stevesainty

I know it might seem a bit trivial but what are the decent makes of coffee for a filter machine. Everytime I am on holiday I buy some coffee from the supermarket and when I brew it all I can taste is chicory. Where am I going wrong? What sort of price do you have to pay, up to now I have not been spending more that 2 or 3 euros. This is not because I am penny pinching but I have not found anything more expensive on the shelves. Does one not buy decent coffee from the supermarket?

jdr

You are probably used to Nescafe rubbish taste, go into a few Spanish bars till you find one you like, get the name and buy that.
Maybe Cafe Molido Natural is quite nice and half that price for a brick.

stevesainty

Thanks for that but I never touch nescafe muck. I enjoy strong rich roasted coffee akin to Jacobs in Germany. I have found a fairtrade one in Morrisons in England that I enjoy at the moment.

cricketman

People dont drink filter coffee in Spain. They use a cafetera that you place on the stove or a mini machine like you'd find in the cafeterias and bars. That means you need to buy coffee beans and grind them or "cafe molido".

I buy segafreddo, but you can get lavazza or illy if you want more up-market, or marcilla/bonka for a good coffee at a cheaper price.

Spanish coffee is some of the best in the world (although not as refined as Italian coffee) and very strong if you are not used to it, especially as they use torrefacto beans which are toasted in sugar and give a strong bitter-ish taste. I normally buy "mezcla" which is half torrefacto, half natural.

The good coffee was one of the reasons why we moved to Spain. It was, and still is impossible to get a good coffee in London, except for the odd Portuguese cafe. All the Starbucks, Cafe Nero, Costa Coffee stuff tastes like "agua sucia" (dirty water) after being used to Spanish coffee.

steviedeluxe

The best coffees I've found in the UK (or at least the one I liked best) is a Portuguese brand called Delta. If you're anywhere near south London at some point, pop into a Portuguese store in Stockwell/Lambeth and try it. Otherwise that Italian brand Lavazza (normally you can find this in Tescos, Sainsburys etc) isn't too bad, nor is Douwe Egberts.

steviedeluxe

I agree. Funnily enough, the coffee served up in "tapas-bars" in the UK is normally quite poor I find. No excuse really, the Portuguese manage to serve up good coffee. And the odd Italian establishment, but you have to ask around.

Of course, you'll always find the odd person who doesn't like the coffee in Spain

http://www.eltiempo.com/blogs/de_can...-por-favor.php

stevesainty

I am perfectly happy with the coffee in England but I cannot find a decent one in Spain. We normally stay in time share accommadation in Spain and all they supply is a filter machine. When we move to Spain in 2012 I will probably get a proper machine but until then I will have to stick to filter coffee unless there is some way I can make some proper coffee in a pan on the stove???
Where do you buy the coffee mentioned by cricketman above?

cricketman

Well I've yet to go to a "tapas" place in the UK that has Spaniards working for it, and normally the food kind of resembles Spanish food that they might have in some of the least adventurous tourist places

Although I must caveat that I havent been to a Spanish place in the UK for at least 6 years now.

There is one nice Spanish restaurant on Old Brompton Road in Chelsea where the tennis players go during Wimbledon, think it is called "Cambio de tercio". Very nice but prices to match.

cricketman

In any supermarket. Spaniards love coffee and will have it every morning and usually every other hour during the day

You can buy one of those metal cafeteras for about 10 euros, then make it on the hob. That will turn out much nicer than filter coffee which personally I do not enjoy.

steviedeluxe

It always used to be said (although I'm sure there are exceptions) that the Brits don't know how to make good coffee, and the Spanish don't know how to make decent tea...

bil

We use a cafeteria. For me the simplest way to make good coffee easily and quickly. We basically bought one pack of every brand of coffee we could find, starting at the cheap end and moving up until we found a good one. Quite a few boxes were binned after the first cup. Dia have a columbian, under 2 euros a box, and that does us very nicely.

betris

if your using a cafateria try a small pinch of salt and leave the boiling water for a few seconds before you pour it in.salt enhances the flavor.and boiling water makes coffe bitter.im a nescafe fan myself.

littlelambfound

Spanish coffee is over-rated. Most bars have no interest/knowledge/skill in the grinding of the beans correctly, let alone ever cleaning the machine (hence a lot of cups taste bitter). The Spanish don't really care, it's just coffee to them, and like most things, they let it ride. Now...get yourself over to Italy and it's another planet as far as coffee goes. They care about quality and rightly complain loudly if it slips below par.

megmet

You could always buy one of the inexpensive cafeteria's here, and you could take it back to the UK if you want as they are very light weight.

The only place in Spain I've had a bad cup of coffee was in Majorca, there they made it as the English like it... very weak!
I thought it quite tasteless after the strong flavoured kind we get here in Andalucia.

cricketman

This post just tells me about the quality of establishments you frequent i.e. bad ones!

And being married to a Spaniard I can tell you they do care! Although for her, she is not a fan of the extra torrefacto they put in here in Andalucia.

Some of my friends have expensive coffee machines at home (I know someone who has a top of the range Jura!) and as a treat go to the coffee bean shop to get some exotic blends ground straight from the bean.

You know you can even buy Jamaica Blue Mountain from the El Corte Ingles Cafeteria for around 2.50 a cup. This is rated the best coffee in the world so there must be some demand from Spaniards who "do not care"!

I do agree that Italian coffee is more refined though (in general).