Kimbo is an Italian coffee brand best known for Neapolitan-style espresso. Founded in Naples, Italy, in 1963 by the Rubino brothers, it grew from a small family coffee-roasting operation into one of Italy’s major packaged-coffee brands. Today, Kimbo positions itself internationally as an ambassador of Neapolitan coffee culture, combining traditional Italian roasting with modern production and packaging.1

Note: There is another brand called KIMBO in Indonesia that sells processed meat products. The information below refers to Kimbo, the Italian coffee brand.2

Origins in Naples

Kimbo’s story goes back to the 1950s in Naples. The Rubino brothers began roasting coffee in their family’s small bakery/pastry business and selling it to local cafés. Their coffee developed a loyal following, reflecting the strong espresso culture of Naples.

The brothers saw an opportunity in the new packaging technologies emerging during the 1960s. In particular, vacuum-packed cans allowed roasted coffee to retain its qualities for longer and made it possible to distribute traditional Neapolitan coffee far beyond local cafés.

1963 — Cafè do Brasil

In 1963, the Rubino brothers formally established Cafè do Brasil S.p.A. This company became the foundation of what is now Kimbo S.p.A.

The name Kimbo was subsequently developed as a memorable brand name evoking the exotic regions where coffee beans originate. The brand helped transform a distinctly Neapolitan coffee style into a product that could be distributed throughout Italy and eventually internationally.

Expansion

Kimbo expanded rapidly from its Neapolitan origins. The company says it became one of Europe’s important coffee roasters, while the Kimbo name became increasingly associated with Italian espresso.

A significant milestone came in 1994, when the company reached second place in Italy’s packaged-coffee retail market, a position its official history says it has maintained.3

The company’s Turkish history page states that the corporate name was officially changed to Kimbo in 2013, reflecting the importance of the brand itself.

Neapolitan coffee heritage

The most important part of Kimbo’s identity is Naples.

Naples has an especially strong espresso tradition, and Kimbo deliberately presents its coffee as an expression of that culture. Rather than positioning itself simply as a generic Italian coffee company, Kimbo’s brand story centers on the idea of bringing the taste and ritual of Neapolitan espresso to consumers around the world.

This is why terms such as:

• Napoli
• Neapolitan espresso
• Italian espresso
• traditional roasting
• intense
• full-bodied
• creamy

appear frequently in Kimbo’s branding.

Arabica + Robusta blending

Kimbo uses both major commercial coffee species:

• Arabica — generally associated with aromatic, sweet and complex flavors.
• Robusta — generally more bitter/spicy, with greater caffeine content and a strong contribution to body and crema.

Kimbo says its blends commonly combine Arabica from South America with Robusta from Asia. The company selects and evaluates coffees according to sensory characteristics before blending them to achieve a particular flavor profile.

This helps explain why many classic Kimbo coffees tend to have a stronger, heavier espresso character than lighter modern specialty coffees.

Roasting is central to Kimbo’s identity.

The company describes its approach as Neapolitan Master Roasting, a tradition it says has been developed over more than 60 years. Its classic profile emphasizes a dark, intense, full-bodied and creamy espresso.

According to Kimbo’s published information, its roasting process involves temperatures of approximately 160–250°C and roasting times of roughly 8–12 minutes, with drying, roasting and cooling stages monitored during production.

The objective isn’t simply to maximize roast intensity. Kimbo uses roasting together with blending to produce a consistent flavor profile suitable for espresso.

Kimbo says it selects green coffee beans directly from their countries of origin and applies quality controls throughout cultivation and processing. The green beans are dried, processed and transported to Italy, where they undergo roasting and blending.4

The company’s approach therefore separates the origins of its raw materials from its manufacturing identity:

Coffee origins → Italian roasting → Neapolitan-style blend → finished Kimbo coffee

That distinction is important. Kimbo is an Italian coffee brand, but its beans naturally come from coffee-producing regions outside Italy.

Kimbo has expanded considerably beyond traditional ground espresso.

Its current product range includes:

• Whole-bean coffee
• Ground coffee
• Aluminum capsules
• K-Cups
• Compostable pods
• Decaffeinated coffee
• 100% Arabica blends
• Arabica & Robusta blends
• Espresso blends
• Professional/barista products5

The exact assortment varies by country.

Notable Kimbo ranges

Napoli
One of the brand’s most recognizable lines, representing Kimbo’s Neapolitan identity. The current U.S. range lists Napoli as a dark roast with an intensity of 10/13.5

Aroma Gold
A somewhat more balanced premium-style range, including both Arabica and other formulations depending on the product. Kimbo currently lists Aroma Gold at around 9/13 intensity in its U.S. assortment.

Crema Classico
A lighter-roasted option in the current U.S. range, listed at 7/13 intensity.

Ristretto
A particularly intense espresso-oriented offering; Kimbo’s current U.S. listing gives it an intensity of 12/13.

Antica Miscela / Antica Tradizione
Traditional-style ranges that emphasize Kimbo’s heritage and classic espresso character.

