Review Posts

Mezan Rum Twitter Tasting

It's been a long time since I got involved in a Twitter Tasting, but when we saw the announcement for an evening of rum neither Kavey nor I could resist. Neither of us know a great deal about rum (other than that we like it!), so this should be an interesting journey of exploration. Jamaica XO We ...

CaféDirect Cauca Valley

Continuing our exploration of CaféDirect's revamped range, and we head a little south, onto the South American continent itself. We've encountered Colombian coffee from CaféDirect before, but I suspect there has been a little reformulation to go with the rebranding - the strength rating has been nudged down from a 4 to a 3, and ...

Taylors Rare Blossom Ethiopia

Taylors have re-vamped their Origins range, or perhaps simply replaced it with a very similar 'Single Origin' one. Although none of the old origins that I can recall remain, the coffees are all from a single country - in contrast to their core range which are blended from beans across multiple countries and ...

Fuller's & Friends: Flora & The Griffin

In the last couple of years I've grown to realise what a great ingredient rye is. My consistent 'go-to' beers from London Brewing - the mighty Mad As Hops when they have it, and the almost-as-good Rye 'The Hell' Not when they don't - are both Rye IPAs. At the same time, when it comes ...

Fuller's & Friends: Matariki

Saisons are very 'on-trend' at the moment - every craft brewery worth its salt seems to brew one, just as last year they all had to brew lager. So it was inevitable, perhaps, that one would show up in this collection. That said, I hadn't expected Marble to be the folk to do it; ...

Fuller's & Friends: Rebirth

Although Fuller's best known beer is probably London Pride, their ESB is arguably the best beer in their standard lineup. That's not just me saying that, as ESB has twice been crowned World Champion Beer. This collaboration with Moor Beer isn't just about rebrewing that stalwart, though. They've taken the original 1971 recipe, and enhanced ...

Fuller's & Friends: New England IPA

Forgive me for saying so, but Cloudwater have always felt a bit.... cult-y to me. Their beers seem to attain legendary status before the yeast has settled, and that (combined, to be fair, with their usually substantial ABV) drives the price into "you have got to be joking" territory. Their DIPAs are the pinnacle of ...

Fuller's & Friends: Galleon

Although the brewer in me knows that 'lager' is, ultimately, nothing more than a technical term I'm also aware that, in mainstream UK terms, 'lager' is a fairly specific thing - it's light and crisp and generally fairly subtly-hopped. It's somewhere that's usually safe to go when a non-beery friend says "oh just ...

Fuller's & Friends: Peat Souper

I've been quite a fan of Fuller's for some years, ever since I worked out that my initial lack of enthusiasm was caused not by the beer itself, but by the lacklustre cellarmanship of our local Fuller's pub which had made me think that Pride was this bland and slightly funky tasting pint. After visiting ...

Hackney Coffee Kingsland

The Hackney Coffee Company has only been in business for a couple of years, housed in a family-owned premises that has over the years seen service as a garage, depot and even brewery before entering the world of coffee. Their coffee blends are all named for local landmarks or history, which certainly helps root them ...