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It’s 6.30 in the morning. You’re alarm beeps. With your bedhead unbrushed, you stagger downstairs in your dressing gown. It’s coffee time.
Except that means grinding beans, packing the group head, and standing bleary-eyed as the coffee machine whirs and grumbles like a disgruntled tractor. Even if you use a cafetiere, you’ve still got to let the coffee sit. And you know, one day in seven, you’re going to spill coffee ground everywhere.
At its best, coffee needs time and dedication. There’s nothing better than a carefully brewed cup at 11 on a Sunday, with the crème luxuriously settling on top. But in the early hours of the morning – when you’re struggling for time – you want convenience.
You’ve tried the big brands of instant coffee… and they tasted bitter and acrid. It might be seven in the morning, but you’ve still got tastebuds.
What you need is a mix between ground coffee and instant? Convenience AND taste. Why compromise?
That’s where coffee bags come in.
You’ve heard of tea bags… well, it’s the same idea, just with coffee. And everyone’s getting in on the action.
As Taylors of Harrogate asks, why didn’t we think of them before?
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We also don’t use foil packaging for our bags. Instead, every pack of coffee bags is resealable, cutting down on packaging and sealing in the flavour.
Taylors Coffee Bags: Are they good?
Taylors of Harrogate are the brand behind the legendary Yorkshire Tea. So, they’ve got plenty of experience boiling drinks from bags. But there’s tea, and then there’s coffee.
So, has their talent translated?
The answer: sort of.
There are four different flavours to try in their new range of coffee bags: Rich Italian, Decaffé, Flying Start, and Hot Lava Java.
Inside each bag, you’ll find 7.5 grams of ground coffee in a material remarkably similar to tea bags. Think filter paper. Then, you pop the bag in the cup, pour in boiling water, and let it settle. Once it’s brewed, add a dash of milk or spoonful of sugar to taste. And voila, a fresh cup of coffee. Plus, you can even compost the coffee bag.
However, getting the flavour is the problem.
As many people have noted, if you want the “proper” cup of coffee promised, you need to follow the instructions to the letter. That means brewing for several minutes and then giving a firm couple of squeezes. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a watery coffee. That rich and vibrant flavour never seems to materialise. Compared to other convenience products, like Nespresso, that’s more than a little disappointing.
But if you’re heading out camping or you can’t be fussed with coffee faff, these are an adequate substitute.
So what's in their Flavour bags?
There is a decent selection of flavours. Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian coffee bags promise a hint of chocolate and almond in a mug. The elegant Italian inspired blend of African and Latin America group coffee brew is first in the range of Harrogate's Four coffee flavours.
Sealed in clever individually wrapped bags the Hot Lava Java (Roast 6) are a blend of smoke and black pepper making it the smokiest and most unusual of the flavours.
Another Roast 4 proper coffee flavour is the Deccaffe with a malty, smooth taste perfect for anyone cutting down on their caffeine.
A taste of Hazelnut and Chocolate anyone? That is the Flying Start (Roast 5) flavour that Harrogate are promising you.
So how do you get a proper coffee made easy experience?
While the ground coffee bag might look like a teabag, for a thrilling experience Harrogates have shared with their customers the trick which for less than 5 minutes you can have the blend made perfectly in your cup for that first sip. If it's the Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian coffee bags that get you going just add a coffee bag to the mug, add boiled water, stir, squeeze, brew for 2mins, squeeze and remove the bag. Your ready for that sip.
For the other flavours, you can also work around the same trick to brew, add boiled water, roast 4, proper coffee made easy is done.
Taylors Coffee Bags: Environmental Credentials
Most coffee companies pride themselves on their environmental and fair-trade credentials. That means paying workers a fair wage and ensuring the packaging and waste are all biodegradable.
So, how do Taylors Coffee Bags stack up?
Like all Taylors coffee – beans, ground, and bags – it has been sourced from farmers worldwide using long-term contracts. These guarantee farmers a stable income at a fair price. They call it the Taylors Source Approach (or TSA for short).
The bags themselves are made from paper, which has been whitened using a chlorine-free process. So, don’t worry, they’re perfectly safe for human consumption. The bags are then sealed using a renewable, plant-based bioplastic developed from corn starch. That’s why you’re able to toss them on the compost heap. They’re all carbon-neutral too.
Even the packaging uses FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) cardboard. However, each coffee bag or envelope comes with its own individual foil wrapper. These contain petroleum-based materials. It’s done to maintain the bags’ freshness, but with one or two cups a day, the waste piles up. Still, Taylors are busy working on a replacement material.
What’s the downside?
It all sounds pretty good. Aside from a bit of difficulty getting the brew right, what’s the downside.
This one’s easy: the price.
On Amazon.co.uk, you can purchase 30 coffee bags (3 boxes of 10 enveloped bags) for £8.37. With a quick bit of mental math, that’s around 28p per bag. At such small numbers, it seems reasonable. However, consider you can also purchase six-packs of 227g Taylors of Harrogate coffee for £22.74. Therefore, it’s around three times as expensive, gram by gram.
The verdict
Overall, Taylors of Harrogate have managed to produce a good quality coffee bag. They’ve got plenty of choices from which to pick, with four exciting flavours. Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian coffee bags in clever individually wrapped bags lets this elegant Italian inspired blend of African and Latin America group coffee brew perfectly in your cup making it a soothing nightcap. While the other flavours promise a great start to your day.
However, there are still a few concerns about the faff involved in the brewing process. Nevertheless, if you follow the steps, you’re guaranteed a decent cup of proper coffee made easy.
You can even throw the coffee bag on the compost heap. Just don’t expect to do the same with the foil packaging.
We recommend checking out our Asda coffee bag review.
