Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g
Bought, mostly, by people who stopped shopping around years ago and see no reason to start again. The French roasting tradition stops earlier than the Italian one, so the cup that comes out is round rather than strong: toasted, faintly cocoa-ish, with the bitter edge deliberately absent. That is a harder thing to get right than a dark roast and a much easier one to underrate, because nothing in it announces itself. It suits a slow morning and a second cup more than it suits a jolt. The grind is a medium cut, right for a cafetiere or a filter machine and wrong for an espresso.
Carte Noire Ground Coffee, in brief.
Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g is the French take on a smooth everyday cup, ready ground for a cafetiere or a filter machine, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the rounded, low-acid alternative to the darker Italian blends on the same shelf.
The grind is a medium cut for a cafetiere or a filter, not for an espresso machine. Medium roast, low acidity, no bitter edge, and no grinder needed.
Carte Noire Ground Coffee is a 250g pack of ready-ground coffee built for the French idea of a good cup, which is a rounded one rather than a sharp one. It is the kind of coffee that turns up in a cafetiere at half past seven in the morning and does not ask anything of you beyond hot water and four minutes of patience. There is no grinder to own, no scale to fuss with and no technique to learn.
Carte Noire is a French coffee name rather than an Italian one, and that matters more than it sounds. The Italian house style leans on a dark roast, a heavy body and a bitter edge that a short espresso can carry. The French style is built for a longer cup, so the roast stops earlier, the acidity is kept in check and the result is smooth and slightly sweet with the bitterness pulled well back.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Dose, water temperature and the iced build are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Carte Noire
Carte Noire is a French coffee brand and it built its reputation on smoothness rather than strength, which is an unusual position for a coffee to take and a difficult one to hold. Anyone can roast darker. Keeping a cup rounded and still interesting is the harder job, and it is what the name has always been sold on. In the United Kingdom the brand sits in the ground-coffee aisle rather than the instant one, which is where the difference shows up: this is a pack for people who have decided that a cafetiere or a filter machine is worth the extra two minutes.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Grind: a pre-ground medium cut, which is the compromise grind that works in a cafetiere and a filter machine and will not work well in an espresso machine. If espresso is what you want, buy beans and grind them fine yourself.
- No grinder needed: the whole appeal of a ground pack. You lose some aroma compared with grinding at the moment of brewing, and you gain the two minutes and the worktop space back.
- Roast style: French rather than Italian. Smooth, low in acid, medium in roast depth, and built for a long cup rather than a short shot.
- Freshness clock: ground coffee stales from the moment the seal is broken, not from the moment it is roasted. A 250g pack is sized to be finished inside a fortnight by one or two people, which is the right size for this format.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 92 to 94 degrees, off the boil rather than on it.
- Measure: 7g per 200ml, or a heaped dessertspoon per cup.
- Brew time: four minutes in a cafetiere, then pour it all out.
- Method: cafetiere or filter. This grind is not cut for an espresso machine.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry, and finished inside a fortnight of opening.
- Best with: breakfast, a croissant, dark chocolate, or the middle of a working morning.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Carte Noire
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
Ground coffee gives you fewer decisions than beans do, which means the few left matter more. Dose, water temperature and how long the grounds sit in contact with the water account for almost every disappointing cafetiere in the country, and all three are easy to get right once you know what you are aiming at.
The Proper Cup
Getting More Out of the Pack
Made with this tea
The Proper Cafetiere
How to make The Proper Cafetiere with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 7g Carte Noire Ground Coffee per cup
- 200ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- A cafetiere and a timer
- Boil the kettle and let it stand for thirty seconds so the water comes off the boil.
- Add 7g of coffee per 200ml cup to a warmed cafetiere, then pour the water on in one go so every ground is wetted.
- Wait four minutes with the lid on and the plunger up. Do not stir it halfway.
- Plunge slowly, then pour the whole pot out. Anything left on the grounds carries on extracting.
What you'll end up with: A rounded, low-acid cup with a clean finish. If it tastes bitter, your water was too hot or the pot stood too long.
The Stronger Cup, Done Properly
How to make The Stronger Cup, Done Properly with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 9g Carte Noire Ground Coffee per cup
- 200ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- Raise the dose to 9g per 200ml rather than extending the brew time.
