Kalamazoo Coffee Company Backpackers Blend whole bean coffee
This is a review of the Kalamazoo Coffee company Backpackers Blend whole bean coffee. I found this coffee while I was perusing a supermarket in Nappanee Indiana. I purchased a 12-ounce bag of whole beans for $9.99. The bag was of a good quality tightly sealed with a standard degassing valve. The Information printed on the bag about the coffee that was inside was minimal other than the name of the blend which was Backpackers Blend and some information about how they support the local farmers that it was whole bean 100% coffee from Central America, South America and Indonesia. No mention whether the beans are Arabica or Robusta. An expiration date was present of 3/26/2027 but no roasted-on date and no brewing instructions. The coffee claims to be a medium roast, but in my estimation the bean varieties are roasted individually to a dark roast. Tasting notes were listed of butterscotch, caramel and chocolate.
Upon opening the bag, I got the fragrance of roasted nuts and campfire burnt wood. Inspecting the coffee beans, I found poor quality beans of various sizes with a more than average amount of broken beans and bean fragments,. The bag listed a medium roast but the beans were very dark and oily.
My next step was to brew a batch, so I started with my usual 1:18 ratio coffee to water. A 56-gram dose was ground to about 725 microns on an Ollygrin BG710T conical burr grinder (setting 12) and was brewed with 1.0 liter of filtered water in a SCA Certified Cuisinart CPO-850 drip coffee maker. The aroma of the ground coffee was pleasant about the same as the beans in the bag roasted nuts, burnt wood. The brewed coffee however had an aroma of camping wet leaves and a smoldering fire..
Cupping the coffee and tasting it, I found no acidity, and none of the advertised tasting notes. I was expecting a Starbucks like tasting experience because of how dark and oily the beans were roasted (strong,burnt,bitter), what I got was a very pleasant cup of coffee smooth delightful coffee with a nice mouth feel while it was hot. As it cooled the smoothness gave way to a bitter astringent unpleasant brew. For tasting notes I got a smoky burnt richness which transitioned into a lingering astringent bitterness. Adding half and half didn't help it any. This coffee wasn't horrible; it was just OK. It made a passable morning cup if you consumed it when it was piping hot, but that is where it ended.
Using the scoring system of the SCA which is the governing body for specialty coffee. A score of 80 or above indicates a high-quality specialty grade of coffee. I would rate this coffee at an 79. Kalamazoo Coffee Company claims to be the best coffee roaster in the mid west, trust me when I tell you there are much better out there. This is the second variety of coffee form Kalamazoo Coffee Company that I have tried, both scored well below average. You all may enjoy them I did not. Would I purchase it again...NO, but it made for a great souvenir of my stay in the area. It should be noted that I am not a coffee professional and this review is just my honest opinion.