When I finally got a sample I was left very confused, here’s why:

Pro

• VIA tastes and smells almost identical to Starbucks brewed coffee.
• It’s better than any other Instant.
• It’s 100% bean, unlike the content of Instant

Con

• VIA tastes and smells almost identical to Starbucks brewed coffee. Not exactly a good starting point, if the production process for VIA was used on high quality fresh beans, I wonder how they would turn out.
• It’s NOT freshly brewed coffee. No Instant, Starbucks or otherwise will ever beat a properly prepared cup of freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee.
• This is where it get’s weird, because it is actually real coffee, it’s susceptible to problems with roasting, so one batch can be darker than another. This seems to be the case with the 3 and 12 pack Colombian. The 3 pack (with best before Nov 2010) tastes burnt, but less fresh (best before April 2010) 12 pack is actually mild and quite drinkable.

This last point surprises me and hints to a possible lack of quality control, unusual for a company synonymous with producing homogenous products; at least it assures you that it’s real coffee.

Another issue, brought up on Saturday at Open Coffee Banbridge, was that VIA is not Fairtrade; despite Starbucks’ promotion last year, that all their coffee is now Fairtrade. Another apparent contradiction to their existing message. I’ve already written about Fairtrade’s strengths and weaknesses. Yes it’s good for consumers to buy Fairtrade, providing they realise that it is not the only or even best way to give farmers a fair price; for companies it’s a completely different matter. Too often used as ready-made promotion, Fairtrade is the bare minimum that a business can and should do to be ethically responsible. The Bible says that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” This isn’t the correct exegetical interpretation, but when a business switches to Fairtrade for the wrong reasons, it is nothing more than filthy rags, a front, which I hope the customer can see past. Through the release of VIA without it being Fairtrade, is it possible that this is the case with Starbucks?

Taste and Fairtrade aside, the real VIA challenge however, is to convince the UK public to spend 50 pence on an individual sachet of coffee!

So what did I think of it?*
Well first off, it’s a great size, pretty much the same a our microwave, which means it can happily sit on the worktop and not look like a warp core which keeps my wife happy.

The control panel looks quite complicated and the manual even more so. I can almost forgive that, as the major of users will be coffee geeks, but I had to read it through twice just to be sure I was doing things right and that does seem excessive, either that I was just having a really stupid day, who knows?

The smokeless filter is a nice touch and does a really good job up to a Full City (ish) level, after that you’re likely to get a charcoal’d bean anyway, but as a lb of colombian decaff found out last night, no amount of smoke filtering will help when your beans roasted to the point of starting a fire. Which brings me to the negative…

Visibility. Frankly it’s terrible. Due to the nature of the machine you really have to open the door and remove the chaff tray during the roast (which will affect the internal temperature) to have a good look at the beans. The above problem happened because I ended up shining a maglite in to see how the roast was getting on and completely misjudged it. This paragraph was originally going to be quite scathing, but I found out after cleaning there is actually a light inside the roaster (the clue being the button marked “light” on the panel. So maybe I was having a stupid day after all) however the bulb in this model wasn’t working, I’m assuming it’s just went during transit/usage or because it’s a protoype, but I’ll get that replaced today and I’m sure it’ll be a help.

In summary, the Behmor 1600 is an innovative roaster which is intended to live in your kitchen, like any other appliance, with a wide range of temperature profiles and settings it more than makes up for over complicated instructions and will probably help you understand the coffee roasting process better anyway.

In the next part of my review I’ll be looking at the pre-set curves and range of roasts available and then wrap up by comparing and cupping roasts against my other home roasters.

*Remember these are just my initial thoughts and I will continue to make posts as I roast with it more.

Score 80/100
*Technical Breakdown*
Taste - 7
Texture – 8
Temperature - 8
Technical Ability - 8
Appearance - 4
Atmosphere - 5
Address: Market Lane Lisburn, BT28 1LU
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 7am-7pm
Wheelchair Access: Yes
Child Friendly: No Provisions Made
Customer Toilet: Yes
Internet Access: Free Wifi & Computers

Feeling the way I do about advertising, I guess it makes me a hypocrite, but I really do want to push a a local online company, but I promise I will keep it to just this post.

Exile Coffee Roasters found at http://roastery.exilecoffee.com serving up hand-selected, ethically sourced, speciality coffee.

Based in Northern Ireland and one of the few speciality coffee roasters in the region, Exile Coffee will carry on their mantra; their blog of “Bringing Fresh Coffee to the People”

Andrew

Andrew

Andrew

I popped in to the new Victoria Square store to make use of their wifi for wedding planning purposes, ordered my usual small cappuccino, not too hot. I made a point to ask them not to heat the milk too high as opposed to adding cold milk and to my surprised they had no problem sticking it to the man, so to speak. The result? A not half bad cup of coffee! (My Victoria Square review is still a work in progress so this is not a review.) Not only was the coffee good but they were some of the most friendly and talkative (in a good way) coffee shop staff I have met in a long time.

