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The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 11

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I’m late, I know!  In my defense I had to go out for Chinese food and be sociable last night.  And it was really good fun, but by the time I got back I was more interested in going to bed than writing a coffee review.

Also, the udon noodles with mixed meat at Rainbow in Hatfield? Best Chinese meal EVER.  But this isn’t a chinese food blog!  It’s a coffee blog (Wait, I could have been ordering out for chinese every night and claiming it was for research? Dammit! Oh well, too late now).

Day 11.

Well dunk me in coffee and call me a jammie dodger.  It’s another Colombian coffee and it’s another one in the “Like column”!  We started off well with the name.  As a huge Doctor Who fan, all I could hear in my head when I saw this one was “SILENCIO MUST FALL!”.  I’ll pause for the rueful shaking of heads and eyerolling.  All done?  Good.

This one was genuinely really nice. It was another that was almost floral in flavour, really light and quite unique. I’m not sure if it’s something I’d want to have everyday, but it was something quite different and something I think I’d get in occasionally when I wanted something out of the ordinary.  Not sure if it would work in a syphon, I suspect the floral notes would become unpleasantly strong but for an espresso based drink it was really pleasant. I’d probably steer clear of using it for hot milk based drinks as this is another where I suspect the light flavour would be overwhelmed by the milk.

Right, moving swiftly on to Day 12!

TTFN.

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 10

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So here we are at day ten and I’m still mostly managing to keep to schedule. It’s such a hardship, a new coffee every day. I dunno how I’ll survive the next two weeks (plus one day) but someone has to do it and I’ll be damned if it’s someone else!

Because it’s my calendar, dammit, and I ain’t sharing. Get your own.  Let’s look at what day 10 had for us.

This one was quite a contrast to yesterday. While the Planalto is rich and chocolatey, this is far more floral. A very strong scent of, again, something akin to dried apricots on opening the bag, so I went in expecting something bright and potentially acidic.  Turns out I needn’t have worried as it was far more well rounded than that, the floral taste not too sharp or overwhelming.

All in all a very lovely coffee, though again I’ll be curious to see what my friend makes of it as she’s not to big on the more floral flavours.

TTFN.

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 9

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Hah! Bet you thought I’d forg….oh. Wow. When did it become 1am?  Damn. Guess I am actually late as technically it’s now day 10.  Oh well, I’m posting it anyway before I go to bed.

Hello Planalto my old friend.

This was one of my semi-regular orders when I was a Pact subscriber because it’s rather a nice coffee whether you make it with hot water or hot milk.  It’s smooth, chocolatey and all in all just really nice to drink.  If you like your coffee more on the chocolate/malty side rather than fruity, you can’t go wrong with this one and I think Pact pretty much always have it in stock!

Not much more to say, a really lovely coffee this one, nice to have it again!

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 7

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Ever see that movie Memento?  How about Paycheck (that one’s actually kinda fun) or, really, any movie about someone with amnesia?  Oooo, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, there’s a great game to play in the dark with the lights off and your headphones on.

Anyway, we’re here to talk about coffee. Specifically Day 7 of the Pact Advent Calendar! So let’s go.

Man, this one is going to be a short review. See my previous comments?  That’s kinda how I feel about this one.  It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t particularly malty or acidic, had no massively standout flavours it was just….it was a cup of coffee. A really forgettable cup of coffee. So forgettable that I forgot I drank it and forgot to do the review yesterday.

~Shifty look~

That’s totally my excuse and I’m sticking to it and you can’t say otherwise!

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 6

S Rockwood 1 Comment

Day 6!  And it’s another Colombian coffee!  Have I mentioned I don’t get on with a lot of Colombian coffees? Oh, I have?  Several times?  Well, I’m gonna keep mentioning it!

 

 

I went in to today with not the highest of hopes, honestly. My track record with the aforementioned Colombian coffees hasn’t really been good, that said the previous one in this calendar was nice, so maybe…?

Yep! I’m pleased to be able to report that this one adds another tally to the ‘Like’ column (which for those keeping score is currently 5 Likes to 1 Meh). It’s a slightly sharper, more acidic coffee, but not unpleasantly so. I’ve had some that have been so sharp it’s made me screw my face up with the last few gulps, this is not one of those.

For me the predominant tasting note was raisin, you can really smell it the moment you open the bag, and it made a perfectly lovely cup but, as I said, definitely a smidge more on the acidic side! I don’t think I’d buy this one again myself, but it was a nice way to start the day.  I’ll be curious to see what my friend makes of it.

