Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags
Expect espresso and you will be let down, which is where most of the grumbling about this carton starts. Espresso is nine bars of pressure through a fine grind in twenty five seconds; a bag is hot water sitting in a mug, and no crema is coming. What the Italian roast style brings is a direction rather than a method, with sugars carried well past caramel, the acidity roasted out and a dark cocoa weight left in its place. Brewed long and gently that lands smooth, round and low in acid, and it is the one carton here that keeps its shape under milk, since cocoa survives milk where bright citrus does not. Brew it short into about 120ml and add hot milk rather than topping up a full mug. It is the likeliest thing in the range to convert somebody who insists they do not like coffee.
Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, in brief.
Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground is the dark, smooth carton in the Taylors coffee-bag range, ten individually enveloped bags at 75g, picked into the teas.co.uk selection as the easiest way to get an Italian-style roast into a mug with no machine at all.
This is not espresso and does not pretend to be. What the Italian roast style gives you here is direction rather than pressure: dark cocoa weight, acidity roasted out, bitterness kept low. It is the best of the four Taylors coffee bags with milk. One bag per mug, ten mugs, at about 95 degrees for three to four minutes.
It is worth being straight about what that does and does not give you. This will never be espresso, and any product that suggests otherwise is selling you a name rather than a drink. Espresso is nine bars of pressure through a fine grind in twenty-five seconds; a coffee bag is hot water sitting in a mug. What the Italian roast style actually contributes here is a flavour direction rather than a brewing method: sugars carried well past caramel, acidity roasted out, and a dark cocoa weight left in its place. Brewed long and gently in a mug, that comes out as a smooth, round, low-acid cup that is the easiest of the four Taylors coffee bags to drink with milk, and the one most likely to convert somebody who thinks they do not like black coffee.
Curator notes: the roast, cocoa, body and bitterness ratings are ours, judged on the carton as currently sold and on Taylors' published notes. We usually get a carton of these coffee bags dispatched in 1 to 2 working days. Scroll down for answers on steeping time, thin cups, lattes and iced coffee.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Carton
Taylors is a Harrogate family firm, far better known nationally for its tea than for its coffee, and its coffee range is organised around stated roast styles rather than around origins. Rich Italian is the dark-but-civil entry: the roast style borrowed from the Italian tradition of taking the beans a long way and leaving sweetness rather than sharpness behind. On a supermarket shelf that is a useful label, because it tells a shopper what the cup will do before they buy it.
Heritage and provenance are different things, and we are not going to blur them. A roast named after an Italian style is a description of the roasting, not a claim about where the coffee grew or where the carton was filled. The blend specification, any roast-strength number and any certification marks belong to the carton in your hand, and pack runs change. Where the current UK pack carries that information, the pack is the place to read it.
Packaging: Carton, envelopes and spent filter bags differ in material; check the carton and your council for each.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- We send the carton Taylors currently make for British shops, not a grey import on another specification.
- A coffee bag leaves a spent bag and a paper envelope rather than an aluminium shell or a plastic capsule body, and the grounds inside go on the compost heap once the bag is torn open.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Taylors of Harrogate
Packaging: Carton, envelopes and spent filter bags differ in material; check the carton and your council for each.
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
The dose and grind are fixed inside the bag, so the whole of the technique is water, time and movement. A dark roast this smooth is forgiving, which makes it the coffee bag to hand somebody who has never made one.
The Mug
The Mug Latte
Made with this tea
The Everyday Mug
The straight build, and the two habits that stop it going dull.
- 1 Rich Italian coffee bag
- Water at roughly 95 degrees, 200 to 250ml
- A teaspoon
- Tear the envelope over the mug and drop the bag in.
- Pour water thirty seconds off the boil straight onto the bag.
- Swirl for twenty seconds, then leave it three to four minutes.
- Press the bag one time on the inside of the mug, then fish it out.
What you'll end up with: A round, dark, low-acid mug with a cocoa note through the middle and very little bitterness.
The Mug Latte
Brew short, froth separately, and it works without a machine.
