Emmi: Caffe Latte Light, Brazil edition

Emmi, a swiss based cold coffee drink manufacturer. They have a few products, this is my first time drinking the "light" drink. They sell these in local supermarkets for around 1,50 euro. 230ml per serving, despite a "light" label, it has a high 39Kcal for each 100ml.

Should this be labelled as false advertisement? I took a can of Cherry coke and saw 45Kcal for each 100ml, I doubt 39 can really be called light.

Further inspection of the cup gives the following information, there is about 80% of milk and 17% of brazilian arabica beans, the remaining 3% were mostly sugar based additives and some E-thingies.

So it was made with half and half milk instead of whole, must have been the reason why they called it "Light", I keep using tags because I am being skeptical...

On to the tasting and smelling

First, opening the cup, real easy, nothing special to notice. The instructions required a shake prior to opening the lid. After a shake I opened up the cup, let my nose do its job.

First impression is not so good, it smells rather bland, tasteless... No, it is failing the smell test. Based on smell alone, I would not buy it again.

Second test, the tasting.

Meh... That was my first taste impression, meh... this is not good, it is more leaning towards bad even. A little sweet, but bland in many ways.

I am not enjoying this test at all :)

The taste also lingers in my mouth, nothing bitter or sweet or actually tasting like decent coffee. There is some sort of sour feeling in my mouth and yes, I did check the expiry date prior to tasting.

No, this coffee product tastes like stale coffee, with milk and a little sugar.

I am disturbed by the aftertaste, it is nothing likeable.

This was pretty much a failed experiment. I had higher hopes.

Rating: 1,4/10

purchased at a local supermarket

Ranting is an art or how I hate delivery services :)

Ok, so I order quite a bit online, including coffee and accesories like containers, syrups, ...

I mostly have positive experiences aside from some broken Starbucks mugs from ebay, but I blame the seller for them breaking, rather than the post office. A small advice for all interested, when you send mugs by mail, use more than just bubble wrap. Make sure you protect the handle as well, preferably by tearing up an old cardboard box and using it to make a extra layer around the mug, this will help protect the mug a millionfold. Otherwise they are bound to arrive broken...

But let's get to the real rant, my issues with TNT. TNT, you guys suck monkeyballs and you do it very well!

Let's go back in time to last weekend, I order seven items from the koffiebeans.nl shop, mostly syrups, a cool coffee bean container, some sugars, ... I got the confirmation email within minutes, the status update for the shipping arrived the day after.

So the waiting game begins, the package will come from the netherlands so I estimated 2 days.

Wednesday, I checked the website, claimed I wasn't home for the delivery. Strange because I thought I had set it up for delivery at work, could have been wrong.

Thursday, 10 am, had a little time to spare, so once again went to check up on my package.

Second delivery attempt failed at 9 am... WTF...

I decided to call home first, verify wether or not someone was home. Normally there is always someone at my house every thursday, the ice cream delivery guy actually comes between 9 and 10 am. This week, he came at 9 am.

Wait a minute... No one was supposed to be present at 9 am because the delivery attempt failed........

Checked the koffiebeans.nl site, nope, the delivery address was right, I didnt make a mistake.

They were supposed to be delivered to me, not at home.

So I decided to call TNT, a very friendly lady picked up the phone. I asked her why my delivery was labelled as failed while I had it delivered to a company, not a private house.

According to her system, I wasn't home. In the end, I told her she needed to fire the driver, because he was lieing his ass off. I actually proved it too.

I was supposed to get a new delivery attempt with a new driver the day after, my delivery attempts were also reset, because it would be the third one. Miss the third one and your package is returned.

Later that day, at half past seven (7.30pm), my doorbell rang. Suddenly a TNT delivery guy appeared with my box. At my house, not the delivery address mentioned.

To make a long story short, I am very happy to have my box, even if it was delivered too late, not at the right place and the delivery guy himself was VERY impolite to say the least. My guess being he was the one I asked to be fired.

Sigh

I hate TNT.

One good thing came out of all this, after contacting the website, they guaranteed they would never use TNT for my orders again. This was great news!

Fun fact, nothing broke and I got to enjoy my stuff very much!

Shakeria: Latte Macchiato

So this is my first review of a "cold coffee" drink, it is a coffee shake, to be precise. Manufactured by Shakeria, a Swiss company.

According to their website, they use swiss milk for all their products, I guess this is a promotional stunt like any other.

I had tried the Bourbon Vanilla and the Swiss Chocolate before, those were great milkshakes. The local shop is selling them, much to my surprise, they started selling the Coffee shakes too.

I wonder if I can call them milkshakes or not, I will just call them shakes...

