Lidl Deluxe Guatemala coffee

I love this, a robust and flavoursome coffee with enough twists and turns to keep the taste buds intrigued.  Nice roast notes combine with dark fruits and violets to produce a very satisfying brew. It's a roast four, and while not aggressive, is pushing toward assertive, so, for me, I prefer just under three scoops.

Score: 8

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Guatemala coffee

Mokhtar Tea Green Tea

I was given this box of green tea by a friend. I really liked the tea. Fresh, earthy, tasty, and delicious. It felt natural, alive, and was very tasty. Best green tea I've had.

The box is finished, sadly, and now I'm looking for more. But I can't find any. Not in any shops. And not online. I can find very information on the company, Mokhtar Tea. There's some registration of the trade mark, which appears to have lapsed, and that's it. It appears to have been a company that started up and went nowhere.

I found an email address, but it's no longer active, and bounced back.

If anyone does know more about the company, or knows where I can buy this tea, please let me know.


Date: April 2016  Score: 9

Nescafe Cafe Menu Seasonal Edition Coconut Latte Flavour

There's not much coffee or coconut in this, but lots of sugar and milk powder. It's not as much fun as I expected, and has an unpleasant instant coffee bitterness. I somehow like these creamy instant coffees, but this has a strange edge to it which is off-putting. Tastes of chemicals.



Date: April 2016  Score: 2


Latte is a little too watery/milky for my taste. This has an OK caramel flavour, but the coconut tastes artificial, and there's simply not enough coffee flavour.


Date: Oct 2016  Score: 3

Creamy instant coffees

Waitrose Cafe House Blend Ground Coffee

£2.99 for 227g, which makes it quite pricey for a supermarket brand non-specific coffee blend. Such coffee can be bought from Lidl and Aldi for half the price, and there's no difference in quality or taste. Other supermarkets charge from £1.90 (Tesco)  to £2.30 (Sainsburys) for this sort of thing. This is bog standard roast 4 blended coffee. no character, no acidity, just a vague coffee flavour. You drink this without noticing. Inoffensive. At £1.50 such coffee is worth buying for everyday drinking. At this price, you're just throwing your money away. Very poor value for money. Lots of profit for the supermarket.

Score: 3

Coffee roasts

Lidl Deluxe Kenyan coffee

£1.99 for 200g from Lidl. I've been doing this tea and coffee blog since 2013, and this is my first proper Kenyan coffee. That has surprised me. I reviewed some Kenya grown Blue Mountain beans in 2014 (Tea and Coffee Emporium Kenya Blue Mountain coffee beans), but that's not a standard Kenyan coffee.

The taste is rich and full bodied with a noticable amount of acidity. It lacks clarity,  and there is a sludgy quality, especially in the finish where it starts to become gritty, like drinking the bottom of the cup.  The roast is 3, which is surprising giving the robust roasted nature of the coffee. This is a fairly crude strong coffee, though the acidity levels gives it an edge that other strong coffee don't generally have. I think this would be a coffee for those who normally like their coffee fairly strong and straightforward - those who like espresso and Starbucks for example, but who might be interested in having a contrasting acidity for a change.  It's not a coffee for me as it features two qualities I don't like - unremitting sludgy strength, and acidity. I can take acidity if there are other favourable aspects, and I can take sludgy strength if there are other redeeming factors, but this coffee offers nothing but sludge and acid. 

Info from Coffee Review on Kenyan coffee. Though Kenya neighbours the home of the coffee plant, Ethiopia, it wasn't until around 1900 that coffee plants were first grown. This late introduction appears to have benefited the country, as it has been able to learn from other coffee growing countries, and has a fairer system of selling the beans. What I have learned matches my own experience.  Kenyan coffee is generally seen as strong, full bodied, and with balancing acidity. It is admired for its strength more than subtly, complexity, or character, though for some coffee enthusiasts (mostly espresso drinkers I suspect) the best Kenyan grades rank amongst the most desirable coffees in the world.

Score: 3

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Aldi Alcafe Original Rich Roast

It's drinkable and largely inoffensive. It's on a par with other such roast coffees where the beans may come from anywhere. It's easy to make and quite forgiving. Three full scoops, and left a decent amount of time and you get a coffee. Job done. Not one to give guests, and not one to drink as a treat, this is just a cheap everyday coffee.

I can't remember how much I paid for this, but online it says £1.49 for 250g, which is cheap enough!


Score: 3

Coffee roasts

Aldi tea and coffee

Tea Pigs Liquorice and Peppermint

Everyone is doing a peppermint and licorice tea at the moment, and Tea Pigs are no different. No, wait. They are different. Tea Pigs are doing a licorice and peppermint tea - that is, they are putting licorice as they main ingredient. Indeed, 70% of the tea is licorice. I love licorice, and I have a couple of licorice teas I've yet to blog that are really tasty. So, this is a licorice tea with some peppermint to make it taste a little zingy and fresh. Yep, that works. It's not a peppermint and licorice tea, though, so don't get confused. And it's very expensive at over £4 for a box of 15 nylon pyramid bags. And, no, licorice is not that expensive. Even Twinings, who are not cheap, do a licorice tea for £1.70 for 20 bags, and own brands can be bough for around 60p for 20.

Is it nice? Yes. There is a gentle earthy sweetness from the licorice, and a light refreshing zing from the peppermint, and the two do combine well in an attractive soft and delicious drink.

Is it worth the price? Personally I don't think so, but it's each to their own. And, without a licorice and peppermint tea to compare, this might be in a group by itself, which for some would be worth the extra pennies.

Score: 7

Mint tea