An independant British coffee specialist (Taylors of Harrogate Coffee)

Member Name: moo2moo

Product:	Taylors of Harrogate Coffee
Date:	23/09/09 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Available on every high street

Disadvantages: Not instant variant available

Browse the coffee selection of any supermarket and you'll be overwhelmed by a seemingly infinate range of coffees from the truly horrific supermarket budget brands including Tesco Value Instant Coffee Granules 49p per 100g or £4.90 a kg - think hot water with a teeny amount of added carpet sweepings - to Waitroses outrageously decadent Clydesdale Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee at a mere £7.99 for 114g jar, £70 per kg. Whilst it tastes fabulous its not fabulous enough to justify a price of that magnitude.

Taylors of Harrogate offer a wide variety of coffees within the £2.50 to £3 price bracket for a 227g bag. Unfortunately they don't offer an instant variant but what they do offer is a range of ground coffees suitable for cafetieres, filter machines, percolators and even the one cup disposable filter brigade.

Whatever the flavour the packaging it comes in is a distinctive brightly coloured foil lined plastic bag which Taylors claim is "the Rolls Royce of coffee packaging systems". Opening it is a multi sensory experience. Firstly its tough stuff so you'll need a pair of scissors. The instant you begin cutting you can smell the most fabulous smells. Strangely its not always a coffee scent, some smell nutty others are rather reminiscent of woodsmoke but whatever the brand you inhale the aroma which is more often than not smooth and mellow. What you'll see is uniform dark chocolatey brown grounds.

I've got a huge cafetiere and I add a very generous 6 heaped spoonfuls to this before adding water just off the boil. The aroma of the brewing coffee wafts around the house and is usually rapidly followed by the appearance of my other half to partake too. The bag is easy to reseal using a large plastic clip which Taylors often add to their products as a free gift. I have Taylors Coffee tins too thanks to other promotions. My favoirite promotions have to be the supermarket buy one get one free offers.

After a few minutes when the water within the cafetiere has turned a dark raw umber I push down the plunger trapping the grounds at the base of the caffetiere. They're coarse so very few escape into the hot coffee. Pouring into a mug releases another burst of aroma and drinking it is a real pleasure. Its one of the few brands of cafetierre coffee that I can drink without needing to cjheck my teeth for stray grounds afterwards.

Theres an enormous variety to choose from ranging from the obligiatory decaf, a half caf named Take It Easy to an organic variant and just about everything imaginable in between. They also produce a monthly special and their legendary Christmas Blend.

Taylors of Harrogate were established in 1886 and are still in independant company. They have a very strong ethical policy with a large proportion of the range is endorsed by Fairtraide and they are experimanting with a unique recycling gimmick whereby the jute sacks that house the raw coffee beans are being converted into jute shopping bags with the profits being used to fund a coffee growers programme to enhnace the lives of the producers.

Summary: Fabulous coffee from an ethical supplier