Coffee Bean Direct Super Dark Espresso, Whole Bean Coffee, 5-Pound Bag

Customer Reviews

For the price, this is probably the most luxurious coffee that you can get. It is dark and rich, smells amazing, and tastes ver Okay everybody, this is my absolute favorite coffee. For the price, this is probably the most luxurious coffee that you can get. It is dark and rich, smells amazing, and tastes very smooth. There is absolutely zero bitterness. My only complaint is with the 5lb packaging. It is hard to open, and isn't resealable. This is a good thing if you are shipping coffee all over the world, but the fact that it isn't resealable makes it a pain in the butt if you are living out of a foot locker in Afghanistan and trying to keep 5 lbs of coffee fresh. The fact that this stuff smells so amazing in my french press and anybody that walks by is trying to score some from me makes it not last as long so it hasn't been too much of a worry. Open with a knife, roll down the top, and gorilla tape shut and all is good in the world. This coffee is life changing! 5Fresh roasted! I received this coffee on July 9th, and the date on it was coded 6/17/17. Assuming that's one year's "best by" date, it was very fresh. At a great price for five pounds, it's kept from running to the store every four days to buy coffee. I bought this varietal specifically for iced coffee, and tastes great hot, as well. It's dark, but not charred. Even the mild coffee lover in the house enjoys it. I am looking forward to their other offerings! 5A wonderful coffee, but not freshly roasted This dark-roasted Brazilian Santos is a delightfully smooth coffee. I brew it strong, use a burr grinder to ensure against heating-out the freshness, and enjoy my morning litre of coffee. The dark roasting burns off much of the caffein as it will in any dark roasting, and so what remains is almost sinfully delicious.I have been enjoying the Coffee Bean Direct dark Brazilian Santos for many months now, having been ordering it directly from CoffeeBeanDirect. It has always arrived within a week of roasting, based on the sticker placed on the package. In the past, our UPS driver has made a point of commenting on how the fragrance of freshly-roasted coffee has pervaded the truck on his route. )The coding on the roasting sticker is of the form dddyy, where ddd is the number of the day of the year, and yy is the last two digits of the year.)So I was delighted when I saw that Amazon sold this product with shipping included. Alas, my first -- and sadly my last from Amazon -- 5 pound bag arrived yesterday and was nearly three months old. There was no aroma emanating from the Amazon carton. I confirmed the date encoding with CoffeeBeanDirect staff prior to contacting Amazon customer service, and CoffeeBeanDirect said that though the ship frequently to Amazon, they have no way of knowing how long their beans actually stay at Amazon prior to shipping. Amazon's reputed customer service was fair and courteous to me, and I believe I received very good service from them. It was just a disappointing experience from which I've learnt.So, I'll resume buying my beans directly, paying for shipping, and savouring their freshly roasted flavour in the morning. 5Disappointing cup of coffee This is the second and last time I purchase this brand of coffee. I wanted to give it one more chance and once again I was disappointed with my purchase. I didn t find the coffee to be a dark roast at all and I find that I have to add a couple of extra scoops in just to get some flavor out of it. I had high hopes for this roast Dark Sumatra but as I said it was a big disappointment. This will be my last purchase from this coffee company. 1A BLEND LABELLED AS 100% This is not 100% Tarrazu coffee. Real Tarrazu has a very distinctive smell and taste, and ever since I visited Costa Rica a decade ago I've been drinking Tarrazu coffee almost every morning. I can detect only a hint of flavor from these beans and it appears that they are actually a blend,,, there is very little real Tarrazu coffee in them. I bought these beans in order to save a couple of dollars, and its good coffee, but it's probably overpriced anyway since who knows what kind of beans they actually are and they are dishonestly labeling them as 100% Tarrazu. AVOID! 