Lidl Deluxe Honduras Cristobal

Found three wonderfully packaged coffees in Lidl for around £3.30 each for 250g of beans and the useful wooden barrel. There is little information in English regarding the beans - the info on the backs of the barrels is in German.

Descriptions are in German

Honduras coffee used to be mediocre, but has gained a reputation recently for the improvement  in quality coffee from a handful of areas. The coffees are not seen as the highest quality, but as very decent. The Cristobal name only comes up in relation to Honduras coffee to a single grower, Cristobal Fernandez who is used by Blue Bottle Coffee distributors. I have enjoyed the Honduras coffees I have had from Tesco and Monoprix, so was hoping for a bit more than I am getting so far from this Lidl Deluxe.  There are chocolate notes and some violets and lime, which is very attractive, but the whole is a a little sludgy, not clearly defined, and finishing with a little bit of bitterness. I am playing around with the brewing as I see some potential here, but as yet I haven't found the right amount or right grind.

I found the right amount - just over three spoons, and ended up really enjoying this coffee.

Score: 7

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Twinings Apple Crunch

This is quite fresh and delicate with a pleasant apple and rosehip flavour. It's OK.


Score: 4

***

Twinings

Lidl Deluxe Uganda Erussi

Found three wonderfully packaged coffees in Lidl for around £3.30 each for 250g of beans and the useful wooden barrel. There is little information in English regarding the beans - the info on the backs of the barrels is in German.

Descriptions are in German

Uganda mostly produces the lower quality Robusta coffee which is used in instant and espresso coffees, but there are a handful of regions where decent quality Arabica coffee is grown. Erussi is a region in the north of Uganda.

The coffee is pleasant, soft and easy drinking with little character. It's OK, but the Kenya Masai is the better buy.


Score: 5

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Lidl Deluxe Kenya Masai

Found three wonderfully packaged coffees in Lidl for around £3.30 each for 250g of beans and the useful wooden barrel. There is little information in English regarding the beans - the info on the backs of the barrels is in German.

Descriptions are in German

The beans take the name of the Masai which is a protected region in Kenya named after the Masai people. Coffee is grown there, and is considered amongst the best that Kenya has to offer.

Highly regarded coffee is grown in the Masai Mara

I have had a Deluxe Kenyan coffee from Lidl, which I didn't really take to as it was too strong and too acidic for my personal taste. I find this Kenya Masai coffee to be more refined, more balanced, more pleasantly drinkable, but lacking in distinct character. It's an easy drinking everyday coffee provided you find the right amount of beans to use. I like to use three and half spoons of beans, ground fairly fine. There are faint lime notes in the finish. It makes a very pleasing and satisfying coffee. I could happily drink this again and again.


Score: 8

Lidl Tea & Coffee

PG Tips Pear & Caramel

I bought these a couple of months ago when they first appeared in the shops. Fruit and herb teas are becoming so popular that Britain's oldest and most conservative tea brand has got in on the act. I loved the pear and caramel flavour when I first had these, but over time I noticed the flavour fading. That seemed to happen quite quickly, and now, either I am now accustomed to the flavour or it has completed faded; I no longer taste pear and caramel, just mostly the base rosehip. I mean, it's OK, but just that, OK. I find rosehip to be an unexciting flavour especially as it tends to being a little tart. The delicate and inviting sweet warm flavour doesn't appear to be present any more. If the flavour fades so quickly that it goes within two months, then I won't be getting any more of these. I like them, but not enough to drink 25 in a couple of weeks.


Date: Nov 2017   Score: 4

Raw Bean Mellow Mexican Reserva Finca Aurora Single Origin

Saw this and had to get it - Mexican coffee is rare to find in a supermarket (I think it was Sainsburys), and a new supplier is always interesting to check out - and Raw Bean turns out to be fairly local to me, as it's in Winchester, just a short drive up the road from my home town of Southampton.  One of their Mexican roasts is listed as among the best single estate coffees in a report by The Independent.

Mexican coffee doesn't as a whole have a great reputation, but some locations are known to produce drinkable coffee, and some farms within those locations can add a little character, so independent coffee roasters on the look out for something a little different to offer, may have a Mexican or two on their list, such as Coffee Compass who also sell beans from Finca Aurora (which means something like Eagle Farm).

The finer details

The coffee is not complex, so is easy to make and quite forgiving. It is an easy going, mellow, everyday coffee. The roasters advise adding milk, and I can see why, as it is a soft, sweet, creamy coffee, but I don't find the milk is necessary, as the coffee stands well by itself, with no bitterness, just a lingering rustic roast. There's some pleasing caramel, though little fruit - just a hint of tangerine and raspberry.  This is not an exciting wow coffee, nor something deep and serious to study, this is a good, tasty, drinking coffee, that you can offer to friends as something a little bit different as it comes from Mexico. 


Score: 6

Modern Standard Ethiopia / Konga Cooperative

Picked these up in Sainsbury's for £4.50 for 227g, so a little pricey, but I liked the packaging, I am curious to try a new supplier in a supermarket, and I love Ethiopian coffee.

There's no information on the pack regarding the roast, but it looks like some form of medium roast. After a bit of trial and error I found that three and a half spoons of beans ground fine and left to brew for four and a half minutes gave a very satisfactory brew. Good coffee character with a fine balance between roast and acidity. I found the acidity to be subtle and fragrant with citric flower flavours, and the roast to be intriguing rather than aggressive, with hints of chocolate, roast, and coffee. This is pretty much how coffee should be. Intriguing and satisfying.

The Konga Cooperative is in the highly respected Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia

I will be getting more of this.

Modern Standard were formed in 2015, and have a regular outlet in Sainsbury's. The company is run by Lynsey Harley who was interviewed on a London coffee blog in February 2016.


Score: 8

Ethiopian coffee

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

Lidl Bellarom Instant Latte

It's soft, milky and drinkable. There's no quality here, and very little coffee, but it's a warm, easy drinking beverage. Mostly harmless.

Score: 2

Lidl Tea & Coffee

Creamy instant coffees

Aldi Specially Selected Java Coffee

This review has moved to

   Aldi Specially Selected Java Coffee

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