Prospecting for Black Gold (Nescafe Black Gold)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Nescafe Black Gold
Date:	16/12/03 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smooth taste, Excellent aroma, An all round delicious coffee

Disadvantages: None

I'm usually a Gold Blend girl when it comes to my coffee, it's how I like my coffee and my men - strong, dark and rich. But horrors! In Londis last night there was no Gold Blend and as the only alternatives were Nescafe Black Gold and a revolting looking jar of light brown coffee powder, I plumped for Black Gold with the reasoning that if it's made by Nescafe it must be good.

To be honest, I thought I'd tried every variation on Nescafe on the market but I've never heard of Black Gold before. There's nothing on the label to suggest it's a new product so I either need my eyes testing or it's one of those things that isn't too widely available. And considering I went for an eye test on Tuesday, I think I can safely say that this coffee isn't on sale everywhere. Mind you, I do walk around with my eyes closed a lot...

The jar is very similar to the Gold Blend jar, a curved square glass jar with a black octagon shaped lid. The label is very sophisticated and minimal, black with a gold scooper containing loads of golden coffee beans. It tells me this coffee is also going to be like my ideal man - 'Dark & Deep'. I really like this jar. I know it sounds strange but if I get a jar of coffee in a nice jar I don't empty the coffee into my coffee container, I stand the jar on top of the container so everyone who comes into the kitchen can see I buy top coffee. Just call me a coffee snob!

Opening the jar a very strong aroma of good quality coffee wafts up my nostrils and I can tell it's not going to be a disappointment. Peering into the jar, the granules are lighter in colour than standard Nescafe granules but ever so slightly darker than the granules you find in a jar of Gold Blend. I always associate the depth of colour with the strength of the coffee so I'm hoping for a rich and strong flavour when I make my drink.

Like the_mad_cabbie, I like two spoons of granules in an average cup
of coffee but I realise this is a little excessive for most people so I'll make myself a 'normal' cup for the purpose of this op... hang on a sec, the kettles boiling it's head off!

oOoOo Chris returns with a fresh cup of coffee and commences with her op oOoOo

I drink my coffee how it is supposed to be drunk. Either black with no sugar in order to get the full flavour of the coffee, or strong with cream and two sugars for that little taste of luxury. Everyone knows the secret to making a perfect cup of coffee is pouring the boiling water onto the coffee granules and then adding any extras after you've given it a good stir. I find with Gold Blend that you have to stir like mad to get all the granules to dissolve properly, but the granules in this Black Gold dissolved beautifully. In fact as soon as I added the water and dipped the spoon to the bottom of the mug to give it a stir, most of the granules were already gone. As I was making my cup of coffee the smell was gorgeous, very rich and not all that different to the aroma of 'proper' coffee.

~*~*~ The Taste Test ~*~*~

I'm not really knowing what to expect on my first sip because in the past 12 months I haven't drunk anything but Gold Blend with the odd jar of original Nescafe here and there. But my reasoning is all of them are made by Nescafe so will at the very worst be drinkable. The first cup I had out of the jar I added cream and sugar to and it was delicious. The coffee flavour is strong but mellow at the same time, there isn't the bitter taste as you swallow which is the reason I don't drink Kenco because it's a very bitter blend. The taste of the coffee isn't as rich as Gold Blend and if you drank it with stera milk (sacrilege!) it would be bland. But despite this there's loads of flavour in the coffee, you can taste the caffeine in each mouthful and the cream makes the coffee silky smooth and adds a rich, luxurious
sensation as you're drinking. I drank a second cup more or less straight away, this one black with no sugar but a wee drop of whisky. This is where the coffee comes into it's own. The coffee is so strong when undiluted with cream or milk, you get a small caffeine hit with each mouthful. Strangely the coffee tastes richer when drank black, I find Gold Blend has a really bitter aftertaste unless you add cream or milk but Black Gold has a delicious burned-coffee flavour. It tastes really fresh and is a brilliant alternative to getting the cafetierre and scooping Lava Java into it.

It's not one of the cheaper brands and this is obvious however you drink it. I could happily serve it to anyone and know no-one could ever say I buy cheap coffee. It's quite heavy on caffeine and even being well accustomed to drinking jar fulls of coffee I still got a caffeine hit after my first couple of cups. So if you're a bad sleeper don't drink it at bedtime! lol I paid £2.49 in Londis for a 100g jar, which is slightly more expensive than Gold Blend which is £2.39 for 100g. These are both a more luxurious version of original Nescafe but I think I'll start being a Black Gold girl from now on.

Thanks for reading.

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