First off, this is no expensive drink at all, priced at 1,30 at my local shop, it's not so bad. Go into any regular coffee shop or Starbucks and you are paying at least double.

The others I tried before, I can'tsay it often enough, they were great!

Now on to the tasting, smelling and hopefully enjoying?

The package is easy to open, the straw is one of those neat pull-out straws, which allows it to be more than long enough, a problem I sometimes find in cheap packages.

Once opened, their system doesn't allow for a smell test. There is a small hole, you put the straw through it. I just unscrewed the cap, took of the foil and smelled the goods :)

My first impression was not so good, I smelled a real creamy kind of milk, yet almost no coffee. Might have smelled it wrong, but that was the first impression.

Then I tried drinking it, to my delight, not so bad as the smell. It was actually quite good, like the others I had before. My taste buds were tingling from the creaminess this drink had. For my likings, the drink was just in need of a little more sweetness, but that is me^^

The drink was cold and going down smoothly, like most shakes.

I did taste the coffee, but no bitterness, a lot of cream, pretty much it delivered as the others I had before.

For a cold drink, this is a great sensation, however I will make one slightly negative remark. I doubt you can have a few of these in a row... It felt a little heavy towards the end of the shake.

Rating: 8/10

Will buy again!

Douwe Egberts: Dark Roasted Spicy India

The Second of the Douwe Egberts: World of Origins blends, this time the Indian one.
I will not be wasting a lot of time describing this one, it is a medium to dark roast, not like the name leads us to believe. I would call it a level 4 roast, the previous one, the Tre Forze, was slightly more dark. The name is giving us a clue on its origin, all Indian.Douwe Egberts is billing this coffee as a spicy, full-bodied coffee, hints of cardamon, vanilla, manga, pepper corns, ...
I have to say that such a description intrigues me, especially after trying other indian coffees like the "Monsoon Malabar", which was rather strongly flavoured.

Most indian beans are harvested at higher altitudes, this coffee is no exception. Like usual, big companies will never give out the actual blend recipee. I am especially curious when it comes to mysterious blends that are "single country origin".

But enough about that, let us move on to the delight called "Dark roasted spicy India".

First impression, the beans
Nothing really specific to mention here, it smells a little stronger than average coffee, nothing specific comes out.

Second impression, the espresso.
This is where it gets interesting, it smells absolutely neutral with a small hint of vanilla. I smelled it numerous times, I can't grasp any other aromas in it. My curiosity level just rose to a whole new level.

Third impression, tasting the espresso.
One word, awesome... I detect very little bitterness in this, indeed some vanilla and some kind of fruitiness, must be the mango, but I couldnt fully pinpoint that specific fruit in it. Great aftertaste, gentle, smooth, a little like the monsoon malabar, but more to my preference. The aftertaste lingers in the mouth for quite a while, but not once did I have the impression of a bad flavour. A little acidic maybe, my tongue is mostly responding on the middle, not the front, not the backend.
I am intrigued by this blend, a great melange indeed.

It's gotta be one of the better "cheap" coffees I ever tried, at 7 euro for half a kilo, it is rather cheap.
Another thing that deserves mentioning, the crazy amount of crema! I have those cool Bodum mugs and they aren't really small, but they had about 5 millimeters of crema in a preheated cup. Not many coffees produce such a nice and clean crema in such a big mug.


Rating: 8,9 / 10
Purchased in a dutch supermarket
Origin: India
Brand: Douwe Egberts

Tre Forze! Espresso

a Very special melange of coffee, where do I even begin with the explanation?
I got this espresso online, came in a very nice cardboard tube, like a bottle of alcohol.
The picture should show how nice this is.

This coffee has a very rich history, a very nice history actually. They actually roast the beans on top of olive tree branches, though they do not cut down trees for this process, they use branches and 'garbage' from the trees to do this. This wood is then stored in order to dry, this takes up around a year. According to Tre Forze, the lava from mount Etna in Sicily makes the olive trees get their specific scent and flavour.

The melange contents are a company secret, but they did confirm their melange has about five percent of Robusta in it, allowing the coffee to have a stronger espresso feel to it. The roasters did confirm the countries where they buy their beans, but not the types.

Another interesting tidbit, they roast all different beans seperately, this obviously allows all beans to bring out their full potential and not having their flavours/aromas lost by the more dominant beans in the mix. I really admire them for this, it is not the cheapest solution they chose in order to bring us this coffee.

