Douwe Egberts Cafe Switch : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Advantages:	Great tasing coffee
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The housework is done, its raining and I can't go and do any gardening or take my two year old for a walk, so its review time.

I love Camp Coffee and had ran out but whilst walking round my local Tesco I spotted the Douwe Egberts Cafe Switch and thought they look nice so i'd give them a try. Douwe Egberts, I would say are excellent coffee makers so I new they would be fair ly decent.

Douwe Egberts - The Company

Egbert Douwes and his wife originally started up in Joure, Holland in 1753 by selling Tea, Coffee and Tobacco to local residents. Their son Douwe Egberts entered the company in 1780 and started supplying other shops around the country of Holland. His decendents went on to make the company the largest coffee company in Holland. Since 1978 they have been associated with the Sara Lee Company thus making them able to supply their products worldwide. They are now the 3rd largest supplier of coffee in the world.

Douwe Egberts are famous for making ground coffee from a medium to a rich roast including decaffeinated suitable for cafetieres and filter machines, intstant freeze dried coffee including Decaffeinated and Cafe Switch.

They buy their coffee beans from farms that they know and trust and are moving towards 100% sustainablity and are promoting social, economic and enviromental wellbeing by helping its farmers look after their workers, their families and the environment in which they live and work. The company is UTZ certified (a global non government organisation), and they insure that the workers and their families have access to healthcare, clean water and decent housing. Their children have access to schooling. Workers are fully trained and their labour rights are protected. Fertilisers and agrochemicals are used minimally and are controlled, the use of water and energy is minimised and environmental pollution is reduced. They do not dictate their prices so this enables the farmers to achieve a better price for the coffee and gain more competiveness within the market.

The Product - Cafe Switch

The 216ml box (13cm x 12cm x 6cm) contains 6 x 36ml cups of liquid coffee drink. It is available in four different flavours, True Kick, a bittersweet drink with a stronger taste of coffee, White Innocence a smooth coffee drink with a hint of vanilla and caramel, Creamy Pleasure, a rich coffee drink with a taste of cream and tiramisu and finally Creamy Pleasure less sweet taste.

The pods are 12cm x 5cm x 2.5cm and are made of brown soft plastic and have a foil type material topping. You pump the two joined pods for about 15 seconds (I tend to pump for 30 seconds) until the pods go rather stiff. Pull the centre seal and squeeze the pods together into a cup/mug ensureing you get all the contents out including the vital froth. Pour on hot water and thats it. No need for milk or sugar.

Taste Test

Right my daughter is having her afternoon nap. Time to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee. Lets go for a bit of Creamy Pleasure. It has about 6mm of froth on top of the drink. It has a slightly sweet but pleasing aroma. It tastes creamy and is sweet enough for me, although I only have one sugar in my coffee, if you have any more in your coffee you may wish to add a little sugar. It does not have a very strong coffee taste but it is pleasant. You can taste the tirasimu but I wouldn't be able to pin point that taste if it didn't know what the taste was. As you drink it the froth obviously does reduce but there is still some froth left at the end.

Nutritional Information and Ingredients

Per 36mm concentrate made up with 180ml water contains 75 calories, 2g protein, 11g Carbohydrate and 2.5g Fat. I just pour water in and don't bother measuring 180ml out

Ingredients. 54% Whole Milk, 14% Sugar, 13% Coffee Extract, Skimmed Milk Powder, Refined Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Glucose Syrup, Cream, Flavours, Acidity Regulator (E331 and E524), Stabilizers (E460, E466 and E407), Sweeteners (Cyclamic Acid and Saccharin). Quite a few E numbers then but a reasonable amount of calories.

Price and Availability

It costs £1.99 from Tesco and £1.98 from Asda. I can't find whether Sainsburys sell it as it is not showing on the mysupermarket website. This works out at around 33p for a cup of coffee.

My Opinion

The coffee is an ideal drink for relaxing and is reasonably priced at about 33p a cup. It has a pleasent taste and is enjoyable. Its a pity that nowhere on the box does it mention that the comapny are UTZ Certificated or that they are trying to help farmers and the environment. Maybe if this was mentioned it would be a good selling point bring them in contention with the Fairtrade product.

Some Useless Facts about Coffee

Coffee is the worlds second most important export for devoloping countries after Crude oil.

Coffee was originally used as a medicine around 900BC by an Arabian Doctor.

Brazil is the largest producer of Coffee followed by Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia.

More than 20 million people world wide work in the coffee industry or related industies.

For further reading the website is www.douwe-egberts.co.uk.

Many thanks for reading.

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