June 2015

Tesco Finest Java Sumatra Coffee

Tesco Finest Java Sumatra Coffee

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

8.22222
Average: 8.2 (9 votes)
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Taylors Rwanda Coffee

Taylors Rwanda Coffee

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

7
Average: 7 (2 votes)
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Brown Bear New Latin Coffee Beans

Brown Bear New Latin Coffee BeansThis 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

9
Average: 9 (2 votes)
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Brown Bear La Vida Coffee Beans

Brown Bear La Vida Coffee BeansThis claims to be a complex blend of Latin beans – but what does that mean? Is that just sales talk for “a mish mash of all the beans we had left over in one big bucket”?  Who knows – but whatever it is, it does us alright. It’s strong without being over-strong, which matches its strength 4 rating and every cup we made came out a good, solid brew. There’s certainly nothing fancy about this one – no quirky little tastes – like the multiple types of nuts they claim on the packet - and no head on it when it came out of our caffetiere – the words “flat white” must have been invented for this one. But all these quibbles are only because we are such a bunch of snobs we expect something a little but fancy these days – and this one is just a plain and simple good strong coffee. Buy it and you can’t go wrong. 7/10

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