Colombia

The Missis picked up a few bags of these coffees from a market in Bristol. They look the part - and come with their own self-sealing bag. Result! This is now the second bag we've tried - the first one went walk about when we foolishly left it in the kitchen after the first cup. Shame we can't remember much about that one. This one is immediately full on chocolate. There must be some kind of additive in this - it's just un-naturally chocolatey. Or is it Chicory? One of those weird coffee-add-ins, anyway. Which meant for me it just became sickly as I slurped my way through it. Sorry Jaccs - just a 5/10 from me - though most people would probably like this.

This is the best Percol we've had so far. There's nothing really to make it stand out and talk about - no aromas or notes as they claim on the packet. But it just delivers on smooth, full flavour with a pleasant  lingering coffee after taste. Every cup we made was consistantly good - you just can't cock this one up. It's just a shame it's yet another "grass seed" piece of packaging from Percol - stick this in a glossy packet and suddenly you have a luxury, quality coffee here. Petty to mark it down one for that but, hey ho - it's a 9 down to an 8/10.

    Arriving at the office first thing on a Monday morning we find that the carpets have been cleaned over the weekend. Now they didn't seem that bad last week, but the assault on the nose this morning was like the Charge of the Light Brigade armed only with lemons. It seems that if you run out of carpet shampoo, Lemsip makes a good alternative. This coffee is claiming a "fruity acidity" - yet this morning everything has a fruity acidity. This is not a good neutral environment for a Judge. So it comes back out over the next few days - and it proves tricky to get right. Even though were sure we make it exactly the same each time, one is foamy, one is heavy and dirty tasting and one is even light and creamy. How can it vary this much? The final one though comes good. There's plenty of depth of flavour and no after taste at all. But still no sign of the fruit. Not one I'd rush out and buy again, but perfectly fine. (6/10)

After yesterday's Percol Debacle with a strength 4 that was so weak, sickly and milky that I may as well have just have put my mouth directly on the cow's udder, we decided to really spoon this one up as even Percol grade it a strength 3 - which as we all know is the weakest coffee strength known to man. So at 7 spoons the initial waft wasn't bad - I could smell coffee over the cow shed - and it looked fine too. It looked professional. But professional coffees are never really that good are they? I mean, they start well, but after a few glugs you're used to it and wishing you'd just stayed at home and made one yourself. They claim "a hint of nuts" - which is the usual bollocks - unless it refers to the bloke who does their packaging which this time looks like a packet of salt and vinegar. So - ideal for those after-dinner-party moments where you don't want to disgrace yourself, but don't want them hanging around too long discussing it. Drink and go. 5/10

First tasting for over a week - and onto a new brand. It didn't look appealing - an oily looking surface and very little foam. The initial smell was of cigar ash - which knocked me back a bit to say the least. Even the first taste had more of the taste when you pick up the wrong beer can at a party and its the one people have been using to put their butts in. Not sounding good so far?  Well.. you can warm to it a bit, but it's a bit harsh for my liking. Agricultural. 5/10

    From reading the blurb on the packet from Taylors (see below) you'd expect this to taste more like a fruit bowl than coffee. Well thank god it actually is coffee. The only way you'll taste "lemony citrus notes" in this is if you suck on a lemon for half an hour before hand. Why is "lemony" a desirable "note" to have anyway?  And what the f*#k is a "note" and why is it in my cup? Anyway - the coffee is pretty fine - heavy and full of flavour. There maybe is a slight metallic aftertaste - you can still feel the coffee ten minutes later. For that reason I'd take it down a peg from a Judges rating of 7 to 6.

A good white foam on this one - it looks fantastic. But the taste is dry, bitter and lemony. The aftertaste really stays on your tongue too - there's no escaping this one once you've swilled some down -you're committed to this thing for the next 15 minutes, like it or not. Maybe it needs a bit more sugar than normal to try and balance it out. It doesn't have that cheap French-Hypermarket-Coffee burn, but it may as well be as cheap as it's as undrinkable - just in a different way. A very low judge rating of 4/10.