Tassimo Carte Noire Café Long Classique

A French roast alternative to L’OR

Carte Noire is the French brand JDE Peet’s owns alongside L’OR, Jacobs, and a handful of other European coffee labels. The Café Long Classique T-Disc is the Tassimo system’s lighter, more aromatic alternative to L’OR Espresso XL, aimed at the same daily-black-coffee use case but with a more French flavour profile.

Currently unavailable on Amazon UK as of May 2026, though the listing remains live (16 T-Discs, ASIN B00B4O5FHE). When in stock, historical pricing has been around £4 for 16 T-Discs, or 25p per cup. Check the live page before committing.

How it tastes

Carte Noire leans medium roast with floral notes alongside the standard dark-coffee bitterness. The cup has a thinner body than L’OR XL and a more aromatic profile, with hints of roasted almonds and a slight sweetness on the finish that L’OR doesn’t have.

If you’ve drunk Carte Noire ground coffee from a French press, the Tassimo version is a fair pod-system approximation of the same flavour. If your only reference point is supermarket Nescafé instant, Carte Noire will read as significantly more aromatic and less bitter.

The flavour difference between Carte Noire and L’OR XL is real but small. Both are clean black coffees in the same price tier. Pick L’OR if you prefer slightly darker and more straightforward; pick Carte Noire if you prefer slightly lighter and more aromatic.

Brewing characteristics

Tassimo’s barcode system pulls Carte Noire at slightly higher temperature than L’OR XL (around 90°C vs 88°C), which suits the medium roast. The crema layer is thinner than L’OR XL produces, and the body is lighter, but the cup holds its character through a few minutes of cooling.

In milk drinks, Carte Noire doesn’t perform as well as L’OR XL. The lighter body fades quickly when milk is added, so a homemade flat white with this T-Disc plus separately-steamed milk tastes weak. For milk drinks, head to the two-disc Costa Latte or use L’OR XL as the espresso base instead.

Availability

Carte Noire on Amazon UK is consistently in stock but can be harder to find than L’OR XL or Costa branded T-Discs. Supermarket coffee aisles carry it intermittently. The Tassimo boutique site is the most reliable stockist outside Amazon.

Bottom line

Carte Noire Café Long Classique is the Tassimo T-Disc for drinkers who find L’OR XL too one-dimensional. It’s not a stronger coffee, just a more aromatic one in the same price tier.

If you’re new to Tassimo and aren’t sure which black-coffee T-Disc to start with, L’OR XL is the safer default. Carte Noire is the right choice once you’ve drunk enough L’OR XL to know you want something with more aromatic complexity.

If Carte Noire returns to stock, Subscribe and Save typically offers about a 10% discount on Tassimo T-Discs. In the meantime, L’OR Espresso XL at 42.7p per cup is the closest live alternative within the Tassimo branded range for medium-bodied black coffee.