…more of an Italian style coffee bean? I’m currently with PACT, and fancy something stronger from Europe.

??

http://exchangecoffee.co.uk/coffee/

Brilliant service, next day delivery and they’ve got a couple of shops too.

£4 for delivery? 😯

I drink Happy Donkey beans all the time. My last order was for about £60 of the Brazilian blend. The Italian blend works out at £2.40 per 250g but you have postage on top. That’s why I go for 6kg at a time.

I drink Happy Donkey beans all the time.

I find that funnier than my age should allow.

I struggle to move away from 2 for £5 at Asda for the Lavazza Espresso (beans or ground).
Good strong blend, nicely bitter with a lovely crema.

I use Limini, their Limini, Indonesia, india and Ethiopia are very good

I struggle to move away from 2 for £5 at Asda for the Lavazza Espresso (beans or ground).
Good strong blend, nicely bitter with a lovely crema.

Me too, they work really well with my grinder and my machine for some reason, fantastic.

surely any cheap supermarket stuff will do if you want the bitter/burnt over-roasted italian style robusta hit?
any roaster that lists ‘monsooned mailbar’ or ‘old brown java’ is usually a safe bet for that style of coffee.

Smiths coffee for me. Love their Brazilian blend for making espresso.

I’ve tried quite a few different coffees from Happy Donkey, HasBean, supermarket, Costa, local coffee shops but always come back to Smiths!

Can collect from their Hemel office to save the P&P if local.

Another vote for the Happy Donkey Classic Italian. Makes a really nice espresso.

Tried a few other providers but tend to go back to Happy Donkey’s Italian.

Eeee awwww. Happy Donkey here too though I prefer Brazilian as I find it a bit less bitter than the Italian.

So what type of coffee are you lot drinking daily?

Cappa
Espresso
Flat White
Americano

After some more inspiration on what to drink, I usually extract the espresso then pour the milk or go for hot water then extracting the espresso on top for black coffee.

So what type of coffee are you lot drinking daily?

Mainly Cappa as I have only had my built in machine for 5 months and am still giddy about being able to steam and froth milk 🙂

And re OP – whatever is on offer in the supermarket! Currently enjoying some Brazilian blend.

Will be trying some varieties from my local deli next.

if you want the bitter/burnt over-roasted italian style robusta hit?
any roaster that lists ‘monsooned mailbar’ or ‘old brown java’ is usually a safe bet for that style of coffee.

Me to a tee

St Martin’s in Leicester does the best coffee (for my taste) I’ve had anywhere outside of Italy/Oz – and I’ve tried loads 🙂 Roasted in-house and a good variety of roasts/beans.

Their online shop is no more and was pretty shonky anyway, but as I know what they stock I sent them an email this very morning re supplying me with a kilo of monsoon malabar beans per month and they’re happy to oblidge. YAY!

Don’t know what delivery cost will be, but it doesn’t come into it really as if I don’t like what’s on offer I’ll just go without – defnly worth paying for than settling for cheap crap.

Has Bean

St Martin’s in Leicester does the best coffee (for my taste) I’ve had anywhere outside of Italy/Oz

I walked past this place the other evening, glad you reminded me that I wanted to return in the near future to buy lots of nice coffee, looked really ace I must say.

Rave coffee.. Excellent coffee and service

They do a nice one called the Italian job

Roberts & Co do a nice Italian blend that is not bitter called Milano, strength is around three and a half, works out at £16 per kilo delivered, beans or ground.

cloudnine – Member
Rave coffee.. Excellent coffee and service

They do a nice one called the Italian job

Thanks, I’d forgotten I had an account with them – I shall try the Italian job.

Using Rave here, recommended by a mate who works in the industry. Columbian Suarez is top so far, rich, mature and smooth

Another vote for both Rave and their Colombian Suarez. Just put an order in yesterday for a big bag of beans, and going to try their brazilian medium roast as well. Well priced too.

@scandal42

Bossa is also really good if you happen to be in town and *need* a fix 🙂 They use the St Martins house blend, but different brew method gives it a totally different flavour. It’s also cheaper…

TK Maxx variety or whatever coffee they have …

Previously I was drinking Hawaiian Kona coffee then Jamaincan blue mountain and now I am drinking Uganda Mountain coffee.

All the above are very good by comparison to my local over priced so called freshly roasted stuff. I usually buy them in 500g to 1kg bean bag whatever the weight they have.

For me it’s got to be Americano with x2 sugar.

😛

Wogan in Bristol, Riposo blend is a splendid cup of coffee to my taste.

Another vote fornHas Bean. If you want a decaf they have a CO2 washed one that tastes amazing. The best decaf I have ever tasted.

I see lots of people buying bulk quantities of beans – how long do they – un-ground beans – last before it goes stale?

