Just bought some Hazelnut Coffee Syrup from Whittard which adds a nice bit of flavour to a drink when I feel like it. Of course, it's now made me want to buy every damn flavour they do; except the white chocolate one of course
Monsoon Malabar (drinking it as we speak, for breakfast while I'm posting from my iPhone). Black, no sugar, preferably the one sold by the Algerian Coffee Company (Soho, London) but Waitrose does a decent one too. Avoid the Sainsbury one; it's crap. Otherwise I resort to a good Machu Pichu. Else, an Americano on the road, or an Espresso. Again black, no sugar. Sugar's for pussies. My favourite teas are Gyokuro Sencha, China Yunnan Black Gold, Silver Needle Supreme (has to be a good one) and Oriental Beauty Supreme Miaoli County Oolong --which is unaffordable so I usually make do with a decent mid-range When Shan Bao Zhong Oolong instead.
At home I'll drink anything fresh, as long as it's strong tasting, but if I find myself in town with a craving I head to Café Nerro or Costa, where I tend to get a gingerbread latte. I don't really like anything much from Starbucks, but when I was in Cologne for Christmas-before-last they did a ltd edition Lebkuchen one which was heaven in a cardboard cup .
I don't drink it myself, but I know mum does. She keeps the (ground) coffee in a dry container in the freezer to preserve the flavour.
Gateway drug. Before you know it you are on Lavazza Qualita Oro, then Cafe Espresso, and then you hit the hard stuff: Illy and next, Machu Pichu. Organic. In the end only the exotic stuff will do: Kona and Civet Coffee. By the time you rub it straight onto your gums or snort it through a straw you're lost.
Just trying Nescafe Cafe Parisien - actually quite good for an instant coffee and on offer at Tescos and a few other places for £2.00 for a 100g jar.
Blue mountain is my favourite but it is too expensive to drink regularly. On a daily basis I drink Illy and, when I've had too much caffeine, Lavazza decaf. My favourite type of coffee is probably latte.
Any halfway decent ground coffee does for me, pot brewed at work (for convenience) or cafetiere at home. I've never tried the "better" brands as I would probably love them and even my caffeine fix would then become an expensive habit. I quite like the Ethiopian Sidoma and Costa Rican Tarazu that I can get from the Sainsbury's 2 minutes walk from the office. I can't do decaffeinated though, I've yet to find one that tastes right. One thing I still don't understand myself though is why on earth do so many people go to somewhere like Starbuck's and order a "coffee" with so many additions to it that the flavour in no way resembles coffee when they've finished! This always seemed to rather defeat the object to me...
Oh hell yes! I'd almost forgotten about those! I used to work as QA in a food factory that packed them and had to check all of the stock. Some required a touch more "sampling" than others - I was ultra caffeinated for about 3 months of the year I haven't seen any for a long while now
Perhaps this is common knowledge to those more avid coffee drinkers, but I just learned about the differences of growing coffee in sunlight and in shade. Deforestation, destruction of animal habitats, increased soil erosion, more pesticides, and countless other horrors! The zealous environmentalist in me now only drinks shade grown coffee.