It’s such a good location too, lovely view, plenty if comfy seats, open wifi from somewhere nearby as well as their own t-mobile wifi and late openings. I have to say I really enjoyed myself and I’ve came to a shocking realisation of just how big a snob I am. Which makes it even more pleasing to find such gems in the rough. I for one will be back. (Until Clement’s start opening their York Street store late, that is)

Roast is a very popular and growing chain in and around Belfast, which as far as I know started out on the Lisburn Road. It has recently been refurbished, taking it from its prior student grungyness to a more sleek sophisticated style with an outrageous Fresco on the back wall, which I love to bits.

I feel I have to clear up a very common misconception, Roast do not roast their own coffee; however they do have their own blend prepared and roasted by Belfast based Roaster Bailie’s. Bailie’s know about coffee and produce some of the best commercial roasts I have tasted in NI, so I was quite looking forward to trying their coffee. However I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

As usual I ordered a Cappucinno, which came in a roughly 9fl oz, round cup. The first thing to hit me was the milk, a thick froth of large bubbles, almost dry in appearance floated on top of the coffee. The temperature was far too high and even though I do prefer cooler drinks, EU laws do not allow drinks to be served above 140C and this far surpassed that limit. I had to wait a few minutes before I was able to take a proper drink only to taste a bitter, underextracted mixture of espresso and burnt milk. A thorough disappointment.

I do not normally complain about coffee that I am served, but as I felt this was particularly bad and as I do like to chat to the Barista before writing something like this, I thought I would mention that I didn’t find my coffee to be particularly nice and that it was a little too hot (trying to be as polite as possible) only to receive an “Oh…” and a blank look in return.

I watched as a wet portafilter was filled with ground coffee from a full doser (the coffee was not ground recently), lightly tamped and fitted into the grouphead. The Barista in question looked as though she was dressed to go clubbing, full makeup, styled hair and a very low cut top that “barely fitted.” I hate to sound harsh or make judgements based on appearance, but after asking where the coffee was from and being told “those bags over there,” it seems that image was being put before skill. It seems to be a growing trend that front of house baristas are required to be attractive women or trendy gay men, which although it adds “style” to the environment does nothing to promote or improve the CORE PRODUCT the establishment is supposed to be selling. My verdict? Terrible coffee and a seemingly unprofessional ethos, would certainly make me think twice before returning.

*Technical Breakdown*

Taste – 3 (Underextracted, bitter)
Texture – 4 (Thin with dry foam)
Temperature – 4 (Too hot)
Technical Ability – 5 (Coffee should be ground when needed and tamped firmly)
Appearance – 2.5 (Macro Foam)
Atmosphere – 4 (Stylish location, with wifi and internet kiosks)

I decided to take a long over due trip to Cafe Krem in Newry one busy Saturday afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised by the interior, this was no granny cafe, or bisto, this was a coffee shop through and through. I got inline to order and saw a face I recognised from online photos, Mariusz Mescek (no I didn’t remember his name, sorry) who came 2nd in the NI heat of the UKBC. Also pleasantly surprising was the addition of Cappuccino Italiano on the menu, these people knew their coffee.

I ordered and although from my vantage point I could not see the shot being pulled, I could tell it was being made from freshly ground coffee with a proper technique. Before completing the drink, the cup was set on the counter infront of me, as a perfect rosetta was poured. I really have to take my hat off to showmanship like this, which is sorely missing in many establishments.

Now for the important bit, the coffee, as I’ve mentioned before I’m not a technical expert nor do I have superhuman taste, but on my first mouthfull of this coffee I knew I was on to something. The microfoam and espresso had mixed thoroughly, there were no distinguishable layers (which is a good thing) and the texture was smooth and velvety. There were definite chocolate tones in the flavour, enhanced by the sweetness of the milk, but not so much as to overwhelm the coffee taste, it was an overall balanced cup. The temperature was hot, but not so hot that the cappuccino was undrinkable, it’s a very hard range to hit, but they did it and I was happy.

I had a nice chat with Mariuz after, who was still buzzing from the excitement of the UKBC. Its great to see a barista that is not only passionate about his work, but would take time to share that with a complete stranger. I wish Se and his team all the best for the future and may they keep up the good work, they’ve done NI proud and their coffee ain’t bad either

*Technical Breakdown*

Taste – 9
Texture – 9.5
Temperature – 9.5
Technical Ability – 9
Appearance – 4.5
Atmosphere – 4

*Coffee Tip*
For anyone who doesn’t know, a “true” cappuccino is 5-6fl oz of liquid made from 1/3 espresso (one shot) and 2/3 milk. The usual serving of a cappuccino in UK/Ireland/USA etc. is one shot of espresso in a 9fl oz (or larger) cup making the overall coffee weaker, in turn allowing the coffee to be made with less fresh and/or lower quality beans, by diluting the taste. Its pretty yuk!

Also available as a Google Map here