That’s it for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with day seven.

TTFN.

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 5

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~Insert random song lyrics here~

Listening to White Zombie at the moment. They’re a great band, but not particularly…Christmassy.  So let’s forego the preamble and get stuck into day five!

I liked this one! Definitely quite milky and chocolatey notes there, reminded me of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk with one important distinction – I actually enjoyed it. I’m more of a Galaxy chocolate kinda guy, but this was a really pleasant coffee. We can chalk another one into the “Like” column.

I might have to try hunting some of this up again so I can try it with hot milk rather than water. I think it might make a delicious little drink like a cortado or something.  I think you’d need to go easy with the milk to avoid drowning it out as it’s quite a subtle flavour.

Right, that’s it for day five! So far this advent calendar is turning out to be a great purchase.

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day 4

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Moving on up! Your love keeps lifting me higher! Okay, cheesy lyrics aside, let’s get into day four.

So yeah! I’m pretty impressed so far.  For those keeping score we’re currently at “Like, Like, Meh” and this one is another for the “Like!” column.  Opening the bag, those floral, rich notes are immediately apparent and I will admit to spending slightly longer than usual just enjoying the scent. Yum. The grounds seemed to be a bit of a darker coffee than the ones before it as well.  It promises good things.

In the cup it’s really pleasant, I’ve gone back to making all these drinks with water as well, to ensure that I’m not skewing my opinions by mixing up the ways I’m preparing them.  It’s slightly more, well, sharp than the ones that have come before it, but not unpleasantly so, and I enjoyed it from the first mouthful to the last, with no last minute acidity lurking at the bottom of the cup.

You’re on a roll, Advent Calendar.  Keep it up!

The Pact Advent Calendar – Days 2 & 3

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Right!  More days, more coffees, mo’money, mo’…wait. No. Sorry. Off on a tangent there. Let’s crack on with days 2 and 3 so that I can start the week all caught up and on the right days.

Day 2

Day two brings us a type of coffee that, as I think I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have a good track record with.  I just dunno what it is, but a lot of Colombian varietals I find have a funny aftertaste that I just don’t get on with at all.  These days I tend to give them a very wide berth.

That said?  This one wasn’t half bad at all. I’m pleased to be able to say that the ‘Villa Rubiela’ coffee was surprisingly pleasant!  It had a lovely sweet aftertaste that lingers nicely in the mouth. I might have actually found a Colombian coffee I’d buy again. Gonna be sure to make a note of this one.

Day 3

Day three and this time we’re scooting off to Guatemala for the ‘Villaure’ coffee. One thing I immediately noticed with this one compared to the previous two was the aroma on opening the bag. I dunno if it’s just my imagination, but this one smelled much more potent than the other two.  The card says “plum tart” notes and I’d have to agree. It’s got a really rich, plummy scent when you open it up, it’s really lovely.

And again, seriously, there’s just something about the smell of fresh coffee. Tickles the pleasure center of your brain, at least it does for me!  I’m sure my long-suffering wife would inform me that “it smells like coffee” but I’ll kep trying! One day I’ll find one where she can tell the difference.

Anyway, this one I made with milk with the previous two were made with water. Just because I fancied a change, although that might not have been the best idea.  In milk this coffee was….okay.  It was nothing special, nothing particularly memorable, just smooth, pleasant and a bit forgettable. I might have done it an injustice by using it as the basis for a milk based drink, I think from now on I’ll stick with making each with water.

That’s it for days two and three, thanks very much for taking the time to read my thoughts.  We’ll be back tomorrow with day four.

The Pact Advent Calendar – Day One

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Hello folks,

So this year I’ve got my hands on a Pact Coffee advent calendar.  Now Pact and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship, I’ve been an on again/off again customer of theirs since at least 2014 if not before. I can’t see anything beyond that as they only show my last twenty orders.

Now with Pact, you can rate the coffees with a like/dislike and my order history with Pact basically goes –

  • Like
  • Dislike
  • Like
  • Like
  • Dislike
  • Dislike
  • etc, etc,

It’s nothing about Pact as a company, they’re a damn good company to do business with, very responsive and with great customer support, but I just didn’t get on with the choices of coffee a lot of the time. In fact if you look at my history, it’s an even split, 50-50 likes and dislikes.

