Nescafe Cafe Menu / Gold Cappuccino

Now with  ground coffee and a new name, but still tastes like a watery milk drink. It's not foul, but it's not coffee, it's not even frothy coffee. But I suppose people who drink cappuccino are those that don't actually like coffee.  But I can't imagine even someone who likes a milky cappuccino liking this. It's drinkable, but its an insipid kid's drink really.

Date: Jan 2019   Score: 2

It's drinkable, but it's not much fun. It tastes like what it is - instant coffee with dried milk powder. There's nothing to set this off - there are no interesting or fun flavours, so you get a moderately dry and plain and slightly bitter instant coffee flavour. Not good really.

Date: Jan 2016    Score: 2

Frothy coffee

Tesco Cafe Style Mocha

This is not too sweet, and is pleasantly dry rather than too creamy. There's a nice balance between the chocolate and the coffee flavours. At the end of the day it's still a StarBucks style milky drink rather than a coffee, but it's drinkable and quite acceptable if what you're after is a milky drink.

Date: Jan 2016    Score: 4

***

Tesco tea and coffee

Creamy instant coffees

Tesco Original Fresh Coffee Beans 3

A slightly stodgy and bitter everyday coffee.


Date: July 2017   Score:  3

These are not single estate beans, there's no character or individuality about them, no finesse, no beauty, but as everyday beans that make a decent cup of coffee with no fuss, they are great. The more care you take over their brewing the better they taste, but they are very forgiving, and won't come over as too thin, too harsh, too sludgy, or too acidic if you mistreat them. They produce a reasonably robust and nutty brew - no highs, but few lows. Drinkable and forgettable. At £2 for 227g they are very good value.

Date:  Jan 2016   Score: 5

***

Tesco tea and coffee

Coffee roasts

Nescafe Cafe Menu Latte Caramel / Gold Caramel Latte

Not just a brand change from Cafe Menu to Gold, but a switch in the name from Latte Caramel to Caramel Latte. On the whole the new name and branding works better for me. Cafe Menu I always thought was an awkward name and Latte Caramel just felt like they'd got the words the wrong way round - perhaps Nescafe was attempting to sound more Italian.

Anyway, it's the same idea, but a shifting around of ingredients, particularly bringing in a sprinkle of ground coffee to up the connection to proper coffee. The end result is still a sweet, milky, frothy instant drink that nods in the direction of coffee which walks past ignoring it.

I want to emphasise that I do like these frothy coffees, and these days its the closest I can get to coffee unless I want to do decaf; but even though we like them and drink them fairly frequently, I have no pretensions as to what they are. They are to coffee what lemonade is to champagne.


Date: Feb 2019    Score: 5

The price of these instant milky coffees varies, but is generally around £2 for 8, so about 25p a cup. That's a lot cheaper than going to Starbucks, and there's not going to be much difference in taste. Buy yourself some styrofoam cups for the office, and a few packs of these instant milky coffees - you'll save yourself a fortune, and you won't have to queue up and get your name spelled incorrectly.

This is milky with a hint of sweet caramel. Easy drinking. It's not coffee, but then, let's face it, neither is a cup of flavoured latte from Starbucks.

I'm really getting a taste for these!

Date: Jan 2016   Score: 5

***

Frothy coffee

Dammann Freres Carcadet Fragola Fruit Infusion

This is the last of the teas in the box we were sent for Christmas. It's a soft and pleasant fruit tea, mainly rosehip and apple. It's OK, sweet in the swallow, and not too tannic, though there is some dryness in the finish. Ingredients appear to be a mix of hibiscus flowers, bark rosehip, apple pieces,  flower petals, and strawberry and rhubarb flavouring. 


Score: 4

Dammann Freres Rooibos Parfume Vanille

Rooibos is redbush tea - not something I'm a fan of. Nor am I a fan of vanilla flavouring in tea. So, yes, I don't really like this. As with other Dammann teas it is soft and drinkable, but unremarkable and old fashioned. There is a gentle sweet fruit flavour that is likeable, but not enough to redeem the overall effect.


See also:  Dammann Freres Rooibos Parfume Vanille

Score: 3

Dammann Freres A La Menthe Touareg Flavoured Green Mint Tea

A green tea with spearmint, peppermint and "natural mint flavour". After an initial rush of fresh minty spearmint, this settles down into a wishy washy green tea with mint flavouring. It's a bit vague, lacking crispness and defined flavours. The marriage between the rather dry and greenish tea with the sharp freshness of the mint doesn't sit well. It's all a bit old fashioned and fuddy duddy. Compared with what other tea companies are doing with mint teas, especially with the mint and licorice blends, Dammann Freres come over as a bit behind the times. They don't appear to want to appeal to a young or modern audience, preferring perhaps an older, more conservative clientèle. The packaging supports that - it is old fashioned, staid and dull. There's no life in the design - it perhaps wants to appear to be classic, classy and distinguished, but comes over as uninspired and dull.  No life in the design, and no life in the tea.


Score: 3

Mint tea

Dammann Freres Coquelicot Gourmand Flavoured Black Tea

Christmas present from France of a box of assorted teas from Dammann. This is the first one we tried, and it's beautiful. The ingredients are black tea, flower petals, and flavouring. The flavouring is a sort of dark berry fruit, something like blackberry. There is a pleasant soft sweetness about this tea. It is delicate, soft, fragrant, and flavoursome. Some black teas can be a little harsh, astringent or tannic, but this one is not like that at all. I like this. I like this a lot.

The black tea is a combination of China and Ceylon; the flower petals are pink peony and blueberry; and the flavourings are poppy, biscuit and almond paste (though that isn't necessarily what comes through).

Dammann Freres claim they have been blending teas since 1692, though the company was genuinely founded in the 19th century - importing tea from India. Their background is as a supplier to stores, though in 2005 they starting selling directly to the public via their own website.


Score: 8

You can buy from Amazon - 50g for £13 or from Edilices - 80g for £7.40


User reviews on Steepster

Tesco Finest Colombian Supremo coffee beans

My electric coffee grinder broke a while ago, and the hand grinder is too tedious to use after a while, so I wanted a new one. I had mentioned it, apparently, as a Christmas present, so when I was about to purchase a beautiful and flexible burr grinder, I was told to wait to see what Santa would bring me. Well, he brought me a cheap electric blade grinder. Nice thought, but wrong grinder. I'm wondering how long I should wait before buying the grinder I really want.....

Anyway. I bought these beans to try out the grinder. They suit the grinder. They are simple, mild, largely inoffensive, and totally lacking in character. They do the job. The grinder grinds the beans. The beans make coffee. That's it. There's no finesse here, there's little depth or range of flavour. There's nothing to lift the heart or excite the palate. The grinder doesn't cause offence, and neither do the beans. You want some coffee, and you're not fussed - you just want a soft, mild, pleasant tasting coffee drink? Well, these will suit you. You want something a little bit extra - you'll need to search elsewhere.

Score: 5/10

Colombian coffee

Tesco tea and coffee

Nescafe Cafe Menu Mint Mocha

A bit of fun. Not coffee, but a milky drink with some instant coffee and mint flavouring. I quite like these  from time to time. This has a pleasant bitter edge to balance the creamy sweetness, and just a hint of fresh mint. The photo is dreadful - my new phone is a Nokia Lumia, and it doesn't have a flash, so takes very poor quality pictures indoors or in poor light (which in the UK is most of the time!). Be warned - don't buy a phone without a camera flash. Added to which you can't use it as a torch. Hopeless.....

4/10

Creamy instant coffees