After our last illy scoring a 9/10, this one was stacked up to be even better. I mean, it's a dark roast this time, which must equate to a strength 5 on the usual coffee strength scale. It's been a problem though, as usual with espresso super-fine grinds. If you do it as you'd normally do it, it will blow the top of your head off in a caffeine and powder OD catastrophe. So much so on the first cup I wasn't all that partial. So over the next few cups we toned it down a bit, coming down to 5 spoons (from 6) for the 3 cups. By the end it's pretty good - but still not quite what I was hoping for. It's chocolatey, dark, and not a whiff of a logan berry. I suppose it's more economical in that you need less coffee than the medium roast (for the same piss taking price!). Great though it may be, it scores down again one point for expense, and another for the fact we just couldn't get it right. (8/10)
This is a real bad boy. It's ground super espresso fine, which means it's very hard to get your weights and measures right. So much so, the first two of these we had were as fierce as a Tiger with it's manhood in a vice. Don't go near it. But despite the skull cracking power, the underlying taste still came through. We knew that deep down this was a good 'un. But it took three failed cups to get the dosage right before we finally got the taste of the real deal. And let me tell you, it's a trooper. One of those coffees that can take any amount of milk without becoming too sickly. It would probably make a good Latte, if you're that way inclined. Once again though with the M&S'er, the difficulty in getting it right is the only thing to detract from a top score from this Judge...9/10
This is a Percol Big Boy. It's a strength 5 so we're fumbling with the packet in excitement. In the end it's come out good, but my God it was a lot of work to get there. By which, I mean the first three cups all failed for one reason or another - too weak, too strong, too much powder in the cup... We were at the point of giving up until Hank took a deep breath, donned his white lab coat, and made it under full laboratory conditions. Despite plunging it so slowly that the plunger's progress was slower than a snail going down an up escalator, it's still full of powder in the cup. So we ended up with a slightly metallic taste which, over a whole mug, is a bit much. So for all that faffing, only 7/10
