Belgium

This is our third and final coffee from the Vascobelo stable - and for some reason this one is named after a French cheese. Not a good start. Now, it's clear what this Vascobelo crowd are up to - they've basically got one coffee which they stick in three different bags and give each a slightly different name. Let's face it, the bags look identical. So are we just being duped here?  Who cares, we say, when your one coffee is as good as this. Every time we grind it, people are salivating and every time we brew it, they're queuing up to get their faces in it. Not one single bad cup came out of this bag - even Sam Allardyce couldn't balls this one up. Its full of flavour and can be really cranked up to maximum strength without any nasty after taste. Dear reader - don't think we're just blowing smoke up the their arses here because they gave it to us for nothing to review - we pride ourselves in bringing down multinationals, But in this case, it's a good'un. It's a 9/10.  (one point off for the identikit packaging). XDMN

This is our second pack from the crowd at www.morethanjustcoffee.com and at first glance you don't even know you're on to a new pack. It looks exactly the same, save the words "Le Roi" have been cut and paste over the name of whatever the last one was. Despite the Stepford Wive's packaging, this is another great coffee which, again, we simply could not balls up. Not that we try to make a hash of it for fun - but it's been busy around here and sometimes you just have to chuck the coffee at the machine from the other side of the room and hope for the best. We didn't get any of the pallets of fruit they claim are in this one - take it from us, this stuff is just coffee - but it still got everyone fired up around here. We loved it - it was definitely a smooth quoff - the only slight flaw we could find is if we really cranked it up to make a super strong one it started getting a slight metallic taste. Not overbearingly so like some are when you turn them up to 11, but it does tail off a bit. Anyway - mine's getting cold so I better get back to it.  8/10

We had never even heard of Vascobelo coffee - until the guys at morethanjustcoffee.com got in touch with us and asked us if we would like to review a few packs. Errrrr.. YES we said - send it over NOW and stop wasting our time with pointless questions. And they did - shed loads of it - bags, pods and even a machine. These guys really know how to treat an impartial coffee reviewer. As they handed the stuff over we did tell them - if it's crap, we'll say so. So here's the first one - and it's a lush 1kg bag. Bags this big always give us a warm fuzzy feeling and kind of always lead to good reviews. Not because we're easily bought - but because when you use the same coffee over and over again for a few weeks, you get to know exactly how to make it. This stuff was a universal crowd pleaser in our office - never have so many people suddenly become coffee drinkers - they've been glugging it down like it's the last beans on earth and the beans themselves were a lovely, uniform look that almost looked like sweets. We never had a bad cup from this bag - when we made it strong it was good, and when we made a weaker one (God forbid) it was still top class. There's no weird and fancy flavours in here - no lemons, nuts or chocolate - it's just proper coffee. I don't know how you get this stuff as a consumer, but we would advise you try. I'm struggling for a reason to not give this one a 10 out of 10.  So it's a 10 out of 10.

This one was picked up on a recent visit to the far flung corner of Belgium to visit the Miss's family. This one actually had the name of the area on it (Liege) so it was a no brainer to scoop up.. along with several crates of bowl-bashing beer from the oh-so puritanical monks out there who seem to be unable to brew anything weaker than a can of Special Brew. There's no such thing as a "Belgian Roast" for coffee, so this is kind of just the Belgian take on fancy flavoured coffee that we are kind of used to seeing all over the shelves here in the UK. It doesn't say much on the packet - other than mention the word Ethiopia. Its fruity this one - and by that we don't mean the usual lemon twang - this one is more like a mild blast of oranges. Bizarre, yes. And it makes a real nice change from the very similar tasting stuff we've had of recent weeks (all scoring 8/10 mind you). I could pick this one out again from a cast of thousands at a blind tasting - it's that distinctive. We'd highly recommend it - but to get some your going to have to join the next Panzer division on it's way to the Ardenne, as it looks like it doesn't exist anywhere else. 8/10

This one came from a country more normally associated with its stongs bottled beers - Belgium. Its a two faced little thing - one size is Chat Noir, the other Zwarte Kat, depending on which side of Belgium you come from. 

We didn't even realise they made coffee in Belgium - we've all heard of French, Italian and Viennese roasts, but Belgian? Well, here it is - we picked it up in Spa, right down in the south east of Belgium. Apparently it comes from that area - Liege - and was quaffed by the local miners before they started their days work. Bearing in mind Belgium's idea of beer is to brew it to double the strength we Brits are used to, we were expecting this to blow our faces off. But in fact it was just about right for us Judges. Strong but not burnt and fairly easy to make. We've even tried it in a stove top pot which normally ups the anti from a cafetiere - but it still tasted great. Today we even had the last cup that's been sitting in a pre-opened packet for the last three months and it still hit the spot. It's definitely a dessert coffee - strong and heavy - and probably not for all tastes, but we loved it. It's enough for us to start looking for a job down a mine. 9/10