Mokate Gold Premium Cappuccino Chocolate

There's a deeper, darker, more sombre feel to this than most creamy instant coffees, which makes it, for me, a little more appealing. There's a dark, almost bitter chocolate/coffee flavour. But at the same time it betrays its instant coffee origins a little more clearly.

Swings and roundabouts.....


Date: Aug 2016   Score: 5

***

Creamy instant coffees

Aldi tea and coffee

Aldi Ethiopian Ground Coffee

Score:  6

Lidl Bellarom Colombian

Score:  6

Aldi Alcafe Colombian

Score:  5

Alcafe Italian Blend

Score:  4

Aldi Alcafe Original Rich Roast 

Score: 3  Price:  £1.49/250g

Aldi Specially Selected Java

Score:  3

Instant Coffee

Aldi Alcafe Cappuccino
Score: 2

Aldi Alcafe Latte
Score: 2

Tea

Aldi Specially Selected 
Forest Fruits Infusions Score:  8

Aldi Diplomat
Jasmine Green Tea
Score: 8

Aldi Diplomat 
Reviving Peppermint Score:  6

Supermarket tea and coffee

Indonesian coffee

Indonesia is the fourth largest producer of coffee in the world, with a reputation for low acidity and strong flavour which inclines them to blending or use in high roasts such as espresso where coffee character and individuality is not as important as strength. However, some parts of  Indonesia are known for producing beans of character, and Sumatra, particularly the north region where Mandheling branded coffees come from, produces beans which have both depth of flavour and enough acidity to produce character and intriguing lime notes. The  Mandheling name comes from the Mandailing people who live in the area and grow the coffee.

Java is the main island of Indonesia (not the biggest island, but the most populated), and is associated with robust, high caffeine beans. Production is mostly robusta, and is mainly used in blends to give them strength, though arabica is grown, and aged beans are sold as specialist coffee, usually under names such as Old Java, Old Brown or Old Government.

Sainsburys Taste the Difference Sumatra Mandheling

Score:  8

Tesco Finest Sumatra Mandheling Coffee Beans

Score: 8

Taylors Hot Lava Java

Score:  7

Aldi Specially Selected Java Coffee

Score:  3

Taylors Hot Lava Java

I like this. It's more about the roast than the origin, because it's a blend of Indonesian and Brazilian beans roasted to extinction at roast number six, and I don't normally like dark roasted coffees, but this one has an appeal I find attractive. Yes, you can smell its been burned as soon as you pour on the hot water; and that burned coffee bean aroma and flavour is there throughout, but when fresh, this blend is invigorating without being aggressive. It's a great wake me up coffee.

Java is the main island of Indonesia (not the biggest island, but the most populated), and is associated with robust, high caffeine beans. Production is mostly robusta, and is mainly used in blends to give them strength, though arabica is grown, and aged beans are sold as specialist coffee, usually under names such as Old Java, Old Brown or Old Government.


Score: 7

Indonesian coffee

Coffee roasts

Taylors of Harrogate

Aldi Specially Selected Kenyan Coffee

This is a very bright yet robust coffee. Coming to it from a few days of Columbia I find it somewhat crude and sludgy, though certainly not lacking in impact. It's not a coffee I could see myself drinking a lot of in one go. One mug is enough. I prefer a little more variety in my coffee, though recognise the contrast between the vibrant acidity and the depth of the sludge.

Great packet image.

The coffee was roasted and blended in Ireland by an unnamed company. Possibly Bailies Coffee, but possibly not.

Date:  July 2016    Score: 3 

A more colourful but less interesting packet. Coffee is still a a little too one-dimensional, crude and sludgy for me. I'll mess around with it for a bit, but this may be a coffee that is best drunk with lashings of cream and sugar.


Date: Jan 2017   Score: 3

Aldi tea and coffee

Coffee blogs

 There are hundreds of coffee blogs!






http://reviewall4u.wordpress.com/category/reviews/coffee/

http://www.coffeejudge.co.uk



prufrockcoffee.com/the-blog/

http://www.dearcoffeeiloveyou.com

http://en.ilovecoffee.jp

http://www.squaremileblog.com


http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/10/best-coffee-blogs-websites-about-coffee.html

http://www.jimseven.com

http://www.purecoffeeblog.com

http://www.blogmetrics.org/Coffee

http://coffeecupnews.org/top-10-blogs-about-coffee/

http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/environment.htm

Naber Kaffee Mocca

A proper pukka Vienna coffee: roasted by a Viennese coffee company (Naber Kaffee) to a traditional Viennese roast, and purchased in Vienna. Vienna was one of the early places in Europe where coffee was drunk. Venice, England, and Paris had already established coffeehouses, but it appears few other places outside of North Africa and the Middle East had been introduced to coffee. Following the decisive Battle of Vienna in 1683, the defeated Turks left behind their stores of coffee beans which, according to tradition, were given to Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki who set up a coffeehouse in Vienna. In 1980 a historian questioned the tradition, and put forward evidence that the first Viennese coffeehouse (The Blue Bottle Coffee House) was founded in 1703 by an Armenian, Isaac de Luca, and that many of the stories attributed to Kulczycki were invented by Gottfried Uhlich in 1783. I like the Battle of Vienna story, and so did the Viennese who put up numerous statues to Kulczycki, and held an annual festival in his honour. Seems this has now stopped.

Anyway, the coffee? Well, it's drinkable, but unremarkable. It's more roast than coffee, with no acidity and no character. Any cheap dark roast would taste similar. The "Mocca" name is probably a reference to Mocha, in Yemen, where coffee was first marketed, and was the gateway to coffee for hundreds of years. The company website says: "This mixture is very firm and aromatic, for coffee connoisseurs who love the strong espresso." Essentially it is a blend of cheap coffee beans so dark roasted it doesn't matter what their origin. 


Score: 3

Coffee roasts