Caffeine and the production desk

Tea and coffee are big deals on my production desk, and among the editorial staff as a whole. I suspect that this is one of those trends that runs right through journalism.

In my workplace, the coffee drinkers take it in turns to pop downstairs to Starbucks and get the coffee, while the tea drinkers take it in turns to go over to the 'breakout area' and make the tea. Some people take more turns than others, but I'm not going to name names here.

I'm one of the tea crowd - and I have to admit to drinking mostly red (rooibos) tea rather than black tea. This is simply because I can drink six, seven, eight mugs of rooibos with no ill effects whereas too many caffeinated drinks can make me over-excitable. And an over-excitable sub is no fun for anyone.

So while I do sometimes drink coffee (after a meal in a restaurant, or sometimes at home), when Fuelmyblog gave me the opportunity to review some coffee from CoffeeBeanShop.co.uk, I thought I'd better get the opinion of a coffee-loving colleague. And who better than our web editor? After all, much like a caffeine addict (and New York), the internet never sleeps.

Also, he has a cafetiere at work and I don't.

Anyway, I was sent a packet of 'Mocha Guatemala Espresso Blend' coffee beans and we duly put them to the test. My colleague described the coffee as "almost floral" with a "chocolatey aftertaste", and remarked that it didn't exactly match the description provided by CoffeeBeanShop. A little unfair, perhaps, as this talked of "floral and rustic tones" and a "mixed chocolatey and earthy body".

The long coffee we made worked better than the espresso, but we put this down to the coffee-making equipment we were using and our inability to grind the beans fine enough (or something). You can see I've got this product review lark off to a tee!

One thing that did impress my colleague was the fact that the coffee beans arrived in the post two days after they were roasted. The packet even had a 'roasted on' date printed on the side to prove it. Apparently coffee connoisseurs consider this a Very Good Thing - although in the interests of fairness I should point out that CoffeeBeanShop isn't the only retailer to ship freshly roasted beans. Our web editor recommends Has Bean Coffee as an alternative.

Right, I think it's time for a hot drink...