Surprisingly Good …

Ran out of my Square Mile espresso beans at the weekend (another tale of the last 18 months that I shall tell at some point).

I have a bag of Peets House Blend in the freezer (oh the heresy) but don’t particularly want to keep grabbing it out – probably wait until I’m next going to be home for a few days, then take it out and finish it off.

And, being the weekend, I didn’t have the option of popping to Monmouth on the way home and picking up some of their beans.

Instead, on the spur of the moment, I grabbed a tin of Illy beans from my local Waitrose (the black tin, denoting darker roast). Normally I avoid buying any beans from the supermarket, because I’ve not had good results in the past, but I needed something and I certainly wasn’t picking up anything that was pre-ground …

To my amazement, the Illy is pretty damn good. I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised – Illy’s a widely available brand for a reason, and I like a cup of Illy-based latte from Manon – but I was never all that fussed before when using Illy pre-ground. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, but nor was it anything to write home about.

I guess it just underlines the difference between freshly ground and pre-ground coffee … a lesson for us all?