I have double shot or triple shot espressos. I don’t find a lot of difference between the last pack of my previous consignment and the first pack of the next delivery maybe a couple of months later.

Kryton57 – Member

I see lots of people buying bulk quantities of beans – how long do they – un-ground beans – last before it goes stale?

They all go stale after few hours if I can recall so no matter how airtight the seal is the beans are already stale to some extend. I try to buy 1kg at any one time … 😯

However, ground will go stale even quicker.

I have tried “freshly roasted” local coffee beans and those I bought from TK Maxx roasted by some Merican roasters, all I can say is I find the ones from Merica much better if not the best. It is the origin of the bean that makes the different. Good beans good taste … shite beans, no matter how freshly roasted, will taste shite.

They all go stale after few hours if I can recall so no matter how airtight the seal is the beans are already stale to some extend. I try to buy 1kg at any one time …

However, ground will go stale even quicker.

I have tried “freshly roasted” local coffee beans and those I bought from TK Maxx roasted by some Merican roasters, all I can say is I find the ones from Merica much better if not the best. It is the origin of the bean that makes the different. Good beans good taste … shite beans, no matter how freshly roasted, will taste shite.

beans are not ‘already stale’ they need to de-gas post roast and are best left for about 5 days then they have an optimum window of about 3 weeks before they start to change for the worse.

‘good beans good taste’ i don’t agree. it’s not difficult to ruin beans with poor roast profiling. coffee is seasonal and there are only a handful of bulk shippers int he U.K. so you can often find the same single origin beans available from different roasters. having cupped/tasted the same beans from different roasters i was surprised how different they could be, and how poor some roasters were.

any beans in TKmax are probably well past their best even if they were any good when fresh, i wouldn’t buy them for a cat litter tray let alone to drink.

Rave coffee.. Excellent coffee and service

They do a nice one called the Italian job

Just had my first batch delivered today. Need a bit of tuning to the grind but first shot was nice. To my tastes.

Bags are a bit annoying though having been using the resealable ones from Pact and Happy Donkey.

Can you freeze beans to make them last longer?

Or does that ruin them?

I’m wondering about buying in bulk to reduce postage charges

I use Pact, nice to have something different each time and there is a STW discount available on your first order.

I use Pact, nice to have something different each time

See this annoyed me about Pact. Like having the same thing and like it to be reasonably consistent. And you couldn’t always get the same one from them.

Can you freeze beans to make them last longer?

My guess would be that it ruins them. Get a bag, try it, and see if you still like it.

Never noticed much difference when I freeze beans – more likely to notice a crap cup if I get the measurements wrong or don’t clean things properly.

Freezing beans doesn’t really make a difference when you drink em within a month/ imo

Works better with ground coffee tho especially if you keep it in an air proof bag. However some do say that you can get condensation in the bag if it’s in and out of the freezer

MrSmith – Member
any beans in TKmax are probably well past their best even if they were any good when fresh, i wouldn’t buy them for a cat litter tray let alone to drink.

Majority, except one, of the fresh beans and the cafes that claim to be brewing their coffee fresh taste shite to me. Over priced, over hyped and even with those expensive machine they got the coffee still taste shite.

As for poor/good roasting the different is so little for £20/kg by comparison to those I bought from TK Maxx for £7-£10/kg. However, most TK Maxx beans are shite if you do not know what you are buying btw. Some are practically undrinkable but there are really good ones as well if you know what you are looking for.

😛

See this annoyed me about Pact. Like having the same thing and like it to be reasonably consistent. And you couldn’t always get the same one from them.

But coffee is a seasonal product and availability follows the harvest times around the world. I like Ethiopian coffee but when it gets scarce the Rwandan’s become available then more South American coffee’s etc.
You do get a fly crop so so sometimes green beans are available at different times of the year.
Good roasters don’t offer the same coffee all the time, I would stop buying from them if they did as it suggests they don’t care about quality and are not regularly cupping or test roasting. Even house blends will be made with different countries/farms beans throughout the year as availability changes, they just try to keep to a house style/flavour profile with what is available.
A poor roaster will just stockpile a years worth of beans and churn out the same roast from old stock.

It’s not going well for Rave. I order the Italian blend, and it felt rough, tasted old and dry. So in order to compare with pact I’ve just order a columbian. It’s better, smells similar to Pacts columbian out of the grinder but is not as smooth to drink.

Looks like I’m going back to Pact.

I am drinking Copper Moon French roast at the moment. Surprisingly good. Available at TK Maxx for £3.99.

Some info here.

I also have 1kg of Ugandan mountain coffee which is also very good.

As I only drink Americano most of the time with 2 sugar I have also tried them with milk like latte, well they turn out good. 😀