Costa Roast & Ground Coffee At Home

I first tried this in a blind tasting against Morrisons Ethiopian coffee and Sainsbury's Viennese roast. Neither of those coffees are top quality, and are a little bitter, so this stood out as sweet and delectable. Drinking it on its own I find that it is rather mild and non-distinctive. Drinkable and pleasant enough, yes, but lacking in character. I can see it as being a successful coffee to serve in bulk in a large coffee shop chain because it is so inoffensive. It is the lack of character and distinction that makes it successful as a popular blend. I'd be quite happy to drink this again. The sweetness is appealing, but there are no highs. While it is pleasant, there is no joy or pleasure in drinking it.

Costa is Britain's largest coffee shop chain, and the second largest in the world. The company was started in 1971 by Bruno and Sergio Costa in Lambeth as a roaster and distributor of their own blend they call "Mocha Italia" - the blend is a secret, though contains six parts arabica to one part robusta; they opened their first shop in 1978 on Vauxhall Bridge Road, and expanded sufficently to excite the interest of Whitbread, who took them over in 1995. Reasons vary for the appeal of the company, ranging from the taste of the coffee to the mature, literary imagery associated with the brand.

Lidl Melangerie Ethiopian Sidamo

£1.99 for 200g from Lidl; roasted to UK strength 3, and from the Sidamo region, this promises to be a tasty and good value coffee. Yet, each time I have tried it so far, it has struck me as being very crude and bitter. I have reduced the amount of coffee I put in, and reduced the brewing time, yet still it remains a fairly one dimensional bitter roast. Reducing the amount of beans and brewing time makes it watery and thin, but does little to reduce the crude bitterness or improve the flavour. There's no character here. No acidity at all. And this tastes like a cheap strong roast, rather than the characterful, mild and flavoursome coffee I expect from Ethiopia, especially from one of the best regions.

This is the worse Ethiopian coffee I have yet encountered.


2/10

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Ethiopian coffee

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Earl Grey Fairtrade Fine Tea

Pleasant citric notes on a robust but not aggressive black tea. A decent Earl Grey. Refreshing and satisfying.

Date: Oct 2014   Score: 6/10

Bright, juicy and refreshing. A very decent cup of Earl Grey. Attractive tin.

Date: March 2018   Score: 8/10

Sainsbury's own label tea and coffee

Waitrose Smooth & delicate Ceylon tea

Not a bad price - £1.50 for 50 bags. Just a little more than Asda, and considerably less than Twinings. Fair Trade as well. The blurb claims "small leaf tea", though most tea is going to be small leafed as that is what is picked. More interesting the packet gives precise locations:  "grown in the famous Dimbula and Nuwara Eliya districts". Dimbula is possibly the very first tea region. Twinings sell Dimbula for £15 a packet; though it can be bought for around £2.80, and even Kenilworth Estate can be bought for £5.33.

The tea is rather delicate - perhaps too delicate for my taste. On a blind sample against Asda and Crai, I preferred the more robust Crai.

Ceylon tea

Carrefour Ethiopia coffee

The French like Ethiopian coffee. I have been able to pick it up easily there from local supermarkets for some years. From what I have seen on the shelves, Ethiopian coffee seems to be the second most popular after Brazil. Carrefour is France's biggest supermarket chain, and one of the largest in the world. Unlike British supermarket coffee, which is sold in 227g (8 oz) packets, the French sell in 250g packets, giving slightly better value for money.

This is a slightly darker, clumpier powder than other Ethiopian coffee I've had, and the aroma is of slightly burnt coffee. The blurb on the packet doesn't give any particular region, only saying that the coffee is Arabica grown on high ground. The flavour is fairly robust with lots of dark notes and little in the way of acidity or fruit. It's a firm coffee flavour and has some lingering but not aggressive bitterness. It tastes like a basic coffee - no real character. It's drinkable and reasonably attractive, but holds no real interest.

Tasting notes

* Both oily and powdery. Creamy and mild with a decent body, though soft flavour. Moderately sweet body with a soft but lingering bitterness. No character, but drinkable.

* Initially powdery and bitter, this settled into a rounded coffee with some deep and dark citric notes - violets and lime. The bitter powdery feel returned at times to drag it down. Inconsistent, with an unpleasant bitter powder.

Ethiopian coffee