Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Coffee Review: Alpen Sierra Italian Roast

We were very excited here at Glenfinlas Coffee when the long-awaited delivery of Alpen Sierra coffee arrived on our fair shores! We had been chatting to founder Christian Waskiewicz over a few weeks about what coffees he had been roasting and what he could recommend to us. One of those recommendations was the Italian Roast.

This ‘medium’ dark roasted coffee is best when finely ground and used for espresso but it still works really well when brewed in a cafetiere which is how Glenfinlas Coffee tried it. Italian Roast is a blend of three different varieties of beans; Central American, African and Indonesian, to give it that classic Southern Italian espresso style.

One of the first things that you notice when you open the bag is the beautifully dark, rich and oily beans and the aroma is wonderfully spicy with a slight hint of tangy lemon zest. In the cup, it’s a very well balanced, full-bodied blend of coffees which gives it a more traditional character but a bright, assertive flavour and lots of acidity. You may also detect further spicy flavour elements as you keep tasting it. We were very impressed with Alpen Sierra’s Italian Roast when it arrived and would definitely recommend it to you to try.

As always, you can find this delicious roast in the coffee section of the website.

Coffee Review: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Dark Magic Espresso Blend

Having received a Great Taste award from the Guild of Fine Foods in 2009, Dark Magic Espresso Blend is a delicious, gourmet espresso roast. It’s a medium to dark roast with a sweet, rich and intense flavour that produces a wonderfully deep, copper-coloured and velvety crema. Dark Magic has been specifically blended for use as an espresso but we find it also works really well as a drip-filter coffee.

For Dark Magic Espresso Blend, Green Mountain have expertly roasted complimentary single origin coffees which have created a really harmonious, full and delicious flavour. It has a lovely, toasty aroma with sweet and intense notes and a smooth, lingering finish. And most importantly, there’s not a hint of bitterness in sight! Enjoy!