Caffe Aurora Italian Blend Beans

Solid blend, nothing exciting but great for quaffing – I have a dual boiler Breville machine and picked up these beans as they were on special at Woolies. I could see from the packaging that there were a lot of broken beans in the bag, but the price was a do not miss, so I took the plunge (if not the plunger!). On opening the bag, the aroma was encouraging. Nutty, warm, hints of cacao. Lots of odd shaped and broken beans in there! With my Sette 270, I extracted 19g of beans (and bits!) for a 3:1 brew ratio to go into my large flat white coffee, which is my preference, and the results were fine. It's a solid, warm, nutty brew with little or no citrus, and plenty of crema. I wonder if they're getting the broken bits from decent beans to give us a value product? If so, I don't mind broken beans, but I do suspect that if these are not kept carefully, they will quickly become low on flavour, since outside the warm end of the palate, there's not much earthy or acidic to fill out the mouthspace. Maybe the term "italian blend" might be a bit misleading, as it is missing the strength and citrus punch of what I would call an italian espresso blend. I'd rate if more a soft "famiglia" blend.

It’s actually not bad but also not amazing – Bought this a Coles for $15. It’s a supermarket brand so don’t expect amazing results. I usually buy the fancy beans from a coffee roaster but this time I thought I would give the commercial brands a go. I have this theory that coffee is priced like fashion. You get charged more for what you perceive is better. In the case of Caffe Aurora Italian Blend, the price matches the taste. Having said this, the product is actually not bad, just not that great. It doesn’t have a bitter taste like some cheap coffee you’d find at a cafe frequented by truckies. I find it a bit mild but that might suit some people. This is the sort of coffee I would stock at the work lunchroom and still get away with an ok latte or espresso. It won’t offend people but it won’t impress the fussy coffee drinkers.