whilst that is true - they set out and intend to offer a uniform product across all their stores. Therefore by necessity bulk buying and blending from a range of inexpensive beans generally means a more boring cup of coffee. As for the dark roast that stems more from the tradition of the Itialian style roast for the production of Espresso which given the machines most outlets use - is the base for all coffee drinks. In reality all commercial roasters are the same or similar - but I am well informed that Costa takes more care than others, and sets higher standards than others.
Different beans (not necessarily better) roasted lighter can yield a more interesting drink, but this is highly dependent on the bean, and where it is grown. I regularly roast well into second crack very dark (but not City or Itialian) to produced a well flavoured unburnt coffee. Under roasted good beans can taste far worse than over roasted.
The extraction method makes a huge amount of difference to the flavour profile.
They have invested a lot of time and money here designing and building a tasting laboratory with comprehensive ventilation/lighting systems, so that they can get the aromas and colour correct.
I agree with you, beans roasted too dark make the coffee bitter, which I donāt like. I think Costa are the best of the high st bunch in that respect (and Iām not saying that because I work for them!)
Confuses the fuck out of them when you ask for only half the milk to be poured in. Easy to sort out in the diy garage machines. Just dial in a large for a double dose of coffee and pull out the cup when you have a couple of inches of milk.
I was behind someone in the branch of Costa on campus the other day, who asked for a coffee with hot rice milk, when they couldnāt offer rice milk, they asked for hemp milk, when they couldnāt offer hemp milk, they were then offered soya milkā¦ the customer stormed off in a huff saying it wasnāt right that all tastes werenāt catered for properly.
Mind you I wasnāt surprised, that Costa is based in the Law School buildingā¦ which is full of trainee pretentious lawyer typesā¦I should have gone Lavazza in The School of Creative Artsā¦
