Nowt cheap about Costa, costa loada.
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Costa grew from humble beginnings:
Sergio Costa founded a coffee roastery in Fenchurch Street, London, in 1971, supplying local caterers. The family had moved to England from Parma, Italy, in the 1950s. Costa branched out to selling coffee and opened their first store in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London in 1981.
By 1995, the Costa Coffee chain had 41 stores in UK, and was acquired by Whitbread, the UK’s largest hotel and coffee shop operator, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2009, Costa opened its 1,000th store in Cardiff. In December 2009, Costa Coffee agreed to acquire the Polish chain Coffeeheaven for £36 million, adding 79 stores in central and eastern Europe. Coca-Cola acquired Costa from parent company Whitbread PLC for US$5.1 billion on 3 January 2019, providing a coffee platform across parts of Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. There are now 3,401 stores across 31 countries and 18,412 employees. The business has 2,121 UK restaurants, over 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,280 outlets overseas, including 460 in China. Costa is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world, and the largest in the UK.
I’ve never been to any Costa.
We attended a tea ceremony while in China, one was even made with a flower head. Drinking from a cup is not just gulping it down, oh no, it involved turning the cup in the hands why I have no idea
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Possibly the odour of stale urine and old dogends?
Those iconic telephone boxes could be nasty when the wind was in the wrong direction…it was a blessing when the pips were going 
I find Costa coffee has an unpleasant taste - I think it’s because they roast their beans at a higher temperature (so do Starbucks)
My favourite coffee, whether I buy it as beans or ready ground coffee, is Colombian coffee. I buy mine at a small local shop which grinds the beans while you wait.
Taylor’s of Harrogate also sell some lovely blends of coffee.
If you are looking for ground coffee which is readily available in supermarkets, here’s a few links which suggest some good value, good tasting brands.
And for budget Colombian coffee taste tests, check out this article, which shows Lidl came out best!
If you want to know more about the Chinese Tea Ceremony. You might enjoy reading this Wikipedia article here:
The Japanese people have one as well:
Who remembers Mr Miyagi and Daniel Russo from the Karate Kid? They had tea ceremonies.
These cultures are amazing… Hoping this gives you the information required.
Any of you remember this brand of freeze-dried instant coffees in the 1980s? Taster’s Choice!
We tried and loved this one on our work contracts!
Amazon has a large selection, including:
Nescafe Taster’s Choice House Blend - Instant Coffee - Light/Medium Roast - 397 g
£22.53
I’ve never heard of it so I’ve never tried it.
No idea but the guy in the shop let us sniff so many and we both straight away agreed we liked it. It was fairly mild but had a wonderful aroma and was quite mellow.
When we have coffee out it makes me so cross when I ask for one shot or a coffee that’s not too strong and they bring me something for £3 plus which tastes horrible. I always return it and get them to make another.
I find the nicest coffee around here to my taste anyway is from the machine in Wetherspoons. You get free refills too.
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Lavazza – Italy’s favourite coffee is our favourite too
Our self-service coffee machines use only Lavazza, Italy’s favourite coffee, with our free refills offer* available on all coffee choices (as well as Tetley tea).
In the early days, we were involved in the development of the Tierra Selection blend, which we still use today, with 100-per-cent Arabica beans, served in all of our coffees. Choose from our Lavazza coffee range, including cappuccino, latte, flat white, white coffee, Americano and espresso.
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Heard of Lavazza but haven’t tried it yet.
In days passed, the shop called “Second Cup” had wonderful coffees. Office coffee was an India brand in a gold sachet perfect measure for full pot. It only required my magic ingredient to make it taste perfect.
If I made it, it was drunk quickly by all and was asked to make another two pots. When I had to retire, my colleagues were very sad as they had to change brands. Oh dear! I felt bad about that but my lips were sealed.
Honestly, in 80-90s the worst coffee was from McDonald’s. Can’t say if they’ve improved as haven’t had one since.
The best coffee during same time period was definitely Tim Horton’s. We used to get grounds from them for home use. Heavenly!
Never got this Coffee thing, best result was it bought folks together but, in these Coffee houses, folks still group round small tables, intimate stuff, glad it don’t suit me, but that is my problem.
I have a Sage Barista bean to cup coffee machine…I like to experiment with different beans but my favourite is Taylors Lazy Sunday…also ALDI Italian 4 blend is good