Caffe Aloia

Old fashioned Italian coffee brought back from Rome by my wife. The company was founded in Naples in 1934, and makes cheap blended coffee to suit old fashioned tastes. The coffee appears to be cheap Brazilian and Indian coffee bunches ripped whole from the tree as that's the cheapest method, rather than hand picking the mature berries. Some beans will be ripe, some over-ripe, and some not ready. All are mixed together creating a robust, harsh and bitter coffee. Not good. It's probably an acquired taste for those who had little other choice. I can't see them gaining many new loyal customers.

Score: 1

Nescafe Cafe Menu Latte Irish Cream

I love this. You'd swear there was Irish whiskey in it, but the box does say that "this product contains no alcohol".  Sweet, creamy, and with that warm whiskey flavour. There's hardly any mention of coffee, as that is so far in the background as to be forgotten.  Good fun, and very compelling. I'd buy this again. And again. And so on. Cheaper than the real thing, and it doesn't get you drunk!


Score: 7

Creamy instant coffees

The Co-operative Truly Irresistible Fairtrade Fine Bean Coffee

I noticed a while ago that there was a trend for instant coffee blended with ground coffee. I was curious so I bought this pack. But with so many proper ground coffees to drink I never found myself reaching for this pack, and it's a bit out of date now. Recently I've been drinking the milky instant coffees, so I thought I might just be ready for some instant - after all it is perked up with ground coffee. Well, it is out of date, so there isn't much of a ground coffee aroma. It tastes like instant coffee. It's not inedible. I've had some ground coffees that tasted far worse than this. It's just that there's no character, and no pleasure. It's a a hot, watery, coffee flavoured drink. I'm not put off trying one of these blends again when fresh, but this particular one is going to the bin now as there's nothing here to make me want to return to it. I'm not even sure if they sell this any more. I'll take a look next time I'm in the shops. Perhaps the fad for blends of instant and ground coffee have passed while this has slowly gone stale in the back of my cupboard!


No score. Just reviewed out of curiosity.

Mokate Gold Premium Macchiato

99p for a box of eight sachets from my local 99p shop. Macchiato is another term in the weird and wonderful world of Italian espresso coffee.  Macchiato means spotted or stained. The regular macchiato is an espresso with just a small amount of milk froth on top.. This is also known as a caffe (or coffee) macchiato or an espresso macchiato.  Popular in Italy, especially with tourists, is the latte macchiato, which is an Italian latte (simply hot milk) onto which is poured an espresso which sits on the milk in a layer, and then a top layer of milk, which sits on the coffee, and then a spot of espresso on top of the milk. It's all about the look. The finished result is simply a latte - a very milky espresso, but presented in pretty layers. it's a drink that women like.

This boxed instant coffee is meant to replicate the regular macchiato. Think of it as a more coffee tasting instant cappuccino. I kind of like it. It's not top quality, but it's drinkable.


Date: Oct 2016    Score: 3

Creamy instant coffees

Pukka Vanilla Chai

Cost is generally a little over £2 for 20 individually sealed bags on a tagged string. You can pay more, but there are also some offers of around £1.90. This is very nice. Some other chai teas tend to be a little too assertive with the spices, or powdery/dusty, and some are just a little crude, but this is smooth, gentle, yet very flavoursome, with good warming notes.

Lovely.


Date:  Sept 2016    Score:  7

Pukka teas

Lidl Bellarom Instant Cappuccino

Very sweet with just a hint of coffee. Drinkable and fun, but little connection to coffee or cappuccino. Not quite frothy or milky enough to become a favourite, but quite drinkable if you like a sweet faintly coffee flavoured drink.

Date: March 2019   Score: 3


Box of sachets rather than a tin of powder. It's easy to make and pleasant enough. It's coffee flavoured rather than coffee, but anyone who is drinking a cappuccino is not into coffee anyway, just the coffee flavour. This does have more coffee flavour than the Latte, so I prefer it.


Date: Sept 2016    Score: 3

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Creamy instant coffees

PG Tips Strawberry Cupcake

Picked these up in Tesco. They sell for between £1.00 and £1.40 for 25 pyramid bags. They are part of a new series of green,  and herb and fruit teas by PGTips, a popular black tea brand launched in the 1930 by Brooke Bond, a tea merchant who at one time was the largest in the world, but which is now owned by Unilever. While popular, PG Tips is not thought of as a cool brand or a quality tea brand, so it is interesting that they are moving into the green and herbal tea market. I suppose the green and herbal tea market is growing, and Unilever see the familiar image of PG Tips as a way of getting cautious customers to try something new.

This is a pleasant enough tea There's some sweetness here, but not much character. The sweetness of the strawberry pieces takes the edge off the earthiness of the green tea. It's not something that I would be interested in having again. It's all a bit meh.

Score: 4