Strength 4

This looked great straight away - a nice gentle foam on the top. The only thing that detracted was it seemed to have an oily surface - almost like a mini oil slick swirling around in there. Once you get over that though, the taste is right up there. Us judges now know about the whole Kenya/Altitude/Citrus thing (thanks, Mike Riley of Taylors) so when we read about it on the side of the pack, we were ready to believe it. What was the first thing Judge Coughee said when he glugged it?  It tastes of fruit! Hank's still not quite having it though. I'm on it though - a definite lemony twang. It hits you the second it's in your mouth, but it doesn't linger on. When it's gone, it's gone. It's like a fruity bullet just grazing your tongue as it speeds past. A great coffee - would be a 9, but at the usual Starbucks extortionate price of £3.95, it can only score an 8/10 from me.

This one turned up from our rookie Judge "cougheee" with the bold claim of the next Lava Java. It was just the two of us and he made his first pot following the strict Judge's rules - 5 spoons. Holy shit - this thing was so strong he may as well have picked up a piece of lead piping instead and smashed me about the face with it. Surely there must have been a mistake in the making?  Tablespoons instead of dessert spoons maybe? So today Judge Hank is back, swaggering about, with the intention of putting things right. What gets delivered is thick, heavy and oily. Just by looking you know that this is going to hurt. And it does. So far under normal Judge rules this is the strongest thing ever tasted. The underlying taste is pleasant enough, but it's just hard to pick it out when your mouth is pouring with blood. Again I can't finish the cup - which must score it badly - but I know deep down there's a good coffee here, you just need to treat it like it's radioactive: handle carefully and brew in a lead lined caffetiere. I can only give it 6/10 for now - but I'm sure this will jump up when we get the strength right.  And this is a STRENGTH 4 for God's sake... I thought Waitrose was the store for lily-livered Guardian Readers!

    This is the first Percol for us, a new brand, and we're excited. But chocolate?  Orange Marmalade??!!  What are these people talking about? Have they any idea what coffee is or do they think they're making breakfast? How long before they are quoting Bacon Overtones with a smooth Egg finish? As if that flowery bullshit introduction wasn't enough to make you feel this is all style over content, wait until you open the packet.. it's full of TWIGS I kid you not. OK I may be exaggerating a little bit, but the coffee really is full of dried husks.. this can't be good. So Judge Hank makes this one, and swears by it. Six spoons for a strength 4 should be good. Hmmm.... no. It's weedy. It's not bad - but it's not good. There's nothing really to say about it - it's just adequate catering coffee. The only good thing to say is that the twigs didn't actually ruin it, as this is one coffee that I really was expecting to be "woody"! The only hope is to really spoon it up next time, to see if there's any hidden depths. Mind you it's the first coffee reviewed to warrent a second picture. Disappointedly a 5/10

First tasting for over a week - and onto a new brand. It didn't look appealing - an oily looking surface and very little foam. The initial smell was of cigar ash - which knocked me back a bit to say the least. Even the first taste had more of the taste when you pick up the wrong beer can at a party and its the one people have been using to put their butts in. Not sounding good so far?  Well.. you can warm to it a bit, but it's a bit harsh for my liking. Agricultural. 5/10

This looks much more sophisticated than its humble origins (Sainsburys). The packet oozes continental style - you can smell the oil from the 2-stroke Vespa and the hand crafted Italian leather shoes just on the packet. It must be quite finely ground as we had quite a few floaters on the top - but they couldn't take away from the rich classy taste. Not a coffee for wimps or the Latte Brigade. A great mid-afternoon 8/10

Well this was a real turn up. There I was expecting the most repulsive coffee known to man - sweet, spicy and full of "chicory" - whatever the hell that is. I don't know but it should be in FOOD and not COFFEE that's for sure. However... bigotry aside, this thing 'ain't bad. True we did have it ball-crushingly strong, which maybe masked the chicory shit. But I liked it! What the?!!  Maybe my taste buds are wrecked from that skinful last night - so I demand a recount. This thing must be awful... 7/10.

So we have to grind the beans for this one. I'm never sure if it makes any difference - that fresh ground is better that already ground. It's easier to OD though - you know that 5 spoons of this would be too harsh. The smell from the cup is not massive - it could be anything - but that's always the way with freshly ground. This is an expensive brew - 4 quid a packet - and for that I expect a lot. At 4 spoons I just don't think it does the trick - the lingering heavy coffee aftertaste is just not there. It's nice for sure... but needs a re-test on 5 spoons. Rated 6/10 on this first taste.

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

Ok I think we may have over done this one trying to bounce back from a hideously weak thing this morning. Bitter indeed, but with a slightly metallic after taste which I’m putting down to the excessively heaped 5 spoons that went into the two cups. We’ll give it  another go but make sure we don’t over egg it next time.