Alcafe Decaffeinated Coffee is Aldi Stores own brand of coffee. It comes in a jar. The original jars we purchased had a burgundy lid, which was difficult to close as it only had 2 notches, and it did not always fasten properly.
If you failed to get it exactly right, you could pick it up next time and the lid would stay in your hand but the jar would fall on the floor, spilling everywhere, if you were not careful.
Recently, the brand has been given an upgrade and this minor fault has been completely removed. All the jars have a dark red lid (nearly the same burgundy colour of the originals) with a clear jar (apart from the brown and red label).
BACKGROUND
At work, we often have an Aldi trip to the Somercotes store as they have special offers on garden equipment, tools, etc. On one of these (frequent) trips, we had to purchase coffee for our “office tea fund”. I rarely look at the food/drink aisles on these trips as we are going specifically for the special offers. However, on this occasion we realised that Aldi only stocked their own brand of coffee and that they also sold their own cappuccino and hot chocolate range.
My colleague and I decided to splash out on the cappuccino as well as the coffee we had gone for. (see cappuccino review, for more details). We chose to buy both as it was cheaper for both than some of the coffees we bought singly from Sainsburys, etc.
Several members of the office staff have gone onto decaffeinated coffee – as we drink that much that we were afraid of the health warnings of too much caffeine. When we changed to decaffeinated, we had a few side effects caused by the withdrawal symptoms (e.g. headaches, etc).
This only reinforced our beliefs that the caffeine was bad for us and we worked through the cold turkey! I now get headaches after having too much caffeinated coffee, if the decaf version is unavailable!
COLOUR
The coffee is a light brown almost granular kind of coffee. If you have tried Sainsburys Gold (large tin) it is a very similar colour and texture. However, we find that the Sainsburys Gold is a much more bitter tasting coffee, as well as being caffeinated.
TASTE
The taste is great! It is the best decaffeinated I have tasted. It tastes of coffee (naturally) but is mild. As I drink coffee on the hour every hour, it has got to be good stuff. Even those, who prefer their coffee to be caffeinated, enjoy it if their usual brand is unavailable.
Although we do have someone in the office who can only drink Nescafe Original! There is always one isn’t there! We have to buy 3 brands of coffee, because the caffeine drinkers don’t all like Nescafe!
SMELL
My hay fever is playing me up at the moment, so it may smell of coffee, but unless I make it very strong I can’t smell it. When I can smell it, it smells almost like ground coffee. I enjoy it with milk, which reduces the coffee smell (in my opinion, anyway).
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Freeze dried instant decaffeinated coffee granules. It contains only 0.3% caffeine. Add milk and sugar according to taste.
A member of staff in our office drinks it black all the time and says it is the best she has ever tasted, so it can be drunk either way. I drink it black if we are out of milk.
Our canteen sells a pint for 45p and is only open at certain times, so we try to bring milk in from elsewhere, but if we run out we have to wait until the canteen re-opens, but I can’t always wait that long for a drink. It is shut between 8.30am and 10am and also 1.30pm and 3pm. The staff refuses to serve you during these times!!!!!!
PRICE
£1.49 for a jar, which makes about an average 56 cups, (according to the label) works out at about 2p a cup. We tend to use mugs so that would probably halve the above number, which still makes it only 4p a mug. This is only available from Aldi shops.
GOOD POINTS 1. Low price 2. Decaffeinated 3. Suitable for vegetarians 4. Tastes brilliant
BAD POINTS
1. Only available from Aldi shops – my nearest is 12 miles away 2. Not always available 3. We run out very frequently – we now have to buy 2 jars at a time, just in case it is out of stock.
AFTERWARDS
We often need to restock this drink at work, as it is a popular drink.
MADE BY/MORE INFORMATION FROM
Aldi Stores, PO Box 26 Atherstone, Warwickshire, CV9 2SH.
Aldi Stores (Ireland) PO Box 7800 Dublin 18.
More information at www.aldi.com
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