Too Much Coffee

Anyone tried these? Can anyone comment on them at all?

cheers
-Si

noone?

Without wishing to sound snooty, how good can they be? People who mass produce and ship ready ground blends are not really able to appeal to the gourmet market I would have thought.

I wouldn't know... I'm a complete newbie. How good are brands like Lavazza, ItalCaffe etc that ship mass volume vacuum packed beans? I've ordered some ItalCaffe Gran Crema beans, and 3 varieties from Hasbean so I can compare them. I'll let you know what I find from a complete coffee virgin point of view!

never heard of italcaffe so i wouldn't know if they were bad or good but if they use good quality beans it can't be awfull from a nebie point of view considering what i have heard of hasbean you should be able to taste at least some differance.
but compared to phil i'm probably a newbie too so what do i know.
cheers mark

http://www.italcaffe.it/Inglese/Espresso-Line-eng.htm

http://www.wheesh.com/acatalog/coffee.html

..if anyones interested. It's probably the dregs of all dirt to people here, so sorry if I've offended anyone.

Before anybody else bullies Si
I'd like to point out that he's going through what seems to be the traditional process. Until you have compared beans that have been freshly roasted against your average - even gourmet - "supermarket" offerings, it's hard to appreciate just what you've been missing. Suddenly all of the different aromas and tastes that you may have read about make sense and you can experience them for yourself.
Keep trying and learning for yourself Si, after all, developing a personal taste is an integral aspect of everybody's coffee experience. And please do post back if you find something that you like in particular, as you are unlikely to be the only one.
D

phil wrote:Without wishing to sound snooty, how good can they be? People who mass produce and ship ready ground blends are not really able to appeal to the gourmet market I would have thought.

Mmmmh, it depends on the brand. In Italy, I have friends who drink a miscella bar (bar blend) from a well known big producer. I can't remember if it's Segafredo Zanetti or another one, but the taste is excellent, they buy 1Kg packages not grounded of course.
Ok, it is not for the mass market but the production must be pretty high as it's a nationwide brand (it's international but I wouldn't swear they sell this outside Italy).

thanks guys.. I'll try them all out and see what I find!

Si, apologies. I rushed off that reply whilst on a train to Southend of all places. I was conscious that no-one had answered to you - but then the train started to pull into Southend.

Later today I got a 'phone call from a good friend who's also a TMC member. "Phil, that was a bit harsh mate!". Looking back I see what he meant.

Phil, repeat after me: only do these things when you have time to write what you mean and to do so politely!

OT
Why is it that trains always arrive when you don't want them to but the rest of the time, when you're actually trying to get somewhere, they refuse to bloomin' well move...? Phil's frustration will make sense to the rest of us Brits. Everybody else on the "mainland," consider yourselves lucky!

haha! No worries Phil! I hadn't interpreted your post as harsh.. long term internet forum use makes for a thick skin.

Tried HasBeans premium and normal espresso beans so far. The premium was pretty fruity with a clean, almost minty aftertaste after several mintues. I prefer the normal blend, which has a slightly more bitter and darker taste to me. I'll be trying the Brazilian blend next!

Just though I'd update you here,
I started out with the ItalCafe beans, and they were not too bad; pretty good I thought. I moved onto the 3 hasbean blends I got and narrowed it down to the standard espresso blend which I prefered the best. I went back to the ItalCafe beans.....

yuk! What was this nastiness in my cup? Bitter, lacking in flavour, and non too nice. Even my wife chucked her cappa away!

So, thanks for educating my taste buds, and ruining my coffee drinking everywhere but at home!! I can't believe the difference.

Welcome in the Church, my son. Now go forth an preach the Salvation.

See, I knew he'd get the point... until you've tried this for yourself it's hard to appreciate what you are missing...
Next thing we have to do is convert him to home roasting before PaulT starts ranting about dosers and RobC gets his mallet out
D