Our local ones carry mostly brands that I don’t recognize, but I will have another look. We always just bought Lagavulin in the US anyway…spendy stuff, but we drank about one bottle a year, so it fit in the budget.
We had one of these Gaggia machines in Islamabad. It say on the kitchen counter for about a year because we could never get it to work….
Looked pretty but in the end, we just drank beer , wine and cocktails all gotten from the UN shop in the diplo compound.
(Of course we also drank tea and Nescafé)
This was our monthly allowance and quite a bit got given away to friends in need.
That’s the badger. Absolutely brilliant. I must buy another or two for grinding spices. They also had a good reduction on batt powered pepper mill with LED light. That’s excellent, too.
What I’d like to know is what would one use as ‘neutral’ stuff to grind, to clean up after grinding something quite pungent, before contaminating the next thing to be ground? Raw chickpeas?
The Speyside malts are the ones for that.
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Years ago I was invited to a corporate event in a posh London club, I think it was near Green Park. I don’t really like whisky but thought Aberlour diluted with water was OK.
During the evening I wandered onto the balcony and saw a man wearing a suit and shirt with a bootlace tie and a small silver lapel badge that said F*ck.
He turned out to be Hank Wangford, the doctor and country singer. He was great to talk to and a good raconteur. When I commented on the lapel badge he told me that old ladies would read his lapel badge as ‘Flick’ (the U was slightly separated) which he thought was sweet.
The criteria for me is that it needs to be strongish, without bitterness, and to be welcoming first thing in the morning, and that Tesco version does it well. I know some who love the bitterness of coffee (Starbucks built a business on bitter coffee) and that’s fine for them.
..it’s true…called at the time Malawi Gold and cost about 1 Kwatcha for an entire cob (the size of a corn 
)…
More valuable were to Rizzla papers and some amazing times spent, snorkel on, immersed in the water at Lake Malawi watching the tropical Chiclids after enjoying a fine doobie.
Yes, Malawi tea is not bad too and the coffee is yum.
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I shared the house of a USAID civil engineer. He had a houseboy - Christian, because of the alcohol in the house.
One morning Mike returned home because he’d forgotten a file. He found Thomas comatose in front of the drinks cabinet. Thomas had thoughtfully left just a drop in each bottle …
Next!
Mike got his supplies for the US PX at Islamabad, I think. I couldn’t buy anything but what was sold over the bar in The American Club.
My colleague there has organised a badge to go on hats/garments. I’ve got the artwork image and will get stuff from Ali Express.
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Balvenie’s nice.
Stale bread is what I use, several goes of it if needed.
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I was very surprised by Lidls single malt . They have 3 to try. I think they’ve won awards..
If you like a lightly roasted African coffee, suggest Ethiopian high altitude estate beans like Djimmah or Yirgacheffe from a local torrefacteur, rather than buying online which works out more expensive.
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Tried making that comment earlier but for some reason the quote function isn’t working for me.
When I lived in the Eastern Cape the venerable local paper, Grocott’s Mail would only bother to report a drugs seizure if it was at least a full bakkie load (usually a Hi-Lux pick-up, which holds about a tonne or so). Nevertheless, you’d usually read about one or two in the end of week Friday edition
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‘
Once our beer was froffy,
But nah it’s froffy coffee,
And fings ain’t wot they used to beeeee🎵!”
My father was once asked if he had a criminal record, he replied, “Yes. Max Bygraves Greatest Hits”.
I’ll get me coat . . . .
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You start your whisky drinking early AM! 
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You have assumed that I stopped from the night before. 
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The french don’t know how to boil water.
Agreed, was horrified the first time I was ever offered a teabag with water heated in a saucepan.
Their flavoured gin isn’t bad either!