Heads up : Assorted Cucina Pasta sauces on offer reduced from an already reasonable 75p down to 69p. A staple prep food in my house, I topped up today.
But bad news. Alcafe 200g has just leapt from £2.45 to £2.69, so get over to Lidl before they put up the Belarom Equivelent.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
Heads up : Assorted Cucina Pasta sauces on offer reduced from an already reasonable 75p down to 69p. A staple prep food in my house, I topped up today.
But bad news. Alcafe 200g has just leapt from £2.45 to £2.69, so get over to Lidl before they put up the Belarom Equivelent.
£2.45 for 200g? That's £1.22 per 100g. Azera is now £7.89 per 100g. L'or vigoroso is £6.95. Sains microground Americano is £3.00. Sains TTD Columbian instant is £3. Alta Rica is £4.47 or £3.82 in big jars. I have bought Aldi before, the powder type in tins. It was about £2.50 last time I got it, for 90 or 100g. It's not the best, but not bad.
jennyjj01 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 03, 2025 1:05 pm
But bad news. Alcafe 200g has just leapt from £2.45 to £2.69, so get over to Lidl before they put up the Belarom Equivelent.
£2.45 for 200g? That's £1.22 per 100g.
Yup. I kid you not.
I've been trumpeting praise for this coffee for years now, in this thread.
ALDI Alcafe Gold Roast Freeze Dried (Instant) Coffee 200g. Now up to the, still great, £2.69 ( might be £2.65?)
To me, it's on par with Kenco Gold which I used to drink every day and which is now roughly twice the price.
Lidl's equivalent is Belarom Gold Instant coffee which is about £2.50 for 200g.
Right. Well, I can't not give it a try at that price. I usually mix cheaper coffee with more expensive stuff, which I only buy if it's on offer. I did get 6 x 140 Azera off Amazon not long ago. But it's still around £4 per 100g.
Frnc wrote: ↑Thu Apr 03, 2025 5:13 pm
Right. Well, I can't not give it a try at that price. I usually mix cheaper coffee with more expensive stuff, which I only buy if it's on offer. I did get 6 x 140 Azera off Amazon not long ago. But it's still around £4 per 100g.
All a matter of taste, so good luck, but what do you have to lose? Please report your opinion.
I personally dislike the darker coffees like Maxwell House and some Nescafe and tend to like the 'gold blend' granular types such as Douwe Egberts, Nescafe Gold, Kenco and these cheapies from Aldi and Lidl.
I also don't like any of the powder coffees.
Of course, fresh ground coffee and machine pods are a totally different consideration.
Graceful Degradation! Prepping's objective summed up in two words. Turning Disaster into Mild Inconvenience by the power of fore-thought
I will. I think there's a big difference between the old fashioned cheap instant powder coffees, which I've not had for years, and am not sure if they even still exist, and the posh Azera and L'OR Artiste types, which contain fine ground, which I like.
I'm just trying Sains TTD microground Americano, £3 for 100g, which is about as cheap as you can get at Sainsbury's now, expecially for microground. Tastes ok to me.
To be honest, in a blind test, I could probably only pick out the L'OR ones for definite, as they have a hint of chocolate. The Azera type ones have a definite texture, but that's only really obvious when you get to the bottom.
I've raved about Spice Tailor long life curry a few times. I noticed the other day, my Punjabi Chickpea Masaala is actually made in India. I was quite impressed by that. Maybe all their Indian currys are made there. You get a small packet of spices, whole leaves and seed pods, and you fry them first. I bit into one the other day and it nearly blew my head off! It was a seed pod about 40mm long. I've got 7 packs to use by the end of November. You can get 2 good meals out of each.
Frnc wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 6:37 pm
I've raved about Spice Tailor long life curry a few times. I noticed the other day, my Punjabi Chickpea Masaala is actually made in India. I was quite impressed by that. Maybe all their Indian currys are made there. You get a small packet of spices, whole leaves and seed pods, and you fry them first. I bit into one the other day and it nearly blew my head off! It was a seed pod about 40mm long. I've got 7 packs to use by the end of November. You can get 2 good meals out of each.
Cheers.
I see they are £3 in Tesco. When you say long life, how long is BBE on these. I'm guessing they'll realistically store for >5 years at ambient temperature. In a food emergency, flavour is precious, so I'll be giving these a try.
Great how you don't end up with jars of esoteric spices that just get wasted.
I see Pataks do similar, also at £3. So, maybe a comparison review.
Frnc wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 6:37 pm
I've raved about Spice Tailor long life curry a few times. I noticed the other day, my Punjabi Chickpea Masaala is actually made in India. I was quite impressed by that. Maybe all their Indian currys are made there. You get a small packet of spices, whole leaves and seed pods, and you fry them first. I bit into one the other day and it nearly blew my head off! It was a seed pod about 40mm long. I've got 7 packs to use by the end of November. You can get 2 good meals out of each.
Cheers.
I see they are £3 in Tesco. When you say long life, how long is BBE on these. I'm guessing they'll realistically store for >5 years at ambient temperature. In a food emergency, flavour is precious, so I'll be giving these a try.
Great how you don't end up with jars of esoteric spices that just get wasted.
I see Pataks do similar, also at £3. So, maybe a comparison review.
They normally have a year or two on the date, but the ones off Amazon only had about 6 months. I can use 5 packets in that time, so it's ok. I paid about £14 for 5 packs, that's 10 meals, so not really expensive. Long live naans only cost about 70p for 2. Some are mainly sauce, so I add cauliflower and carrot. But the chickpea doesn't need owt else. The naans only have 2 or 3 month shelf life, so I only keep about 4 in stock. So I have this about twice a month, on two consecutive days, maybe something else a day in between. I have made the chickpea do 3 meals, or 2 and a snack size, but 2 is best. The Rusic Rogan Josh is delicious with cauli and carrots, and does 2 big portions like that. With a naan of course.
Slightly off topic, but Sainsburys are doing "buy 3, get cheapest free", on a big range of frozen vegetarian stuff, including Quorn, which I only buy when it's on offer, except the big bags of sausages, as they are cheap anyway.
So for example I want 2 Quorn at £2.85 each and 1 at £2.75, I save £2.75, almost 33%. Bargain!