If you were to summarize the classic Kimbo style in sensory terms, it would generally lean toward:

Dark → intense → full-bodied → roasted → bitter/sweet → creamy → strong crema

This is quite different from the profile commonly associated with modern light-roast specialty coffee, which often emphasizes acidity, fruitiness and delicate floral aromas.

Kimbo instead represents a more traditional Italian espresso philosophy, where body, intensity, crema and roast character are highly valued.

That doesn’t mean every Kimbo product is extremely dark. The company now offers multiple roast levels, including light, medium, medium-dark and dark, as well as 100% Arabica products.

Kimbo’s branding is closely tied to the idea that espresso is more than a beverage.

The company describes its mission as spreading Italian coffee around the world while preserving the specific character of Neapolitan espresso. Its vision emphasizes the coffee moment as an experience connected to Italian culture and daily life.

This gives Kimbo a fairly clear brand positioning:

Kimbo = Naples + Italian espresso + traditional roasting + accessible packaged coffee

Rather than selling coffee primarily as a luxury or specialty product, Kimbo’s historical strength has been bringing bar-style Italian coffee into homes and cafés.

Packaging played an unusually important role in Kimbo’s history.

The Rubino brothers’ adoption of vacuum-packed metal cans in the 1960s helped preserve roasted coffee and made distribution outside Naples much easier. This technology was one of the factors that allowed traditional Neapolitan coffee to become a packaged consumer product.

Today, Kimbo operates across substantially more formats, including bags, cans, capsules, pods and professional products. Its international presence has also expanded well beyond Italy. Kimbo’s own U.S. materials describe the brand as bringing Neapolitan coffee culture to international consumers.6

Kimbo is not exclusively a supermarket brand.

The company also operates in the professional/HORECA sector, supplying coffee intended for cafés, restaurants, hotels and professional espresso preparation. Its professional range includes espresso blends and equipment-related products, with an emphasis on consistent extraction and barista use.5

This is significant because Kimbo’s identity comes partly from the Italian café/bar tradition, not merely from packaged coffee sold to consumers.

Kimbo says its quality system covers several areas, including:

• raw-material selection
• food safety
• production quality
• environmental management
• occupational health and safety
• organic products
• Fair Trade and traceability
• social responsibility
• Rainforest Alliance-related certification/product systems
• compostability for certain pods

Its current product portfolio also includes compostable pods and aluminum capsules, showing how the brand has adapted its traditional coffee offering to newer preparation methods and packaging expectations.6

A useful way to understand Kimbo is to put it between several different coffee categories:

In other words, Kimbo is best understood as a heritage Italian espresso brand that has scaled traditional Neapolitan coffee into an international packaged-coffee business.

One common misconception is that “Italian coffee” means the beans themselves are Italian.

Italy isn’t a major coffee-growing country because of its climate. Italian coffee companies generally import green beans from producing countries and roast/blend them in Italy.

Kimbo follows this model. Its identity is therefore Italian because of its roasting, blending, espresso tradition, company heritage and culture, not because the coffee cherries are grown in Italy. Kimbo specifically identifies South American Arabica and Asian Robusta among its sources.

The historical corporate progression can be simplified as:

Rubino family coffee business
↓
Cafè do Brasil S.p.A. — founded 1963
↓
Kimbo brand grows throughout Italy
↓
Major packaged-coffee producer
↓
International expansion
↓
Kimbo S.p.A.

The company retains its family origins while operating as a modern industrial coffee producer. Kimbo’s official history describes the business as having grown into one of Europe’s important coffee roasters.

The name Kimbo was created as a brand name associated with the exotic lands from which coffee beans originate. It was deliberately short and memorable, helping a product rooted in Naples acquire a name that could travel internationally.

It therefore isn’t the name of a particular coffee-growing region or coffee species.

Kimbo has evolved from a distinctly Neapolitan company into an international coffee brand. Its international websites and product catalogs demonstrate that it now sells coffee in numerous formats and markets.

Nevertheless, the company intentionally maintains Naples as the center of its brand story.

That creates an interesting contrast:

Local origin: Naples
Production philosophy: Italian
Raw materials: international
Flavor identity: Neapolitan
Market: international

Kimbo is a historic Italian coffee brand founded in Naples in 1963 by the Rubino brothers. Originating from a family coffee-roasting business, the company used new vacuum-packaging technology to make traditional Neapolitan coffee available beyond Naples and eventually throughout Italy and the world. Kimbo’s defining characteristics are its Neapolitan espresso heritage, carefully selected Arabica and Robusta beans, traditional Italian roasting, full-bodied flavor and strong crema. Its portfolio now covers whole beans, ground coffee, capsules, pods, decaffeinated coffee and professional espresso products. The brand’s central proposition is essentially to take the culture and sensory character of Neapolitan espresso and make it available to coffee drinkers internationally.

1. Una storia di famiglia – Kimbo
2. Sejarah | Kimbo Indonesia
3. The Kimbo Story – Kimbo UK Ltd
4. Kimbo Türkiye | Napoli’den Dünya’ya 1960’tan Bugüne Kahve Geleneği
5. Kimbo Professional
6. Kimbo Coffee – Authentic Italian Espresso & Premium Coffee Blends – Kimbo Coffee USA