Whittard's Amaretto Coffee

Much as I love eating, I can't really pretend to be a connoisseur. Nowhere is this more apparent than in my taste (or lack of) in coffee). I like Starbucks and I'm unashamed to admit. Yes, it's mass market and it's not refined or even proper coffee, but getting myself a plastic cup of American-chain goodness brightens up my morning okay?

Coffee critics will further look down on me because I can't even have a proper coffee - it has to be so pumped full of flavoured syup that it's barely a coffee. My beverage of choice would always be a gingerbread latte or perhaps the hazelnut latte. No, it's not classy, but I do love the warming, toasty feeling I get for having a hot cup of coffee with that lovely gingery or nutty aroma and taste.

So if you're a coffee snob, this product is not for you: Whittard's Amaretto Coffee. Adding to the crime of being flavoured is the fact it's instant coffee. But please, do not let this put you off. This is pure joy in coffee powder form.

I absolutely adore Amaretto. A Jack Daniels topped with Amaretto and Coke is one of my favourite drinks but then I just love anything to do with almonds. Frangipane is one of the nicest baking tools available - a thick, almondy paste blanketing whatever pastry you're making. The Bakewell Tart and Battenburgs are behemoths in the cake world. And as for marzipan.. well let's just say when I'm making a Christmas Cake, I'll need to buy two packets to cover the cake because I literally can eat an entire slab of the that almondy, pliable block of suagry gold by itself, each piece greedily torn off and ending up in my mouth rather than the cake.

So I was always going to inevitably love this coffee powder. The Amaretto flavour is subtle; you are drinking something that tastes of coffee, not an Almond drink. But that unique scent and taste of almond is hidden and swirling around the drink and at the back of your mouth, touching it with its glorious, sweet taste.

At £4.50, it's not cheap.But it is worth it (and the amount of free samples I was taking in Whittard's, I had to buy something). This provides a comforting mug of almondy bliss, that is the perfect partner for a lazy Sunday afternoon on the couch with a magazine and a couple of biscuits.