastic capsule, individual wrapping or coating.

The company is pitching the product primarily as a convenient, quality-focused coffee experience that engages multiple senses, rather than as a direct response to the industry-wide problem of plastic waste from single-serve pods and capsules.

“Tablì eliminates the trade-off between quality and convenience entirely — it’s a true multisensory experience: coffee you can smell, feel, and see before it ever brews,” Daniele Foti, VP of Marketing, Lavazza North America, said in a press release on Monday, June 8. “And what’s in the cup matches what’s in your hands: the perfect espresso, every single time.”

With the Tablì launch, Lavazza appears locked in a market race with Keurig Dr Pepper for plastic-free single-serve coffee tablets. Keurig introduced its vision for the Alta brewer in 2024, alongside plastic- and aluminum-free pods then called K-Rounds and now called AltaRounds.

The Lavazza Tablì

Under Tablì’s plastic hood, the machine can brew single or double doses of what the company calls espresso or lungo. Users can program the water volume automatically added to lungos.

The home kitchen-friendly machines are slated to begin shipping in August. Each stands 12.9 inches tall, 6.5 inches wide and 15.4 inches deep, and weighs 9.9 pounds.

A discounted preorder bundle for the U.S. market — including a machine, five 12-packs of Tabs, a separate electric milk frother and “tab tweezers” — has already sold out. The retail price of the bundle will later be $250.

Lavazza is launching the U.S. system with five blends, including one decaf option. Once the plastic film on a sleeve of tabs is opened, Lavazza recommends refrigerating them for up to 45 days. At room temperature, tabs stay fresh for up to 14 days, according to the company.

The 131-year-old Lavazza company says it spent five years on research and development for proprietary technology that compresses precise doses of ground coffee into a solid, ready-to-use tab that holds its shape without a capsule or coating. Lavazza developed Tablì following its 2020 acquisition of the Italian startup Caffemotive and its tab concept.

Capsules, Pods, Balls and Tabs

Beyond fillable, reusable pods or capsules — which have struggled to find widespread adoption in the single-serve automatic category — the first big splash in packaging removal came from the Coffee Ball in 2022.

CoffeeB, the Swiss brand behind the product, promised a sphere of pressed ground coffee encased in a thin, plant-based protective shell. One main component is alginate, which is extracted from algae. Brewed in a proprietary brewer, the used Coffee Balls can be composted after brewing.

In 2024, Coffeeb parent company Delica entered into a strategic partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) involving use of its alginate membrane technology for the latter to produce “K-Rounds,” which are similar tablets brewed in a proprietary brewer of KDP’s own. 

Keurig Dr Pepper CEO Timothy Cofer recently told investors that the Keurig Alta platform, which KDP now says is planned for fall 2026, is slated to play a significant role in the company’s continued growth as it prepares the launch of Global Coffee Co., the massive coffee-focused spinoff planned by KDP following its acquisition of JDE Peet’s.

Plastic Reduction

Both launches appear to respond in part to growing demand among consumers for single-serve options that maintain convenience and meet or exceed quality expectations while reducing non-recyclable or non-compostable packaging waste.

Some packaging companies have introduced recyclable or biodegradable options compatible with existing single-serve machines, while at least one brand, BestCup, has come to market with compostable bio-plastics for Keurig-compatible pods.

Another major player in the single-serve brewer category, Nestle-owned Nespresso, piloted a compostable paper-based coffee capsule in 2023 in France and Switzerland. Availability expanded further into Europe in 2025, though the paper option has not yet launched in the United States.

However, efforts to promote recyclability and compostability within the single-serve industry continue to be hampered by fragmented local infrastructure and uneven consumer participation. 

Public estimates suggest tens of billions of single-serve capsules are used globally each year. Plastics industry group AMI reported that more than 80 billion single-serve capsules were filled globally in 2022, including 27 billion aluminum capsules and 53 billion plastic capsules. Peer-reviewed literature has separately cited estimates of 59 billion coffee capsules produced in 2018 and roughly 56 billion capsules landfilled that year. 

After testing the Tablì system in Italy, Lavazza chose the U.S. as its first region for the global product launch.

“The US is one of the most dynamic markets in the world, and the momentum we’ve built here across our different segments is exactly why we’re bringing Tablì here as the first market outside Italy,” Foti said. “This is our biggest bet on this market yet, and we intend to shape what comes next.”

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