Last tidbit that needs to be known, they have very strict quality controls for Tre Forze, the beans themselves are transported to Sicily. The raw coffee grown on family-run farms in the best cultivation areas in Peru, Costa Rica, Togo, Kamerun and Brasil, make it possible that the highest quality beans that money can buy can be used. They undergo up to 5 quality checks, to ensure the highest quality beans are being used.

Originally this coffee was only sold in Sicily, never intended to be exported, but over the years, the company changed their policy and started exporting it too. I am sure many espresso lovers rejoyced over this change in policy, because it is a very special blend, to say the least!

On to the good stuff, trying this coffee.

First impression, the beans.
Before opening the package, I was curious wether or not I would actually be able to smell the "olive" in them. I am not going to lie, I smelled something specific, but I was more leaning towards dades or so.
I don't really like olives, nor do I like dades, but hey, this is about coffee, not regular food

Second impression, the coffee itself, in a cup, waiting to be enjoyed.
Same impression as from the beans, the coffee itself was dark-roasted, between a level 4 and 5, so a more strong aroma was to be expected. Again I smelled that dade-like aroma... Once again, coud have been a olive scent too, was getting curious again about the taste :)

Third impression, drinking it, usually my favourite :)
Tasting is a joy, usually. This espresso however, it is strange.
I was experiencing less of the olives, but I am absolutely positive I was tasting dades in it, some chocolate, some nuts, a little spicey.... This espresso is a true mix of flavours, sadly not to my liking.
I am not a fan of dades or olives and it reflected in my opinion of this coffee.
Also, it lacked power, maybe that was just an impression of mine, but most darker roasted coffees are less present in flavouring and more present in pure power, but it had the aroma of a medium roast, all the flavours are very present, yet none of the usual power.

In the end, I have no idea how to rate it, if I have to go on my gut feeling, I can only give it a 6... But I think it deserves a lot more credit. They make it undergo a very serious quality control, one that should be the industry standard as far as I am concerned. Most roasters will have 1 or 2 filtering sessions to weed out bad coffee, Tre Forze does it five times! They deserve the respect for setting the bar.
Yet sadly my taste buds are screaming for a 6 out of 10. Sorry Tre Forze, you guys deserve much more based on merit and effort, but I am rating on my tasting only

Rated: 6/10
Purchased online koffiecentrale

Bellagio White Chocolate Mix

It's a new thing for me, trying out a instant drink. I decided to "expand" my blog a little to all kinds of hot drinks and even some cold drinks will appear soon, I am going to compare some of the canned coffees too, I got my eyes on a few of them already.

I have stated before that I have a sweet tooth, so it won't come as a surprise that I like going to the "oil&vinegar" store. My cupboard has a few of their products and I am pretty sure more products will be bought in the future. I simply love their flavours and most of their oils, vinegars and sauces are alcohol-free, always a big advantage for me.

Last friday, I was going to a shopping mall to buy some manga (japanese comics), one of my favourite shops had a 3+1 promotion, so I got quite a few. The same shopping mall houses a Oil&Vinegar, so we went in to try the goods and while browsing the shelves, I found this.
Bellagio, White chocolate, gourmet Hot cocoa Mix.
I also found out they sell white chocolate callets, black chocolate callets, dark hot cocoa mix, ... A little expensive though, but i dont really mind to pay a little more for quality, which their products usually are.
Took it home, read the instructions, got out a cup and started.
The instructions were simple, 3 spoons per cup.
Whenever I need hot water for a hot drink, I tend to use my panarello pipe, because it allows me to stir while the water is pouring into my cup. It is one of many advantages my new machine has, loving my saeco :)

First impression, smelling the cocoa mix, I guess
didnt really know what i was smelling, it smelled mostly like milk creamer (like coffeemate)

Second impression, smelling the hot white cocoa.
I have to say, it smelled decent, but it wasnt like "oooooh, I wanna try" The creamer smell was also very present, though it felt like this was not the right aroma, like it needed more cocoa mix.

Third impression, Tasting.
My hunch was right, not enough cocoa mix. Into the cup, another spoon, still not enough, second spoon, this felt more right.
My impression is not so good, I have had a hot white chocolate before, it was so much better. Then again, whole milk and chocolate callets, always so much better, I actually make them that way at home too. I have the dark chocolate ones at home right now, too bad it is dificult to find affordable white chocolate callets in smaller dosages, I know where to buy big bags, but 2,5 kilograms...... wow, too much really for the occasional sip.
Maybe I should have tried adding some sugar, but I just gave up. I did not like this. Very disappointed even, I hope my mom's grandchildren will like it, so I dont have to end up throwing it out with the trash.


Rating: 1/10
Purchased: Oil&Vinegar


A little PS this time, I have had decent instant hot cocoa before, this was just bad...