As most of you probably know, I recently wrote an op on maketradefair.com, a website run by Oxfam about the inequalities in the world of trade (if you haven’t read this, please do – it’s a very important issue and we need to spread the word!) So I thought that, seeing as ... Read review
Advantages: Fair trade, tastes quite nice Disadvantages: Tastes nice is very different to tastes gorgeous
As most of you probably know, I recently wrote an op on maketradefair.com, a website run by Oxfam about the inequalities in the world of trade (if you haven’t read this, please do – it’s a very important issue and we need to spread the word!) So I thought that, seeing as I’d given you all this advice about what you should, and shouldn’t buy, I better review some of it!
Café Direct is a company who pay ... ...order to stop the cocoa bean farmers from living in poverty. As you may have seen in my op, the price of coca has fallen dramatically over the years, meaning many coca farmers can no longer afford to survive. By charging slightly more for their coffee, Café Direct can ensure that this doesn’t happen.
I paid £2.25 for 100g of this coffee, but it normally retails at about £3.19 (Safeway). This is slightly more than some coffees, ... more
As most of you probably know, I recently wrote an op on maketradefair.com, a website run by Oxfam about the inequalities in the world of trade (if you haven’t read this, please do – it’s a very important issue and we need to spread the word!) So I thought that, seeing as I’d given you all this advice about what you should, and shouldn’t buy, I better review some of it!
Café Direct is a company who pay the best price for the cocoa beans they use, in order to stop the cocoa bean farmers from living in poverty. As you may have seen in my op, the price of coca has fallen dramatically over the years, meaning many coca farmers can no longer afford to survive. By charging slightly more for their coffee, Café Direct can ensure that this doesn’t happen.
I paid £2.25 for 100g of this coffee, but it normally retails at about £3.19 (Safeway). This is slightly more than some coffees, but when you think about the benefits the slightly higher cost brings, I don’t think this really matters.
The packaging of Café Direct is…well its not hugely classy, but then I don’t really think this matters either! It comes in a dark blue jar, with a greeny front, with a picture of a cup of coffee with steam coming off it. It carries the logo, the fairtrade logo, and the number 5065. 5060ft is the height at which it is believed the best coffee taste comes from. Café Direct use a range of heights – some up for 6000ft, for the highest quality. The beans are grown in Latin America and Africa, and are paid the best price “ensuring the farmers benefit from a good income whiled you get the best quality coffee direct from the growers.” The back of the jar also has a picture of Miguel Barrantes, a Costa Rican coffee farmer; along with a quote about hoe Café Direct benefits him. The lid is also dark blue, with the café direct logo, and has a push and twist mechanism (in that you push the lid down, and twist it once. Hence the name I suppose!) It has a gold foil lid to keep the flavour in, which is, of course fab for bursting! My ultimate satisfaction in life has to be opening coffee foil with a spoon - the crinkly sound teamed with the smell is just fab! The Best Before date on the bottom of the jar is Jan 2004, so it has a life time of about 1 ½ years, however the longer coffee has been open, the more it loses its flavour, so I wouldn’t recommend you follow this guideline strictly!
As with all instant coffee, to make, you simply take a teaspoon of the stuff, add milk/coffee mate, and then top up with water. Always add your milk before the water, otherwise the milk gets scorched when you add it, and try not to use boiling water, and instead use very hot water (boiling water ruins the taste apparently, but I use boiling I have to admit!) The coffee dissolves easily after briefly stirirng.
So how does it taste? If you like your coffee dark and strong, then you won’t be a fan of this one. I have my coffee medium in strength, without sugar. Café Direct is a fairly mild coffee, but does have a bite to it, in the after taste. It’s very smooth (as I like it), but is ever so slightly bitter after you’ve swallowed it (Oh my god no one told me describing coffee was this hard!) It’s a nice coffee – and you know that by drinking it you’re doing some good for other people – but it doesn’t beat my all time favourite, Nescafe Gold Blend. However, there are a million and one reasons not to drink/buy anything by Nescafe (that’s another op!), so I’m trying to convert! Whilst Nescafe has a much smoother flavour and is very creamy, the Cafe Direct isn't quite as creamy.
Smell wise...well, it smells like coffee! It doesn't smell as bitter as Gold Blend, and smells fairly mild.
My Mum has a theory that it takes a while to get used to a new coffee, and I certainly this that this is true. It’s a nice coffee, and I will definitely continue to drink it, just because it’s a fair trade product. However, I will continue to look around for fair trade coffee, and will definitely be trying other products. As a day to day coffee, this is a nice product, but I certainly wouldn't serve it at a posh meal/family occasion! I believe that Cafe Direct do also do filter coffee though, so perhaps this would be more suitable. They also produce a decaffinated version, which I will also be buying.
Cafe Direct is available from all good supermarket chains. For more info, go to www.cafedirect.co.uk
I know this isn't my best op in the world, but I've never reviewed coffee before! Any comments/hints would be very welcome!
Advantages: While you drink you help the 3rd world Disadvantages: Not as rich in flavour as the leading brands, but by no means at all is it not nice.