In the end I stopped ordering from them and instead embarked on my current adventure of working my way through as many UK based roasteries I can. That said, I keep an eye on what they’re doing so when they did advent calendars for the first time last year I was intrigued, but held off.  This year, though, I decided to take the plunge with a friend of mine and she ordered two of them for us.

Hey look, round pictures. Because Christmas.

Anyway, it’s a nice thing. The box is sturdy and well made, and the coffees are all contained in individual pouches within. They appear to be a medium-fine grind while the previous year they were all specifically ground for aeropress/drip/cafetiere.  Pact haven’t specified the exact grind this year but, as I said, they seem to make a perfectly fine espresso with no indication of under-extraction. My Barista Express certainly seems quite happy to use them to make espresso and so far they’ve been nice and tasty.

We’re going to do this one day at a time. This post will be the longest as we need to set a little background, the rest will be shorter, talking about each coffee in turn, showing you the package, the info card and giving my opinions.

Without further ado, let’s crack on with day one.  You can see the pictures of the packaging above.

Silly me forgot to take a picture of the shot this time. Ah well, it was a bit late and I really wanted to actually try the coffee as I’d heard good things about this one from my friend who had already tried it. “Los Andes Honey” it’s called. I made this one with water, added a splash of milk and sugar and immediately noticed that the sweet, nutmeg notes on the info card were definitely evident.

It made very pleasant americano, no lingering acidity, a very pleasant cup all in all and one I’d think about buying a full bag of, I gotta say.  A really positive start all in all. So that’s day one down, let’s move on.  The next review will be days two and three together so I get all caught up.

24 to go because Pact, bless’em, even include one for Christmas day.

Review #8 – Strangers Coffee Company

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Hello everyone, it’s a lovely, cold, crisp November morning as I write this.  A perfect time to stay inside and drink some nice coffee!

Strangers Coffee Company are based in Norwich and have been in business since 2009.

strangers

They currently have seven coffees on offer, along with a selection of merch and brewing equipment.  They also have a cafe as well as a roastery if you happen to be in the Norwich area and would like to try them for yourself.

They don’t have a specific house blend, all their coffees being single origin. At the moment they have the folllowing in stock –

  • Ethiopia – Rocko Mountain & Biftu Gudina
  • Kenya – Kainamuni
  • Guatemala – Santa Lucia
  • Colombia – Los Congos & Suaza (Decaf)
  • Brazil – Fazenda Santa Barbara

They do a flat rate £2 shipping, or you can get it free if you spend over £25.

I decided to go with the Guatemalan Santa Lucia as I’ve not really tried much of that kind of coffee.  The buying process was straighforward and I encountered no issues at all with placing my order.  The coffee arrived with me super fast I gotta say.  I placed my order on the 22nd and it was not only shipped on the 23rd, it was roasted the same day!  I had it with me by the 24th.  So short of actually going to the roastery myself, you’re not going to get much quicker delivery than that.

The bag arrived flatpacked, yay! It’s also re-sealable, double yay! That’s two big thumbs up there from me.  I also love this little chart on the front with the elevation, process, etc. That’s really nifty.

Unfortunately, for the second time in a row, here’s where the review becomes less positive. I just didn’t like this coffee. I found it really bland and forgettable when used for either milk or water based drinks. It seemed very weak.  I even started drinking it in one of my smaller cups to see if it helped and….it didn’t.  The tasting notes were barely there, the actual taste of coffee was very weak.

As far as I can tell it wasn’t being under-extracted, the puck was always nice and dry, the machine suggesting the pressure was bang on, it just…wasn’t very nice to use for espresso at all.

In the syphon it came to life a bit more, the fruity notes were far more evident, but it also become very sharp and acidic and not entirely pleasant towards the end of the cup.  I’m afraid that, all in all, this isn’t one I’m going to recommend. It just did nothing at all for me.  Sorry, Strangers Coffee, but I certainly won’t be ordering that one again.

Now I will hold my hand up and say, as mentioned earlier, I don’t often order Guatemalan coffee so it might just be that I don’t like this particular coffee! I also don’t tend to get on too well with Colombian coffees, I’m really not a fan of them at all. Perhaps I need to add Guatemala to the list of varieties to avoid and instead try ordering something else from this roaster.

It’s a slightly ironic statement as my next coffee review WILL be of a Colombian coffee! Fire Station Coffee has got in touch with me and sent a free bag for me to try.  I’ll provide full details of that in the next review along with answers to some of the questions I had for them.

Again, thanks for taking the time to read this review.  I hope you find it helpful in picking out a coffee for yourself.