BristolUK

Well, the Nescafe Instant is different in so many places. I always found the stuff they sell in Greece (as Frappe) was as good as filter coffee. Classic, I think they call it but it's not the same as other Classic Nescafe.


The choice of instants in the UK was pretty good. Carte Noire did a very good instant. The other Nescafe versions - Alta Rica and the Colombian one - were nice. Even Gold Blend was passable.
Kenco and Douwe Egberts made decent ones too.

I have found no decent equivalent here, the best has been the Nescafe Colombian one.

And that's why I'm almost exclusively now a filter/drip maker.

President's Choice Dark Roast for me. Some may consider it sacrilege but I make a 6 cup pot and numbers 2 to 6 are heated in the microwave. It doesn't spoil the taste. I find too much evaporates if I leave it "on" for the day.

We also have a Keurig but most of those pods are a bit on the weak side.

There is one that suits me and my mother in law gets a further two cups from the same pod.

BristolUK

We have a quite bizarre recycling/garbage collection here.

Coffee filter/soggy ground coffee goes in compost/wet receptacle while pods containing soggy ground coffee goes in the other.

Tootlepootle

Nespresso will accept their pods back via delivery or in their pop up shops. (One small way of justifying mine!)

Novocastrian

Jolly good. I think however that these pod things are a complete ripoff and whenever I've drunk some pod coffee in places of business, friends' homes etc., I've thought "So what? I can do better than that."

Filter all the way for me. I like to be in complete control . I don't drink as much coffee as I used to in Germany, but I learned how to make it properly while living there.

I'm also pleased to report that I've educated my admin assistant at work in the necessary skills.

geedee

When we moved from Canada to here we had to leave our coffee machine behind (wrong voltage) and I started a habit even worse than instant.... 3 in 1 sachets!

They weren't that bad actually.

Saw the error of my ways and stumped up for a proper coffee machine that does everything from straight coffee to latte macchiato, automatically, and it's the best bit of kit I've ever bought for the kitchen! And super eco friendly... no pods, no filter papers.

bats

I hate coffee made in those electric filter drippy machines. There's always an underlying taste of not quite cleaned properly.

Novocastrian

Eh? Unclear what you mean by electric filter drippy machines? If it's what I use, why would you clean it? The filter and the grinds get disposed of.

Or do you mean that the coffee hasn't been through an extra wash after you brought it home from the shop?

Gozit

Instant coffee anywhere is bad IMO... I've had it in Canada, the US, and Malta... I drink from the pot at home and we use starbucks and sometimes pc coffee or () tims! Pod coffee is a ripoff, we have had two tassimo machines, both have crapped out / gotten gross after about 6 months, and the cleaning disc didn't work nor did attempting to clean it manually

bats

Coffee from them always has an underlying odd flavour, unless it's a new machine. They use one at work. The filer container needs wasing and the jar of course maybe it's the reservoir? Friends use them too and always an odd taste that isn't coffee. Coffee from the big machines in restaurants is fine.

caretaker

[QUOTE=bats;11206735]The filer container needs wasing and the jar of course maybe it's the reservoir?[/QU
It's that part, that the basket or filter sits in. Scunge will build up there and you do have to clean it. It's too easy to be lazy when the machine still works when dirty. Also some people leave the old grounds in the basket until they make a new pot, but I always empty and rinse that right away and rinse the pot and refill the machine right away. The reservoir on some machines will get blocked up by high mineral content water so people use filtered, but I don't bother and my Philips works fine on tapwater. Several of the old hotels here had huge antique coffee urns that could of been straight out of HG Wells - the coffee was terrible but the machines that made it were fascinating.

Shirtback

I've cut down on (filter) coffee consumption over the last few years too.

I'm pleased to report that I managed to "educate" my last-but-one Cdn boss in the art of brewing & serving decent coffee (keeping one's secretary happy pays dividends, eh?)

Equally pleased that the lessons paid off, & that although he is no longer my boss, I get "proper" coffee in bed of a weekend morning from time to time ! !

(Instant is an abomination from the devil incarnate)


SB

bcmama

I love my Keurig, probably the best thing I've bought since living here and couldn't drink instant now. We bought those reusable pod thingies and buy lovely Oso Negro or Kicking Horse to put in it. Works out much cheaper and far nicer than the shop bought pods.

BristolUK

Certainly cheaper than store bought pods but I found I had to put twice as much in the re-usable ones as if I was using my filter machine. The water seems to blast through and doesn't take as much flavour as with a drip machine. So still double the cost of filter version.

And I found it really irritating to have to fill, empty and clean it every time for one cup.

Geordie Lass

20k on a coffee machine? what do you do for a living? I think I might be in the wrong job.

I have a friend who just moved over from Italy. He swears by Italian machines (high end) and Italian coffee and is looking into selling them here. I said he has his work cut out with 80% of Calgarians drinking timmies!

Oink

I don't like coffee I like chicken.