I am making a pot of coffee as I write. I love coffee. When I say coffee, I mean coffee out of a bean and not out of a jar. I like "proper coffee" but find instant coffee undrinkable. Similarly I can't bear coffee flavoured things; coffee and walnut cake must be the most over-rated cake EVER and the coffee ones in the Quality Street would be the last to go if they still made them (when I lived with my parents we'd give them all to my Aunt but she is no longer with us and I no longer do. My wife loved the coffee ones!)
The coffee I am about to have was provided by this company:
http://www.craftedcoffee.co.uk/
Crafted Coffee is a local company that imports quality coffee and grinds and blends the beans so I don't have to and most importantly is run by a coffee lover who I just happen to have met. I was intrigued by the business and was happy to try the product, I can indeed confirm that their Brazilian Fazenda Rodomunho is delicious.
Even from my crappy cheap coffee machine, which is made my some brand called Solway. Until recently I made all of my coffee in a Bodum cafetiere. I'm not sure even where the Solway machine came from, I think it was given to us by one of my wife's neighbours when we first moved in together and we'd never used it. In fact, it failed to sell at the last car-boot sale we did for £1! But, with a clean up and some decent coffee filters it works fine. I have produced a robust, rich cup with a good roasted flavour. I used to have a bean grinder but frankly I am too lazy for that sort of thing and Crafted Coffee make a much better job of it than I ever could. They also describe the coffee better, so that link again: http://www.craftedcoffee.co.uk/
Having met the proprietor, Lorraine, I was also enthusiastic about the potential quality of her product due to a mutual dislike (and in my case that is putting it mildly) of Starbucks. I do like to support local business when possible but at the same time financial restrictions sometimes make using larger chains a necessity. I've had decent cups of coffee in both Cafe Nero and Costa but the first time I ever went to a Starbucks I was genuinely shocked. There are various reasons for which one may dislike Starbucks: Their questionable ethics on paying tax in the UK perhaps? Or their part in driving smaller local businesses out of town by having at least one branch in every town. But I would say by far the easiest reason for disliking Starbucks is for making such bloody awful coffee.
The first time I had a Starbucks coffee was at an airport. If I remember correctly I had just returned from Hong Kong, a flight of some 12 hours and I was knackered and jet-lagged. The only coffee place open at the hour of silly O clock when we arrived back was a Starbucks so we went in and I ordered for myself a large Americano with milk. A large Americano was my coffee of choice from the Cafe Nero which was near my place of work at the time and it contained enough flavour and caffeine to satisfy me and have me nicely on edge. Starbucks provided me with a cup of warm, brown water that could have been shamed by Nescafe. To say it was a disappointment is a massive understatement. I'd have been more stimulated by walking past a Costa and inhaling deeply. Fair enough; airport branch early in the morning, perhaps they just didn't have their doo-doos together, so I have tried a Starbucks since then (again, only because of a lack of options) and it was again a feeble attempt at a cup of coffee. Perhaps they should spend less time arsing about with syrups and toppings and get back to basics!
I am about to have my third cup of Fazenda Rodomunho, it is going down very nicely indeed. I'm not generally here to plug businesses (apart from http://www.starjammer-internet.com/) but I really do appreciate a decent coffee and Crafted Coffee provide a decent cup of coffee. So, that link again: http://www.craftedcoffee.co.uk/. Go on, try them. To be frank, you can get coffee cheaper elsewhere but I'd be surprised if you can get it better.
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