Cafe direct ground coffee
Cafédirect is coffee sold to help the 3rd world. “Without Cafédirect and fairtrade many coffee growers here could not continue-the price paid by middlemen was not enough to cover the growers’ costs” Miguel Barrantes, Costa Rica.
The catch phrase for this coffee is “Excellent Cafédirect from the growers”. It also says that 5065ft is the height of coffee taste. This is because the beans from ... ...altitudes, some up to 6000ft (1830m). Growing coffee at these altitude results in a “high quality blend to give you a smooth coffee with a great aroma”. Cafédirect ensures the farmers benefit from a good income by paying the best price for the beans to get the pick of the crop, whilst you get the best quality coffee, direct from the growers. ~~~So why buy this coffee~~~
My mum is a religious person and will do anything to give someone ...
loz989 18.10.2002 (16.05.2003)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cafedirect Ground Coffee
Advantages: great taste and less guilt Disadvantages: packaging
Back when international trade was first developing, in the days of the silk road, when people travelled the world to bring back rare and exotic spices, we had a very different attitude to many of the things we now take for granted. There was a time when chocolate and sugar were rare, precious, and treated with caution. Really speaking, coffee belongs with these spices and rareties, as a luxurey for occasional use. The trouble is that we don't want ... ...of great value, we want, as a culture, to guzzle it in vast quantities every day and pay very little for it. This really isn't on.
The result of this is that farmers growing coffee have the prices they can command pushed ever lower, leaving them in poverty. Fair Trade goods attempt to redress the balance, giving a fairer share of the profits to farmers. It means that we the consumer have to pay more, but this is a good thing. We get too many products ...
Bryn_Pearson 10.02.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cafedirect Ground Coffee
Advantages: Lovely flavour, just as good as full-caffeine stuff Disadvantages: A touch on the pricey side (but worth the extra)
Attention please!! if you tried CafeDirect when it first came out a few years ago and were disappointed like I was, then give it another chance because this stuff is totally different. Even more amazing is to find a decaf that tastes as good as a full-octane ground coffee!
It is medium strength but full of flavour and well balanced, not bitter. You just can't tell that it's decaf, and unlike some brands I just don't get bored of it, it rounds off ... ...of Fair Trade stuff (including Cafedirect 5065 Instant Coffee, which is good as instant goes).
Look for the attractive dusky blue packaging saying "Cafedirect" decaffeinated coffee - it's ground for general use (cafetieres, filter machines etc). So it may be a bit dearer than some other brands, but I'd say it's worth it for the flavour and the knowledge that the coffee growers are getting a fairer deal and a promising future.
Well done Cafedirect!
...
lettuce21 02.08.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cafedirect Ground Coffee
Advantages: Fairly traded and tastes great Disadvantages: Not that widely available
Coffee, well, I love coffee. But with my hand on my heart I have to say I know too much to be able to drink non-fair trade coffee with a clean conscience. Lucky for me then that Cafe Direct fair trade coffee is superbly delicious. The ground coffee is available in normal, rich roast, special ('Machu Pichu' - full and mellow flavour) and decaf, although you may have to go to Oxfam, Traidcraft or similar to find them, as most supermarkets just stock ... ...same price as other coffees too, so don't think you have to fork out more to shop responsibly.
I generally drink the rich roast (red bag), and find it strong and fully flavoured but not too acidic. I personally would put it up there with the best. So, delicious coffee to suit most tastes (I must confess a weakness for hazlenut flavour coffee!) - my only gripe would be that it can be difficult to track down all varieties. But they are out there, ...
Pipkin 08.03.2003
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cafedirect Ground Coffee
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Cafedirect Ground Coffee"
Advantages: Direct from the farmer Disadvantages: None
? The answer is yes. The lid is blue, twist off, push on. It tells you this on the label. The label on the front has a picture of what looks like Peru. The reason I think is because I bought the fresh groundcoffee for my coffee machine which was also made by cafedirect and it was from machu picchu. It has a cup of black coffee at the bottom of the picture. It has the words, excellent cafedirect from the growers. The 5065 The height of coffee taste. It also has the fair trade logo. The label on the back says "5065 is the height of coffee taste. Cafedirect pays the best price to get the pick of the crop. This way farmers benefit from a good income while you get the best quality coffee direct from the grower." Then it has a little statement from one of the farmers. It also tells you that the coffee is non gm, the jar is made from 70% recycled ...
Advantages: you get what you pay for Disadvantages: a little expensive
, with the assistance of representatives of the Co-Op and Green & Blacks, among others.
Well, that's my opinion on the phrases used, now for the product itself. Well, Cafedirect is a brand I have become used to over the years, so I know their groundcoffee blends are of high quality and make a superb drink. However, it's worth pointing out there is an interesting parallel between coffee and whisky. Blended drinks contain a variety of different whiskies, produced in a variety of areas, so the flavour of the individual whiskies depends largely on where they are produced. It's also true for coffee: the arabica strain is grown all over the world and much of the flavour depends on where it is grown, as well as how it is roasted. Cafedirect's Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro variants illustrate this point perfectly. Machu Picchu has a wonderful aroma, straight ...
