Boaters Range of Coffees (Boaters Rich Hazelnut Flavoured Instant Coffee)

Member Name: alocin

Product:	Boaters Rich Hazelnut Flavoured Instant Coffee
Date:	22/04/03 (575 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great aromas, Good range of flavours

Disadvantages: Not much taste to the coffee, Quite expensive - treat coffee

As well as Smooth Hazelnut, Boaters does a wide range of flavoured coffees. The most popular flavours are available in 100g jars of instant coffee granules - Irish Cream, Hazelnut and Vanilla. These are available in supermarkets such as Tescos. There is also a slightly wider range of flavours available in small jars - I have had Double Chocolate and Toffee - and these are harder to find. I bought mine in Julian Graves speciality food shop.

Boaters provides it's widest range in "real" coffee - beans or already ground. On the website www.boaters.co.uk there are lists of the full range. Some of the flavours available include Brandy, Malt Whisky, Pecan Pie, Death by Chocolate, as well as Strawberries and Cream! These can be ordered from the website, but the more popular flavours can be bought in some shops as well - again Julian Graves provided me with several of these flavours.

Now, down to the coffee itself. I have tried several of the flavours so I will review those that I have experienced. The Double Chocolate Instant coffee was the first flavoured instant coffee I have had. After piercing the foil lid there was a wonderful chocolately smell - stronger and richer than the aroma of hot chocolate drinks. When I added boiling water the smell got stronger, but it faded slightly by the time I came to drink it. I must say that there was not much of a chocolate flavour to the coffee itself. I was expecting more of a cocoa kind of taste, but it was pretty much coffee with a chocolate kind of aroma. I enjoyed the coffee but it wasn't what I expected - particulaly at the price (around £2.50 for small 300g jar!). I have also had the Irish Cream Instant coffee, this time from a supermarket so cheaper at £2.99 for a 100g jar. Again a very strong smell, slightly of Whisky, but not much of a taste.

The "real" coffee is suitable for most coffee machines and filters. I have mine in a cafetiere as I'm the only one drinking it
. They are about £3.99 where I get them. I have only tried flavours available in my local speciality shop as yet, but I hope to branch out into the exotic flavours available online before too long. The coffee comes in cardboard packages in different colours depending on the flavours, and with little cartoons and stories eg. Malt Whisky has pictures of bagpipes and the instructions are written with a Scots accent.

The first flavour I tried was Sticky Toffee Coffee. Opening the foil package there was an almost overwhelming smell of toffee - OK I did almost have my nose in the packet but it was strong! It was delicious, but some might have found it a bit sickly. Adding water increased the aroma, but there was still not much taste to the coffee itself. The aroma and taste to the coffee was stronger than the instant granules though - as is usually the case with "real" coffee. Other flavours I have had are French Vanilla, Irish Cream, Mocha Orange (mmm - smelt like Terry's Chocolate Oranges!) and Double Chocolate. All were essentially the same - delicious aroma, not much flavouring to the coffee.

Overall Boaters does lovely coffee. If you are looking for something different to try then they do a great range of exotic flavours. The smell alone is what I buy them for - the coffee is fine, nicer than your average instant coffee and good cafetiere coffee but not much more to the taste. The aroma though is worth waking up for!

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