- Brew for the same four minutes at the same temperature.
- Plunge and pour immediately.
What you'll end up with: A denser, fuller cup with the same smooth character. This is the fix for a weak coffee; a longer brew is not.
Filter Machine Build
How to make Filter Machine Build with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 28g Carte Noire Ground Coffee
- 800ml filtered water
- A paper filter, rinsed
- Rinse the paper filter with hot water first and tip the rinse water away. Dry paper puts a cardboard note into the first cup.
- Level 28g of coffee in the basket so the water passes through evenly rather than channelling down one side.
- Run the machine with filtered water if your area is hard.
- Decant into a flask rather than leaving the jug on the hotplate, which stews the coffee within twenty minutes.
What you'll end up with: Four clean cups with the cocoa note intact. The hotplate is what ruins filter coffee, not the machine.
Double-Strength Iced Coffee
How to make Double-Strength Iced Coffee with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 28g Carte Noire Ground Coffee
- 400ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- A full glass of ice
- Milk, optional
- Brew 28g in 400ml for four minutes, which is double the usual strength.
- Cool the coffee in the fridge rather than pouring it hot over ice.
- Pour over a full glass of ice, not a half-filled one. Ice melts slower when there is more of it.
- Top with cold milk if you want it long.
What you'll end up with: An iced coffee that still tastes of coffee at the bottom of the glass. Brewing it at normal strength is what leaves you with brown water.
Overnight Cold Brew
How to make Overnight Cold Brew with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 60g Carte Noire Ground Coffee
- 600ml cold filtered water
- Ice to serve
- Stir 60g of coffee into 600ml of cold water in a jar and seal it.
- Leave it in the fridge for twelve hours. Longer than sixteen and it turns woody.
- Strain through a paper filter into a clean bottle.
- Serve over ice, diluted with water or milk to taste. The concentrate keeps three days in the fridge.
What you'll end up with: A sweeter, rounder concentrate with almost no edge at all. Cold water never pulls the bitter compounds, which is the whole trick.
Coffee for a Tiramisu
How to make Coffee for a Tiramisu with Carte Noire Ground Coffee.
- 21g Carte Noire Ground Coffee
- 250ml water at 92 to 94 degrees
- A tablespoon of marsala or dark rum, optional
- Brew 21g in 250ml for four minutes, which gives a strong, syrupy base rather than a drinking coffee.
- Cool it completely before it goes near a sponge finger. Warm coffee turns them to paste.
- Stir in the marsala or rum if you are using it.
- Dip each biscuit for one second a side and no longer.
What you'll end up with: A dipping coffee with enough body to read through the mascarpone. The low acidity is an advantage here; a bright coffee fights the cream.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roasted ground coffee | the whole pack | The only ingredient. A medium roast cut to a medium grind, which is the compromise that suits a cafetiere and a filter machine. |
| Roast depth | medium | Stops short of the charred end of the scale, which is what keeps the bitterness low and the cup rounded rather than sharp. |
| Grind | medium, pre-ground | No grinder needed. You trade a little aroma for the two minutes and the worktop space, which is the deal this format offers. |
| Pack format | 250g | About thirty-five cups at a 7g dose. Sized to be finished inside a fortnight of opening, which is when ground coffee is at its best. |
Pack: Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g; roughly thirty-five 200ml cups at a standard 7g dose. The ingredient list, the bean composition, the allergen advice and the best-before date are printed on the current UK pack; read them there rather than here.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g is a French coffee name in a British ground-coffee aisle, and the brand has always been sold on smoothness rather than strength. That is a harder position to hold than it sounds, because roasting darker is the easy route to a coffee that tastes of something and it costs you the roundness.
What's in Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g, and what isn't:
- In: roasted ground coffee and nothing else, brewed with hot water only.
- Ground, not whole bean: a medium cut for a cafetiere or a filter machine. Not fine enough for an espresso machine, and no setting on the machine will change that.
- No milk, no sugar, no flavouring: this is plain black coffee in a pack. What goes in the cup afterwards is your decision rather than the manufacturer's.
- Packaging: follow the current UK pack and your local-authority guidance; the outer pack and any inner liner can take different disposal routes.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Carte Noire Ground Coffee, 250g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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