Review: Bounce Espresso Ground Coffee

This is a review written by my father, David Radford, who was very happy to give Bounce Coffee a test on my behalf.

With the explosion of varieties available these days, coffee lovers I fear are heading for confused overload and will eventually crave ultimate relief in a simple cup of instant! Not only do we need to cope with a dictionary of semi-technical words for the way coffee is prepared and served, but we need to handle the new vocabulary that is growing up around the coffee bean and the way it is roasted, ground and blended. Traditional suppliers compete for our attention with multi-national café brands and coffee machine makers all hoping to condition our taste-buds and commercialise our aroma detecting noses.

So trying another variation of the humble bean as something ‘new’ was perhaps asking too much from me. The brand name ‘Bounce’, the pouting, in your face female and the wide eyed, wide mouth monkey with big ears on the packet, did give it a different look but my advert-scepticism was not moved. Although its easy resealable packaging (that actually worked) did give me a fun moment. At least the packaging, I thought gave the brand a slight edge over other premium espresso coffee suitable for all coffee makers.

But in a sense of fair-play, and because I am naturally inquisitive, the tasting process commenced. Whatever variety used, the art of making a proper cup of coffee should only really be surpassed by the ritual of tea making. And so Latte and Cappuccino and, of course Espresso, were duly created. The results were surprisingly good: not bitter, not mild, and no strong after taste yet with enough punch to separate it out from the froth and steamed milk. Overall a good ground coffee that I would pick out from the supermarket shelf, even if I still don’t get its name. Why Bounce? Can such a word ever be part of the international language of coffee? I still think of ‘Bounce’ as a fabric softener, no disrespect intended.