Join me for a Coffee (Other Coffees)

Member Name: SueMagee

Product:	Other Coffees
Date:	30/10/02 (332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Produces a single cup of filter coffee without any equipment other than a cup and a kettle.

Disadvantages: More expensive per cup than making a pot of coffee.

Sip.

When I worked for a living I was permanently afloat on a lake of strong black coffee. There was always a steaming cup of Blend 37 on my desk and a spare jar in the cupboard in case I ran out. Looking back I must have spent years of my life on a permanent caffeine high.

Sip.

When work gave me up (yes; that was the way it happened) I found that I could no longer cope with the ridiculous amounts of caffeine that I'd been used to drinking. At about the same time Nescafe changed the blend of Blend 37 and frankly I thought it tasted disgusting, so for quite a while I gave up coffee altogether. No other instant came close to the original taste of Blend 37 and it seemed such a waste to make a pot when all that I wanted was one cup of perfectly brewed filter coffee. Then I rediscovered Rombouts Individual Filter Coffees and I indulge myself in a cup each morning.

Slurp.

Think in terms of a plastic plant pot, about 9cm across at the top and 5cm deep. Turn the bottom into holes with just sufficient plastic to support the sachet of filter coffee which is sealed to the base and add a lid. There, that's a Rombouts individual coffee filter. Shake the filter first to make certain that the coffee is equally distributed and pop it on top of a cup or a mug, fill to within about a centimetre of the top with water that's just off the boil and put the lid on. In two or three minutes the water will have filtered through and you will have a perfect filter coffee. Throw the filter away!

Slurp.

Rombouts began roasting and blending coffees in Belgium in 1896 and they still have the royal warrant to supply coffee to the King of Belgium. They've been making the individual filters for several decades: I first encountered them in a posh hairdresser's in the 1970s. The range has expanded from those first filters although they're still around and known somewhat unoriginally as Original. It'
s a medium coffee and if I had to equate it to the world of instant coffee I'd say that if you like Nescafe or Maxwell House then this would be your sort of coffee. It retails at about £1.99 for a pack of ten filters and two lids.

Slurp.

There's an organic version of Original, called, somewhat unsurprisingly, Organic and this is the most expensive in the range. In the supermarket this morning it was £2.29 for a ten-pack. My personal favourite is the Columbian, which I think would appeal generally to the people who prefer the specialist instant coffees of the Nescafe range, such as Cap Colombie. It's a medium/dark coffee with a good aroma and rich, but not too strong taste, although I do like to add slightly more water than is recommended.

Slurp.

The Columbian retails at £2.05 per pack, as do the other two coffees in the range which are generally available, the Javan and the Italian Style. The latter used to be known as Espresso, which should give you an idea of its taste. Both the Javan and Italian Style are dark, in-your-face coffees.

Slurp.

If you visit the Rombouts website (www.rombouts.co.uk) you will find two other coffee filters available in catering packs - the Brazilian and the Kenyan. Both of these are classified as mild/medium coffees and a catering pack of 80 filters costs £14.35. Catering packs of the other filters are also available at similar prices.

Slurp.

You'll generally find the filters with the ground coffees in the supermarket. Look for a cardboard box about 20cm high with a picture of a cup and filter on the front. Inside the box there's a foil sleeve which has been vacuum-packed. If I had to be Mistress Picky I could complain that there's no obvious way of resealing the foil sleeve. I use a bulldog clip and keep the pack in the fridge once it's been opened. Use-by dates, in my experience, are about nine to twelve months away.
r>Slurp.

This isn't a cheap way of drinking coffee unless, like me, you only want one cup of fresh coffee and would waste more than you drank if you made a pot. The box of ten filters actually contains only 57gr (about 2oz) of ground coffee, so there is a considerable premium because of the inclusion of the disposable filters. What I do like, though, is the fact that I don't need any special equipment: provided that I have a cup and a kettle I can have a fresh filter coffee. I have a friend who uses them when she goes camping and another who uses them in her office. I don't use them for the big family breakfast, or even when my friend comes round and we set the world to rights over several cups of coffee. The cafetierre comes out on those occasions. The filters are perfect for when you're on your own and a cup of coffee makes what you're doing more pleasurable.

Tip and slurp. Oh, that was lovely!