Taylors Berry Reserva Nicaragua

Not so keen on this. Still playing around to try to get an attractive cup out of it. Each cup I've had so far has been either a little characterless or rather bitter and sludgy.

It got better as I got used to it, and became drinkable, but wasn't a coffee that really impressed me, or that I looked forward to drinking.

Score: 3

Taylors of Harrogate

Taylors Rare Blossom Ethiopia

I love this! Such a wonderful range of flavours, and yet so easy drinking. There's a range of exotic fruit flavours, and nuts, and spice, and wood. It's like a Christmas coffee with all the fruits and nuts and spices and even a hint of whiskey.  It comes from the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, which is the main coffee growing region. Contained within the region are the areas which have acquired a reputation for good coffee: Harrar, Sidama, Yirgacheffe, etc.  Taylors are a coffee blending company, and are skilled at that, so - given the wide area they have named, and that they haven't narrowed it down to a specific area, it likely that this is a blend from various farms within the region. It is a delightful blend. It serves my purpose, giving me a really flavoursome, fascinating, and easy drinking coffee that I can offer to anyone. It will engage the interest of any coffee enthusiast, yet is so undemanding and so pleasantly easy drinking that it can be given to the most casual of coffee drinkers.

This coffee was launched in Feb 2017, along with several others, during an extensive redesign of the Taylor's brand.

I love Ethiopian coffee. And this is the best one I have ever drunk. I love it!


Score: 10

Taylors of Harrogate

Ethiopian coffee

Instacafe Cappuccino Whisky

Cheap from our local 99p store. The same company make an Irish Coffee flavour. This is very thin and watery with a vague artificial creamy toffee flavour, there's little coffee or whisky flavour.

Not as much fun or as satisfying as some of the better creamy instant coffees.


Score: 2

Creamy instant coffees

Percol Americano

Another new Percol blend. This one appears to be intended to be unintrusive, while retaining some coffee flavour. The result is something that tastes like coffee - a sort of generic coffee flavour that you'd find in coffee flavoured chocolates and similar products, but has no character. The coffee finishes with a sort of instant coffee bitterness. This is not a product for coffee lovers. Those who drink espresso and its milky derivatives such as cappuccino, are likely to be the intended audience - and its probably designed to be drunk with milk.  The Americano is a style of espresso in which hot water is added in an attempt to replicate a traditionally brewed coffee - it is thought that the name came about from Americans adding water to their espressos in Italy before the milky espresso (latte) became popular in America in the 1980s via the Seattle based Starbucks, and America gradually switched its allegiance from traditionally brewed coffee to the steam brewed espresso. 


Score: 3

***

Percol

Coffee roasts

Lavazza Cereja Passita

A Brazilian single estate coffee from the old fashioned Italian coffee makers Lavazza. The coffee has been ground too fine, so it is a little sludgy, even when plunged almost immediately (it needs stirring before plunging, otherwise there's a strong resistance, and if pushed too hard coffee will splash everywhere!). There's some chocolate notes, but on the whole it tastes like a cheap over-roasted blend of no character. I think this is more for espresso drinkers than coffee drinkers.

Lavazza was founded in Italy in 1895, and claim to have invented coffee blending. 

Cereja Passita is from the Cerrado plateau in Brazil, which has a rich soil and dry climate that makes for easy drinking coffee of low acidity. The beans from this area are generally described as nutty, with hazelnut, chocolate, caramel and walnut flavours. That may be the case, but the roast and grind of this Lavazza coffee results in too much sludge for my taste. Yes, there are mild coffee flavours, but the darker roast counters that, so there's a sort of artificial balance.

I'm not impressed.


Score: 3

Percol Rich Roast Cafe Grand

Another of the new Percol blends. At first I thought this was an unremarkable, everyday coffee. Not offensive or unpleasant, but not particularly outstanding either. But as I worked my way through the pack I found myself looking forward to my morning coffee more and more, and paying more attention to the flavour. This is a very attractive and subtle coffee - there is the familiar everyday coffee roast, but there's also a delicate and very pleasant nutty flavour, with slight hints of chocolate. Percol call it a walnut flavour, and I wouldn't disagree.

I am going to get some more of this as I liked it a lot. I'm not one for blends - I am not attracted by the idea. I love the romance and intrigue of a single estate. But this is particularly nice.


Score: 8

***

Percol

Coffee roasts