Coffee is everywhere, you meet friends for it, there is a wall of jars filled with the instant-coffee-ish-tasting-beverage in supermarkets. It's increasingly stylish and rarified a la Starbucks in a "orange-vanilla-mocha-whipped-latteccino-with-a-twist-and-dash-of cinnamon-sugar" kind of way. And even a cup of the plain black coffee, when purchased at a cafe, costs close to a pint of beer.
I do love the stuff but, unlike the Californians I don't worship the Goddess Caffeina. As a side note, I don't see coffee represented by a noumenous goddess in the pantheon, but rather by a god. Somehow it seems more masculine to me. Tea, I think, is feminine. There may be those who disagree.
But in the spirit of frugality I've cut back on how much time (and money) I spend in coffee shops. However, I still have a cup of the real stuff everyday at home and it comes in at a hefty price, about Eur4 for 300g. If I go the cheaper route, which are the Lidl brands, I'm penalised through flavour; I've noticed that they leave a distinct taste of ashes in my mouth. I've been vastly disappointed by the real coffee offerings of the supermarkets, both in price and flavour.
So I've been scouting around for the best value and best tasting ground coffee. And the answer is a very strange one: IKEA, where a packet of vacuum packed coffee comes home at Eur1.80. That is damned excellent. I've tried each one, the espresso, the medium and dark roasts (even the caffeine free). My recommendation for anyone who stumbles on to this blog is to bag a few packets of Ikea's medium roast coffee anytime you're near the place, buy in bulk and take advantage of their special offers (sometimes there are two packs for three quid). It makes Sunday morning coffees that little bit easier. Best of all it works in whatever coffee making equipment you happen to have - be it cafetiere or filter. Brewing coffee the best smell in the world.....
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