No idea if they are doing it illicitly. I just don’t like the taste of their products, which do taste of chicory, so I tried elsewhere. Terres de cafe, so far, are pretty good, but I am still experimenting with their products.
I bought it years ago in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, so I am sure it is cobbled together from all sorts of things and is highly inauthentic. The seller said it had been used in a cafe and the extension was so the grinder could sit on it to keep the thing from bouncing around while he turned the crank. I just liked the wood.
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Thanks. However, I don’t think it’s ‘inauthentic’ because for me the improvised repairs and additions make it an authentic folk object. Traditional practices such as bodging, making do and mending etc became decreasingly common during the second half of the C20th. The contemporary Russian artist Vladimir Arkhipov has done a lot of work documenting these vanishing artefacts in his Post-Folk Archive. This home-made Russian TV aerial’s one of my all time favourites
See also my post on something similar at
https://www.survivefrance.com/t/connecting-with-the-past/29664/41
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I drink tar and I don’t mind who knows it 
I never said my coffee was good, just that I like it 
the best was in the Middle East in the cafés where I used to play backgammon with the old men.
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Is that like playing chess with chessmen?
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At last, a fellow sufferer. I have to confess that , as I grind my own beans and have a low grade coffee snobs set up, I have tried artisan coffee suppliers in France and it is an expensive version of hit and miss with heavy emphasis on the miss. I found it more satisfying to buy from artisan coffee roasters in the Uk, and still do post Brexit. I pay the same for an imported kilo from the Uk as I would for an artisanal French Kilo, and the coffee is sooo much better.
At last , someone who recognises the dire state of coffee in France. Buying from French Artisanal coffee roasters is extremely hit and miss, as the beans are often over roasted or more commonly simply stale. At 8.50 € for 250 grams of nutty slack it is better to order decent beans from the UK at a similar price, though you have to buy a kilo at a time.
Why not talk to the roaster about whether they will do a lighter roast, or roast your own?
I appreciate my 250g packets of coffee sent to me (currently vagabond roasters) but I’ve also found beans I like here, and had fun playing around with roasting myself.
After all I wouldn’t like to live like this man…he’s obviously 100% content but eating - and drinking - exactly the same thing every day would bore me 
Water can be an issue I’ve found. Have very hard water here (86) and using filtered water for coffee and tea improved the taste markedly.
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We always use a Brita filter for tea & coffee - it improves it enormously.
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Great call on the Malongo. My problem is solved.
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Bateel dates, now you’re talking Russell, having worked in Abu Dhabi , the Bateel shop was always a joy to visit and leave with a box of mixed dates, always having 'tested’many in store! To get my fix now I usually go to the Bateel concession in Harrods, fat chance of that at the moment…
I have a confession to make. After thinking about them the other day I couldn’t resist the temptation and ordered some direct from Bateel in Saudi. Apparently they were shipped today and will be with me on Wednesday - much easier than ordering from the UK!!! (Don’t tell my wife how much I paid). Actually the shipping was just €12 which is not bad.
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Wow, €12 for shipping, bargain. Lucky you, knowing a box of joy is en route 
Especially as the shipping rate stays the same no matter how much you order. In the end I went for a couple of kilos plus a presentation box - my French friends won’t know what has hit them! Some people reading this must think we are mad, but really good dates are something to treasure. I didn’t know they had an outlet in Harrods (not that I shop there generally).
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I always treat my Dad to a mixed box for Christmas, there is something magical about the whole experience of choosing the dates and being offered samples to try and then the beautifully wrapped box you are presented with. I Think there might be a kilo winging its way over from Saudi to this little corner of the Limousin !!
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I only ever use coke for cleaning jewellery and other metals. Very effective…just imagine what it does to people’s insides.
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Or noses
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Hadn’t thought of that Mark 