2> Very Good Coffee; Very Good Value SUMMARYThe City Roast is a medium to moderately-dark roast, rich coffee, which I would grade as A- (typical American coffee being C). I drink my coffee strong, and City Roast makes a good strong cup. It is full flavored without being bitter. Unlike darker roasts, it is not glazed with sugar (which melts and sticks, like a turd, in your coffee grinder). In short, it is not the very best coffee I have drank, but a very good coffee and the best combination of quality and value that I have found.Normally a coffee called "City Roast" would not have caught my attention, and I would avoid anything called "supremo", but the City Roast was included with the "sampler" I purchased Coffee Bean Direct Assorted Whole Bean Coffee Sampler, 9-Pound Box, and it was by far the best---the only coffee in the sampler which impressed me. I'm now working on my second 5 pound bag.COFFEE BEAN DIRECTCoffee Bean Direct concentrates on flavored coffee (which I loath), decaffeinated coffee (what's the point?) and dark roasts (which I usually avoid). I normally prefer light roasts, but CBD's light roasts (and least those in the sampler) were mediocre, barely up to "Maxwell House" or "Folger's" standards. As a generalization dark roast coffee is analogous to red wine as compared to white wine. Some dark roasts are exceptionally rich and flavorful, but it is harder to find a good dark roast than a good light roast. Intense roasting either enhances the flavor, or destroys it, more often the latter.COFFEE SERVICESThe great advantage of Coffee Bean Direct (and other services such as Boca Java {highly recommended} and Gevalia) is that you are assured of fresh beans, whereas you never know how long coffee has been setting on a grocery shelf or in a warehouse. Fresh beans make a huge difference. Of course, that means that if you buy 5-pound bags for home use, you need to refrigerate it and keep it tightly sealed.OTHER RECOMMENDATIONSI've been using the Mellita system for about 40 years, which I strongly recommend Melitta Cone Filter Coffeemaker 10 Cup, 1-Count. I have found that the best artificial sweetener with coffee is pure stevia. Pure Stevia Extract Powder by Kal - 3.5 oz Pure Stevia is the sweetener in the more common Truvia, but without the fillers which alter the taste and leave a yucky residue in your cup. As an extra bonus, Pure Stevia is much more economical. 5Ratings of 4+ coffees; overall rating meaningless Since this feedback concerns at least four different Coffee Bean Direct coffees, the overall rating tells you nothing about any specific coffee. Below are recalculated ratings for the four coffees I was interested in:Six Bean Espresso, $35.21, 4.0 starsItalian Roast Espresso, $38.21, 4.33 starsDark Brazilian Santos, 40.75, 4.61 starsDark House Blend, $40.75, 4.67 starsThe ratings were primarily for whole bean coffees and the price was the Coffee Bean Direct current price for the 5 pound bag as of the date of my order.Note that there are reviews here for quite a number of other coffees. The reviews I reported above formed only a small percentage of the entire set of coffees reviewed in this feedback.To extract the reviews for any individual coffee, you need to search the feedback using keywords that will select out only the coffee you are interested in. I used keywords such as "Italian", "six", "Brazilian", and "Dark House". As Amazon doesn't recalculate the ratings for such selections, you will need to calculate it yourself; a very tedious task.Note that I did disregard a couple of reviews:a 1 star rating complaining that the bag was punctured when delivered anda five star rating complaining that they were unable to receive a shipment to their military address.As neither re view concerned the qualities of the coffee, I felt they were meaningless.My experience with these coffees agrees with their relative ratings.I found the six bean blend to be quite uninteresting and fairly weak.The Italian roast contains only the deeper, more earthly flavors of the coffee; there was little of the more delicate, aromatic flavors. Several reviewers stated that this coffee has become less robust over time. I agree. Italian roast tends to deliver a bit more coffee dust than do the others. A few bags of this coffee were quite acidic, but the majority of the bitterness was left in the grounds after vrewing. I preferred to mix the Dark Italian roast with a more aromatic coffee to give me a fully flavored coffee. Works quite well with the Dark Columbian Roast.The Dark Brazilian Santos gives a good tasting coffee somewhere between the earthiness of the Italian and the fuller flavor of the Dark House Blend. This will be my fall back coffee if my preferred Dark House Blend is either unavailable or too pricy.The Dark House Blend is the coffee I was searching for. It has a good deep flavor with plenty of the more complex flavors of the less robust blends. It is a coffee that's worth rolling around in your mouth to savor the complexities of its' flavor. The Dark House Blend is listed as a bit more acidic than the others, but it did not produce a bitter taste. When I tasted the grounds after brewing, I did not discern any bitterness; there was little flavor left over after vrewing. This is going to be my preferred choice until the price exceeds what I'm willing to pay.A couple of other notes:I prefer my coffee quite strong. I use about a coffee measure (2 Tbsp) per 5 ounce cup. That means that I find most restaurant coffees quite insipid - same thing