Cheap coffee as tasty as pricey java

The Bellarom Gold and Markus Gold brands from Lidl and Aldi won the taste-off against more expensive organic and fair-trade brands.

“These coffee brands were also the best value in the test and each cost €2.49 for 500 grammes,” Hubertus Primus, a tester with the Stiftung Warentest foundation, which organised the battle of the beans.

Twenty of the 31 brands tested received the grade of “good.” Some brands fared much worse though. Tchibo’s Gran Cafe, Tip Gold from Metro and the A&P brand from Kaisers all got the score of “mediocre” for “musty” flavouring. The Gala Nr. 1 brand from coffee house Eduscho got the worst score. Testers said it tasted “of wet paper.”