Lidl

Whenever we read the word "blend" on the side of a packet, we instinctively think "beans swept up off the floor". But who cares, as we are firm believers in the 3 minute rule for things that have been on the floor - you could eat your dinner off our floor. Providing you don't mind it coated in dog hairs that is. But back to the coffee... well, it wont win any awards for style or subtlety. It's so heavily roasted it could well have been to hell and back. But still, don't let that put you off. This stuff is perfectly drinkable, but you just have to go easy when spooning it in. If you over do it you'll feel like you are drinking the stubbed out Gauloises from Serge Gainsbourg's ashtray after a big night. But get it right and its a perfectly good "European" style coffee, and the pack will last for ages.  Easily a 7/10.

The Judges are back! After a two and a half year enforced break we're here again - and what better way to start than with the whole Lidl offering - of which this is the first. What have we been doing for so long you may wonder? Well, a few technical issues meant the website was well and truly f*cked. We were so wired on caffeine that we got behind with our site maintenance and got hacked - resulting in us being filled up with Viagra adverts. Of course it took us a few years to check each and every advert, call them up and test the wares. So let's just say we were "otherwise occupied" for a few years. But there's only so much hedonism us Judges can take and in a moment of guilt we decided to clean our act up, clean up the website and get back to coffee. But back to the coffee - we've become Lidl converts these days as they're cheap as chips but actually do the business.  The packaging defies their cheap and humble origins - Lidl have done a good job of disguising where this stuff comes from - it looks kind of premium. Now, we don't get much Guatemalan coffee - so didn't really know what to expect - but there's nothing out of the ordinary here. There's no fancy "notes" in here and certainly no bleedin' fruit, as they claim on the packet - but this stuff just hits the spot, is easy to make and gluggable as hell. Maybe we should have resurrected our tasting careers with something a little more distinct?  But who cares - when you just want a good and strong real coffee, this delivers in spades. it's an 8/10.