Review Posts

Teeling Small Batch

Today's Advent Whisky is one that I've enjoyed before. I'm always slightly nervous about writing tasting notes about whiskies I've reviewed previously, because there's always the fear that I end up saying completely different things - so please, like me, resist the temptation to read my last review before reading this one! Teeling Small Batch ...

Larozza Crema

Product names are important. They set your expectations and, in an ideal world, tell you everything you need to know. For example, if I order an American IPA I know to expect something pale and sweet, on the strong side and with some powerful, fruity hops. If, instead, I get a pint of Mild ...

Haig Club

When I was growing up, advent calendars were simple affairs - some sort of Christmas scene with stealthily hidden doors which were, from memory, shaped to blend into the background and really well hidden rather than the easy-to-spot grid of squares you get these days. Behind each of those doors was a "prize" of ...

Silverback Distillery

When thinking about US spirit production, I have to admit that Virginia is not the first state that comes to mind. The big ones, obviously, are Kentucky and Tennessee, but it turns out that every US state (with the exception of Hawaii) has at least one distillery in action. Silverback are a recent addition to Virginian distilling, ...

Cafédirect Colombia

CaféDirect have quite a wide range of coffees (not to mention teas and hot chocolate, too), covering both blends and single origin. They were the first UK coffee brand to carry the Fairtrade label, and probably remain the most recognisable national Fairtrade supermarket coffee. Their packaging suggests to me that they're reaching for whatever the ...

Summer Wine Kopikat Caol Ila

Talk about craft beer for long enough and eventually the awkward issue of cost rears its ugly head. Craft beer is, almost by definition, pricier than mainstream ('craftless'?) beer, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the components are undeniably more expensive; a 6% hop explosion clearly needs more raw ingredients than an insipid, 3.5% ...

That Boutique-y Whisky Company Caol Ila Batch 1

There's something very self-consciously 'cool' about That Boutique-y Whisky Company (henceforth to be known as TBWC, or "te-ba-wuk"). From the funky name to the "cultish graphic novel-style" labels, it all makes the craft beer movement look staid and veers dangerously close to hipsterism. All this would normally leave me cynically expecting it to be ...

Taylors Indonesia

Taylors remain one of my 'go-to' supermarket coffee brands, so my curiosity was well and truly piqued when I noticed a new range in my local store. Apparently released back in February, either their 'Origins' range have only just reached our Waitrose or I've been in too much of a coffee-deprived daze when ...

Taylors Good Morning

Coffee is a vital component of a good morning, being roughly 7 times more important than breakfast. However, not everybody wants the same thing from their morning coffee - while I might want a big, bold, caffeine-laden start to the day others may prefer a softer, gentler beginning. This time-dependent labelling is a tightrope ...

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 ...