for coffee brewed by friends and aquaintances.It is well worth comparing the delivered price of the coffee both directly from CoffeeBeanDirect and from Amazon. Coffee Bean Direct has two shipping prices: $5 for shipments of less than 25 pounds and free for 25 pounds or more. If you have the freezer room, consider buying several bags at a time and storing them in the freezer until needed.While some Amazon sellers may sell these coffees for significantly less than Coffee Bean Direct, some people have reported that such sellers are selling off old stock that has deteriorated over time. Coffee Bean Direct sells only freshly roasted coffee. A reasonable approach may be to order popular coffees through Amazon, counting on the high demand to ensure that the received coffee is reasonably fresh. Note that some reviewers have reported that coffee received directly from Amazon were as much as six months old.Amazon provides good buyer protection in case of non receitp or receipt of damaged goods. Coffee Bean Direct does not. According to their terms, the buyer bares the risk of loss or damage during shipment. However, their terms also state: "If you are dissatisfied with your order, you can return it for a refund of the product value." This should be consider as not overriding the shipping terms. I.e., you must have recieved an undamaged order before you can take advantage of the return terms. And, then there are the issues of loss or damage during the return shipment which I assume is your responsibility. Having said all that, I have had no problems ordering directly from Coffee Bean Direct; all shipments have arrived very quickly with no damage.Coffee Bean Direct accepts Amazon payments as well as Paypal and credit card payments. However when purchasing direct from Coffee Bean direct, their shipping terms apply, not those of Amazon or Paypal. attempting a chargeback on a lost or damaged order may well not prevail, no matter which payment form you select. 5Simply the best coffee This is, quite simply, the very best coffee. Yes, I know, nearly $40 for a bag doesn't seem like a bargain, but it is. After a quick calculation of per ounce prices, this comes in at 1 cent more per ounce than the standard cheapo brand I buy at the big offline retailer. It breaks down to 47-1/2 cents an ounce while whole bean coffee from that famous coffee shop comes in at 75 cents an ounce!!This coffee is rich. When you bring the unopened box into the house the entire house will quickly begin to smell like a coffee shop. Upon opening the bag, even a hard core coffee addict will get high. The beans are shiny and oily, so much so they stick together a bit. Grinding up enough for a pot is a mouthwatering experience. The taste...ohhhmy!I don't like my coffee strong, but I do like it rich, so a dark roast is my preference. All coffee is acidic to some degree, but this is less than I had expected and is very smooth. With cheaper coffees, I have had to take a break from coffee every few days to let my aching stomach rest. I don't have to with this one. The price means I can afford to keep myself in "the good stuff" as a daily habit. Oh, and that big coffee shop? The closest one to me is 100 miles one way, and even when it is available to me, I pass. Why go out for coffee when the homebrew is better? 5I rate these beans "OK". They aren't a particularly ... I rate these beans "OK". They aren't a particularly dark roast - few if any showed second crack and the beans weren't oily at all when the package was first opened. They had a noticeably vegetal taste when first opened. A few weeks in, a little bit of oil sheen was present and most of the "green" flavor was gone. If I order from Coffee Bean Direct again, I'll try a different variety. 3Smooth and Great Bodied Coffee. I really do like these coffee beans. The coffee is flavorful and delish!They are a very good value. I have it on Subscribe and Save which helps to reduce the price.I mix chicory (2-1 - coffee to chickory) in with the ground coffee. Frontier Natural Products Organic Roasted Chicory Root Granules is available on Amazon.This dark roast coffee is low in acid and the chicory adds a smooth taste and robustness without extra calories. It has a rich chocolatey undertone.Chicory is also good for you. According to Web M.D. " Chicory is a plant. Its roots and dried, above-ground parts are used to make medicine.Chicory is used for loss of appetite, upset stomach, constipation, liver and gallbladder disorders, cancer, and rapid heartbeat.It is also used as a tonic, to increase urine production, to protect the liver, and to balance the stimulant effect of coffee".So if you looking for a great, flavorful, healthy and cost effective cup of coffee, Coffee Bean Direct Sumatra Mandheling is a sure bet.Coffee Bean Direct Dark Sumatra Mandheling, Whole Bean Coffee, 5-Pound Bag 5

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