Office Coffee 1: Astra Necta

Source: Astra Necta coffee machine, office building, Paris
Date: 04 April 2014
Country: No information given
Beans: "100% Arabica" according to the machine
Preparation: 'Expresso' (Selection 12)

Nose of grounds: N/A
Nose of brew: Creamy, slightly bitter aroma
Early flavours: Slightly nutty, rounded coffee flavours
Finish: Bold, fairly long finish

Tasting notes:

Coffee is an important part of office life but either due to people not caring or the pressures of budget and resource, so often the coffee in offices is of a poor quality. Then again, there can be a real surprise
when you find a flashy coffee machine which does a bean-to-cup serving or uses clever pods and packets to produce an interesting cup.

So while on a brief business trip in Paris I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the coffee being served from a machine in a city where the seriousness attached to coffee is perhaps a level or two higher than that in the UK. I'd assumed that it would be the same as other machines but it was a little different - something I'd hope when I was paying €0.40 per cup.

The drink came out in a small plastic cup with a little plastic stirrer in it. This was a surprise and a bit unnecessary. In fact, by the time I got back to the room where I was working the little stirrer had melted slightly and become bowed - a little alarming.

The taste of the coffee was surprisingly good given its origin. It was balanced and smooth with only a touch of bitterness, though towards the finish there were some bolder flavours with a bit of an edge. From start to finish there were slight chemical aspects to the flavours - these could have come from anywhere, from the machine to the cup and stirrer to the beans themselves. There was no particular stand out interesting flavour; only a hint of nuttiness and the rounded, bold flavour of coffee.

Overall, I feel that it was a decent coffee which was let down by the fact that it was served in a plastic cup. It's supposedly freshly ground (according to the machine and the sounds coming from it) and I can at least be certain that it was fairly fresh as the machine was out of coffee yesterday. In the end, if this was my office, I'd be mostly happy to drink this but would regularly supplement it with outside purchases.