Coffee Posts

Grumpy Mule Organic Ethiopia

I've come across Grumpy Mule at various foodie shows over the years, and I have to confess I've been underwhelmed - then again, drinking hastily-brewed coffee out of a small paper cup while standing in the middle of a large, crowded exhibition hall filled with a thousand different aromas probably isn't the ideal tasting ...

Threesixty Ethiopia Yirgacheffe

Having bemoaned the busy and chaotic packaging of a previous coffee, this week is at the other extreme – an almost plain brown paper bag, with a simple, single colour label on the front. ThreeSixty take the concept of coffee origin to an extreme, by putting an exact latitude and longitude on the labelling. ...

Sea Island Geisha Costa Rica

This week I'm returning to Sea Island, by way of their Geisha Costa Rica coffee. The 'Geisha' in the name is actually the variety of coffee bean; an Arabica bean that was introduced to Costa Rica from Ethiopia in the 1950s, and has recently been making something of a comeback. This coffee comes from the ...

Decadent Decaf Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling

After being so impressed by Decadent's Kenya coffee, I resolved to explore their stronger offerings. After all, if it tastes as good as a regular, caffeinated coffee then there's no harm in having a good decaf in the cupboard for those days that call for mug after mug! Decadent Decaf have a small but ...

Percol Nicaragua

I know that you shouldn't judge a coffee by the package any more than you should judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes you just can't help yourself. Percol is an example of this; it's a widely available coffee brand that you can find in just about any supermarket. It's reasonably priced. ...

Black Sheep Robusta Revival

Coffee beans fall into two broad varieties – Robusta (Coffea canephora) and Arabica (Coffea arabica). Of the two, Robusta is an easier to grow, higher yielding crop – which translates to cheaper beans – while Arabica is considered to have more refined and less bitter flavour. For these reasons, most premium beans are Arabica ...

Union Hand-Roasted Guatemala, Liberacion

Union Roasted are probably one of the best known London roasters. Their coffee, roasted daily in small batches, is now widely available in supermarkets as well as being available online. One slight niggle is that their own website doesn't seem to match up too well to what's on the shelves – today's coffee, for ...

Cherizena Honduran Las Capucas

Honduras is firmly in coffee growing territory, with places like Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia a geographical stone's throw away. However, until now I don't think I've ever had the chance to taste any of their coffee. This is, perhaps, surprising given that Honduras is now the seventh largest coffee producing nation in the ...

Coffee: East India Company Nepal Mount Everest Supreme

Coffee is a crop that likes to be grown at altitude, whether it's in the high valleys of Costa Rica, or the plateaus of Mount Kenya. However, until now I don't think I've ever come across a coffee from Nepal. This is Nepal Mount Everest Supreme, from the East India Company. It is, apparently, ...

Decadent Decaf Kenya AA

I have an issue with the very idea of decaffeinated coffee. As with alcohol-free beer and sugar-free Coke, it rather seems to miss the very essence of the drink. Yes, I like the taste of coffee but I'm rather keen on (or, if you're more cynical, addicted to) the caffeine in it too. However, ...