- 1 Rich Italian coffee bag
- 120ml water at about 95 degrees
- 150ml milk
- A whisk or a clean cafetiere
- Brew one bag in only 120ml of hot water for four minutes to make a concentrate.
- Heat 150ml of milk to about 60 to 65 degrees, not hotter, and froth it.
- Lift the bag out and press it once against the side.
- Pour in the milk, keeping the foam behind a spoon until right at the end.
What you'll end up with: A milky coffee that still tastes of coffee, because the brew was concentrated before the milk arrived.
Iced Cocoa Coffee
The dark roast that survives being chilled.
- 1 Rich Italian coffee bag
- 120ml water at about 95 degrees
- A tall glass packed with ice
- A splash of cold milk
- Brew one bag in 120ml for four minutes, which is roughly double strength.
- Cool the concentrate to room temperature rather than pouring it hot over ice.
- Fill a tall glass to overflowing with ice, then pour the coffee down through it.
- Add a little cold milk and give it one stir.
What you'll end up with: A cold coffee that still reads of dark chocolate once the ice has done its work.
Affogato
Two ingredients, ninety seconds, and it is better than it has any right to be.
- 1 Rich Italian coffee bag
- 100ml water at about 95 degrees
- 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
- Brew one bag in 100ml for four minutes to make a strong, short coffee.
- Put vanilla ice cream in two small glasses, a scoop in each one.
- Lift the bag out and pour the hot coffee over the ice cream at the table.
- Eat it right away, while half of the glass is still cold.
What you'll end up with: The cocoa note of the roast against cold vanilla, which is the classic pairing for a reason.
Coffee And Chocolate Sauce
A pouring sauce that uses one bag and keeps for a week.
- 1 Rich Italian coffee bag
- 100ml water
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped
- 100ml double cream
- Brew one bag in 100ml of hot water for four minutes and lift the bag out.
- Heat 100ml of double cream to just below a simmer.
- Pour the cream over 150g of chopped dark chocolate and stir until smooth.
- Beat in the hot coffee and keep in a jar in the fridge for up to a week.
What you'll end up with: A glossy coffee-chocolate sauce for ice cream, pancakes or a plain sponge.
Tiramisu Soak Without An Espresso Machine
The one dessert people assume they cannot make without a machine.
- 2 Rich Italian coffee bags
- 250ml water at about 95 degrees
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 200g sponge fingers
- Brew both bags in 250ml of hot water for five minutes to make a strong soak.
- Stir in the caster sugar while it is hot and let it cool completely.
- Dip each sponge finger for one second only; longer and they collapse.
- Layer with your mascarpone mixture and chill for at least four hours.
What you'll end up with: A tiramisu soak with the cocoa depth the dessert needs, made with two coffee bags and a kettle.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Roast and ground coffee | 100% | The whole of the bag. A dark Italian-style roast with a cocoa weight and the acidity roasted out of it. |
| Dose per bag | 7.5g | 75g across ten bags, fixed at the factory. Enough to make a proper mug, and enough to hold its line under milk. |
Ingredients and allergens. Of the 14 major allergens, none turns up in the ingredient list published for this carton's barcode. Read the carton's panel before you buy, as recipes and allergy notes do get revised.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. Should the carton say otherwise, believe the carton.
Pack: Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags; GTIN 0615357122468; ten individually enveloped coffee bags in a carton, 7.5g of ground coffee each, ten mugs per carton, 75g total. Caffeinated. The carton carries a best before date; finish the bags by then.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags comes from Taylors of Harrogate, the Yorkshire family firm better known nationally for its tea, whose coffee range is organised around stated roast styles rather than around origins. Rich Italian is the dark-but-civil entry in that range, and the name describes the roasting tradition rather than the provenance of the coffee. We stock the standard UK edition of this carton.
What is in Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags, and what is not:
- In: roast and ground coffee, a dark Italian-style roast, sealed inside a filter bag, and nothing else.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: this is a plain ground coffee, not a flavoured one, and not an instant.
- No milk in the bag: it brews black, and any milk is added by you at the mug.
- Not espresso: the roast style is Italian, the brewing method is immersion in a mug. No pressure is involved and no crema will form.
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Ground, 10 Coffee Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
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