June 2011

For the sake of comparison we ended up with this one, and my God it has tested the review scale. There is no other word to describe this than disgusting - or possibly poison. It has the smell of a burnt out building and tastes as bad as eating the contents of an ashtray from a cigar smoker's convention. We couldn't finish it - in fact we could barely start it. One mouthful was enough to bring on an instant gagging reflex. The acrid aftertaste was so severe that even a cup of decent stuff to try and wash the taste away had no effect and it just dragged that down too. Avoid at all costs. Judges rating 0/10.

There is  no “strength rating” on this, a French coffee. Only the English it seems are obsessed with such vulgarities. The French just buy the coffee. Anyway – it’s quite brutish. Very dry and metallic, with a bit of an after burn. Not ideal – in fact the aftertaste builds for the next half an hour until you feel like your tongue has been replaced with an aluminum ingot.– needs downgrading from 5 spoons. Judged at a miserly 3/10

Ok so it's mid afternoon and we had a few to choose from and got suckered in by the "fruity" description Mr Sainsbury had given it. The powder was a grade darker than the cheapo Lavazza we had this morning and the smell on opening was fine indeed. On delivery the smell is, well, fruity YES! lemon-like infact - as though you had just washed your cup with a dose of fairy liquid and not bothered to rinse it out. So, unappealing....possibly. But the taste, well, the citrus tint does give it a lively edge. Not sure where the apricots came in - they must be still in the packet. Interesting. Judges rating: 7/10

Pulled out of the bag after Juror Fry's trip to the west country. The smell out of the bag is barely noticeable - it could be jar of Mellow Birds. Even the smell from the cup is under whelming. But the finished product comes into its own. It looks like a cup of hot chocolate and the right amout of bitterness comes through. Is there a slight citrus twinge? Not sure - could still be the after taste from this morning's fairy liquid. Tasty indeed - Judged at 7/10

This looks good when you open it - a funky packet, very modern, yet very "fair trade", nice and granular with a good whiff. In the jar it foams well - you are expecting a good cup from this. And yes, it is good. It looks like hot chocolate and I don't know if this is just the power of suggestion, but it has a choccy taste to it. It different for sure to our recent run of Taylors. Though its leaving ring marks down the side of my cup as it depletes. Is this what it's doing to me too? The "fruity overtones" never happened. Thank God. Judges at 7/10

There's no strength on this - it just says "medium roast" - so we've put it down as a 3, and it tastes like it. From the moment I spooned it in it felt very granular and that 5 spoons just would not be enough. It wasn't - it had no depth of flavour at all. The taste is fine though - it's just yet another coffee that needs to be tweaked from the norm when making it. SIX spoons next time!  Judges rating 6/10

This came out lovely with a nice head on it in the mug. The strength was good and bitter - but it just lacked that smoothness that you need to help a strong coffee slip down. It was slightly fighting with my throat on the way down - resisting being drunk. There's a slight citrusy twang to it, not in Fairy Liquid kind of way; much more subtle. This could be due to the slice of lemon cake I ate just beforehand though. The packaging of these Sainsbury's Taste The Difference coffees is all wrong though - and I think that sets your mind ready to eat a packet of raisons and not drink coffee. I'm sure that's caused it to lose a point... Judges Rating - 7/10