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
Another lovely dose from Adams and Russell. The beans for this one are tiny - and quite dusty looking . There's no obvious oily ness to them. In fact they look like they may have been picked up of the floor of the drying room shed. Don't let that fool you though into thinking this is an inferior brew. It's not - it's strong, yet forgiving to make. Nothing came out bad no matter how much we varied the dose. As with a few of these Adams and Russell coffees we've had - there's nothing to really set this apart from the crowd. It's just coffee. Good coffee. It would take the taste buds of 1000 virgin angels to find any other flavours in there. So, overall it's OK... just a bit, well... boring? 7/10