BLK & Bold Whole Bean Coffee, Rise & GRND Premium Medium Roast, 100% Arabica Beans, 12 oz Bag

Always great quality and flavor!

I am a coffee snob. When I say that I am impressed with a coffee, that is a bold statement. Ethiopian coffee is a favorite of mine. I'm particular to Yrgacheffe, which seems to be popular, but anything sourced in Ethiopia by a skilled roaster tends to excite me. Opening the bag for the first time was nothing special. I always look forward to it. It's such a great feeling when you get that blast of freshness when you open the package. This was pleasant but not ground breaking. I poured a few beans in my grinder. I used a coarse roast in an Aeropress for the first cup. When I took the bin out of the grinder, I was completely blown away. The aroma had a dampness to it, very nutty, very earthy, and very powerful. And very...sweet. How can an aroma smell sweet? It smelled like honey. I didn't know honey had a smell. I want my whole house to smell like that. I want my whole life to smell like that. At that point, I decided to put it up to my nose to get a good whiff. I've only able to get something with an aroma like this from small, independent roasters. The flavor was not quite as amazing as the aroma. I mean, let's be honest. The aroma was two mazings. The flavor was just a single mazing. (that was a dad joke). I always like the nutty and earthy flavors that I find in Ethiopian coffee, and the earthy was very prevalent here. I just really love the sweet undertone, though. I call it the "fresh" undertone, as I only find it in fresh coffee, and this had a ton of it. The expiration date is almost a year away, so that tells me this was pretty fresh. I should also note that the other bag I bought expires in March, so that one is not-so-fresh. I tried this one first because I wanted to see how good it could be. This first bag is so good, it's probably only going to last a couple of weeks. This stood up well against any other I've tried. Whereas the aroma set itself apart from its peers, the flavor proved to be on par with its peers. It is really hard to say that the flavor was amazing when the aroma was just so much more amazing. I made it in a pour over in my second attempt, and the results were equal. I purchased this based on a recommendation from a friend. He stated that this was probably the best commercial coffee available on Amazon, so I decided to give it a try. I didn't realize it was associated with a cause until I got it and read the label. I'm excited to be purchasing from a company like this.

Great tasting coffee and love being able to grind my own coffee beans with my coffee bean grinder.

My first pour over cup with these beans was a little bitter, so on my second cup I lowered my water temperature a little and the flavor is much nicer now. There are definitely chocolatey flavors, maybe too much chocolate, not enough coffee flavor. I'll try again with another lowering of water temp and see how things balance out before changing my grind. The beans are roasted a little darker than the medium roast beans (even other decaf beans) I'm used to and they are much smaller. The size reminds me of Counter Culture Idido Ethiopian origin beans (though that was a very light roast and non-decaf I brewed with a French press with super-long steep time, so this isn't a flavor comparison, just bean size). On a side note, the bag the coffee came in is the best design I've experienced, practically speaking. Trivially easy to open/unseal due to the pull tab, and the zip-closure actually works to keep the bag closed. So many other coffee bean bags are hard to pull open due to the super-strength glue they apparently use to seal it, requiring scissors to cut it open, or the bag material is super weak so any attempt to pull it open tears the bag apart making a big mess, or the bendy-tie to keep the bag closed doesn't stick to the bag. 2023-07-25 update: In my most recent order, I received only one 12oz bag of beans with the 2-pack barcode sticker covering the original barcode on the bag. So somebody messed up the 2-pack packaging process; I don't know if it was Amazon or BLK & Bold. I went through the increasingly common runaround with replacements/returns with Amazon.com, eventually chatted with a human who issued me a refund, and promised that this would not happen again with my next order. Keeping my fingers crossed in a few weeks when the time comes to order more decaf beans. My pourover with this still tastes good, though the beans are different from my previous order. The beans are a little lighter roast (closer to medium than dark) and the beans are larger.

This is good coffee. I've ordered before and will order again.

The price is great for what you get - which is a deliciously mellow Ethiopian bean in sturdy, convenient packaging. The second bag stayed fresh for over a month before I opened it. It is a very light roast so you can’t judge it based on the residue in the bag. I go by the feel of the grounds. The Limu region is incredibly underrated as far as I’ve tasted. Also the beans are visually healthy. This probably has to do with the higher amounts of rainfall the region received in 2020 relative to more Eastern regions like Sidamo and Harrar, whose beans have tended to be smaller and more acidic in recent years and, overall I feel, taste better as medium or darker roasts. I love a flavorful, low acidity light roast in the morning and this brand has hit the spot. The flavor profile given on the package is fairly accurate. I notice a strong chocolaty smell from the bag but the honey and blueberry come through more after brewing. It might be the low acidity and lack of bitterness that makes these flavors outshine the chocolate notes but they are still there in the aroma. The roasters timed these beans perfectly in my opinion. If you like it more flavorful you might want to brew it darker, and therefore use more product per cup, but it does very well brewed at normal strength. Also I think it is good to know that you will need an electric grinder for these beans unless you love the workout of grinding light beans by hand.

Love the flavor