Waste of $80 on a single-origin subscription that tasted like dirt

Spent $80 on a fancy Ethiopian single-origin subscription and every bag tasted like burnt grass no matter how I brewed it. Has anyone else gotten burned by those flashy small-batch roasters who don't deliver?

2 comments

2 Comments

diana_black2222d ago

Single origin subscriptions are a straight up gamble and most of the time you lose. Those flashy roasters hype up the tasting notes like you're getting some magical fruit bomb and it ends up tasting like someone burned a pile of leaves. I bought a bag from a popular Instagram roaster once, roasted three days before shipping, and it had zero flavor no matter what I did with it. Small batch doesn't always mean good, sometimes it means inconsistent or just plain bad. Better to stick with a roaster you can actually taste before you buy or one that's been around for years and knows what they're doing.

coleman.seth22d ago

Roasted three days before shipping" is usually a good thing actually, unless they didn't let it rest long enough. Fresh roasted coffee needs to degas for a few days before it peaks. If you brewed it the day you got it, that's probably why it tasted flat. Give it 5 to 7 days off roast next time and it might surprise you.