This is a new one from the guys at Brown Bear - it's a super strength 5 roast and so should be right up our street, as regular readers of the Judge's musings will know we like 'em with a bit of grunt. Following in the Brown Bear tradition of marketing nonsense, the side of the packet claims that this one tastes of almost every berry/fruit/biscuit the world has every known - we'd love to go to one of their branding meetings and see how they come up with all this as clearly they are under the influence of something when they take pen to paper and even Oscar Wilde couldn't compete with these nutters. Despite the verbiage, this has been a breath of fresh air to us - the first really decent coffee we've had in a while. We've had too many so-so brews lately where we're struggling to enthuse. But this is right up there - smooth, strong and so easy to grind and make - a child could do it. And although it is strong, it's not in a face smashing kind of way - you could feed this to an legion of primadonna's and we guarantee they'll neck it straight down without a wimper. The only thing we can dock it for is the blurb - it's a resounding 9/10

The blurb on this one spouts on about blackcurrants - and for once it's not too much of an exaggeration. There is a definite fruitiness in this – although when we spooned it up to make a strong one it tasted more like blackcurrants forged from bronze. But at normal strength this one looks and tastes good – in the caffetiere it was a lovely nutty brown with a head on it like a pint of Guiness. A good brew - anyone you serve this to will like it. 8/10

This is a dark and moody one – as soon as you open the pack the heavily roasted smell hits you – it’s black and heavy. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve accidently bought a packet of ground carbon. Consequently, we had to put this in the plunger with kid gloves. It felt like one grain too many and we’d be paying for it. But actually it’s not that bad – yes it is a very burnt tasting brew – but it does serve up well and come outs more or less the same whether you make it weak or strong.  So, it’s not one for those who like a mellow or fruity taste – it’s a one trick pony, but it’s not a bad trick. 7/10

These beans are just not appetising. They're a pale and dusty brownish colour - something akin to a pile of rabbit droppings that's been lying out in the sun all summer. When we ground them down they were full of a lot of chaff too and looked like a pile of ground Sahara sand. So far, not so good, eh? But on finally pouring it into the cup, it does redeem itself. It then looks good with a nice head – although still is a very light brown colour. The packet claims it tastes of “roast hazelnuts” – which it doesn’t – instead it has a real fruity twist to it – which is a real pleasant surprise when you slurp it. The only real trouble we had was with strength – it needed a long grind to get it fine enough to use and even then we had to heap the spoons high to get any kind of kick out of it. So one point off for fiddly-ness to make, it’s a 7/10

These beans look amazing. They’re dark and smooth, like a deeply polished pair of Italian leather shoes. They just make you want to pick them out and nibble them like a packet of sweets. They ground down to a lovely fine and consistent powder with no chaff whatsoever. At this point thinks were looking good for an early morning pick-me-up. But then we had a problem – it ground just too well – because it came out so fine, our usual seven spoons for three cups resulted in a brew that was drinkable, but in no way ideal. It was just too metallic – a crucible of molten bronze. So for the second cup we took a lot more care – checking not to grind to fine or overdose our pot. This second one came out much more palatable – a decent, deeply flavoured brew with no hint of bronze. There was no head on the cup – its flat and plain looking. Still we loved it, but have to take it down a point for the care needed. 7/10

Percol have gone through a bit of a rebranding exercise recently which, let's face it, was long overdue. All those cheap and nasty looking packets have now been replaced by more sophisticated looking designs and now feel generally less like crisp packets. The coffees, they say, are un-changed. But this one we didn't have in the old range - so it's up for the Judges to have a go. It's a super coarse ground coffee - and very fibrous - there's a lot of chaff in there. Made in the plunger it looks amazing - it foams up with a lovely thick caramel looking head which would be more at home on a pint of real ale. And yes, like any East African brew, it's got a nice lemon twang to it. We loved it - but it didn't take too kindly to be spooned up to the kind of strength the Judges like - it got a bit metallic. Still - that's our problem, the normal user can't go wrong with this one. 8/10

This a little poncy number picked up online by one of our rookie judges. The claim being it was award winning. Well, from the packaging it looks like a TK Maxx special - all thick shiny plastic and a sticker proclaiming "Great Taste" on the front. We'll be the judges of that. Packaging aside - this stuff belies its packaging and is genuinely a good tasting brew. It needs a good fine grinding to get the best of it - the first couple we did were way to weak. But once we had got it right it was a really mellow tasting but still powerful brew. Even though we'd really spooned it up to get the biggest hit we could, it was still silky smooth and was glugged down in seconds, with just a nice smooth aftertaste and no hint of the metallic ashtray we're so used to from coffee in these kind of packets. So get some if you can find it. A good 8/10 - maybe lost a point for the faff in getting the strength right.

This one came from a recent trip to Namibia - they're a bit of a cool roasting company based in Swakopmund and you can pick the stuff up at every supermarket in the country. We thought we'd pick up just their standard "house blend" just to see if these guys know how to roast. Well, yes they do, this is a really tasty little brew with an interesting and slightly sour taste. God knows where that came from - but it's there. A really great brew either out in the bush or back or your desk. Easy to make too!  8/10

This was edible - that's about all we can say. Mainly becuase when we opened it, most of it ended up on the floor due to the stupid packaging. 

Another great metaphor from Pact - poached pear they claim in this one. The taste buds of those Pact kids must be so finely tuned that not only can they detect pears in this - but how they have been cooked!  Suffice to say - we couldn't taste them, being just your average coffee plebs. But plebs we may be, we know a good drop when we get it and this is our second packet of Pact to deliver. It's great - it's a heavy, full flavoured coffee, with a nice pale foaming head on it, more akin to a real ale than a coffee. It's smooth as hell and slid down in seconds, despite us spooning it up big time - there was nothing we could do wrong with this one. We don't know how you could get any of this without going on their mail order scheme... but we suggest you try. 8/10