The Coffee Machine

Coffee is an enormous market -second only to oil - so which companies produce the product? The list is endless so perhaps a better question is who to buy my coffee from? Verde coffee price themselves on fresh coffee because we have a very short supply line- From green bean to customer in less than a week. Some larger companies may get the coffee beans to their distributors several months after that.

Of course coffee has a reasonable shelf life- it is drinkable up to a year after packing but the flavour does deteriorate considerably. Alternative brands to look for are Lavazza, one of the biggest brands in Italy, Seagofredo -again italian and Illy.

Illy is the master of spin and marketing - how else can you explain people paying up to three times the normal price for Brazilian coffee. I admire the company enormously -they love their beans but you can buy the same or better quality for a lot less!

Lavazza is excellent and reasonably priced whereas if you look at the Seagafredo beans they are small, broken and mainly robusta. They make a reasonable espresso but wouldn’t be my choice.

Who would you recommend?

Do you have a favourite I havn’t mentioned?

Please let us know.