Rombouts

Rombouts is a Belgian family coffee company founded in Antwerp in 1896, when Frans Rombouts began roasting his own beans in a small manual roasting drum. It is still family owned, now based at Aartselaar in the province of Antwerp, and holds a Belgian Royal Warrant. Its best-known idea is the one cup filter, designed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair: a single dose of ground coffee in a filter that sits on the mug.

Rombouts is the answer for the desk drawer, the caravan and the spare room where guests would otherwise get instant. Sit the filter on the mug, fill to the line with hot but not boiling water, and let it drip through. The Original is a middle-of-the-road medium roast, so it takes milk well and sits comfortably next to a caramelised Belgian biscuit or a plain butter biscuit mid-morning.

Key facts