01.Introduction
In brief
- Fourteen brands of ground coffee tested
- Our top-rating brands include fair-trade and organic coffees, as well as one relatively cheap supermarket generic brand.
We only tested ground coffee marked as suitable for espresso machines, as this method of brewing coffee brings out its full flavour. Nonetheless, we found more than 30 brands in the major supermarkets – too many to test them all – so we narrowed it down to 14, all made from arabica beans, and one extra to see if price determines quality (see World’s Most Expensive Coffee).
Please note: this information was current as of December 2009 but is still a useful guide to today's market.
How we test
Our tester brews each coffee in the same way using a Breville ESP8B Café Roma espresso machine. Three experts rate the coffees, giving them scores for the colour and thickness of the crema (the tan-coloured foam on top of an espresso), aroma, flavour, mouthfeel (creaminess or wateriness) and aftertaste. The coffees are presented in random order identified only by numbers, so the experts don’t know which brands of coffee they’re tasting.
20 Jul 2010
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We test the coffee beans - and then taste the real thing at Gloria Jean's, Michel's Patisserie and Starbucks.
20 Dec 2012
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We test 23 coffee machines, a mix of semi-automatic, manual and capsule machines priced from $70 to $1750.
17 Feb 2012
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Grinding your coffee beans immediately before making coffee is the best way to extract their full flavour.
12 Apr 2008
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For an immediate coffee hit, does real espresso at the push of a button sound more appealing than instant coffee from a tin?