The Good: Appropriately caffeinated, Good aroma, Tastes very good
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is the blend most likely to prevent home brewers from bothering to ever go out and buy Starbucks at a café again!
Coffee! There are few brands of coffee more recognizable and influential than Starbucks. In fact, it is somewhat surprising that with all of my coffee and restaurant reviews, I have not yet reviewed Starbucks cafes! I suppose that part of that is that I no longer live close to any Starbucks cafes – local penetration of Bigby Coffee (reviewed here!) has made Starbucks a non-competitor throughout much of Northern Michigan. The other reason is that I love brewing coffee at home and not having to interact with people or leave my apartment. To that end, Starbucks managed to give me a good daily dose of happiness with its Espresso Roast.
Espresso Roast might be comparatively expensive, but this is the blend from Starbucks that is worth getting for home brewing!
Basics
Based on the success of Starbucks, a chain of coffee shops, Starbucks began selling its coffee in supermarkets and other stores. The standard size for Espresso Roast is a 12 oz. bag and that seems to last a couple of weeks around my heavy coffee-drinking house.
The Espresso Roast Blend is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend. This is intended to be a bold coffee and it does come across as that, from the aroma to the first sip!
Ease Of Preparation
Espresso Roast Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, so when it is opened, the bag will likely plump up a little. Then, measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Espresso Roast Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers. This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed and I use a Hamilton Beach machine (reviewed here!) with a Crucial coffee permanent filter (reviewed here!).
Consult your coffee maker's instructions for how to brew the coffee. However, as far as the basics go, you'll need a coffee filter, which you put the Espresso Roast Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time and use this coffee within a week of opening the bag. As long as the bag is kept closed in an airtight container, it seems to remain fresh beyond the recommended week.
Taste
The Starbucks Espresso Roast blend smells strongly of coffee. This is an aromatic blend that hints at exactly what it is; a strong, dark, coffee.
The aroma foreshadows the Espresso Roast’s flavor perfectly. The Espresso Roast has a very dry, full flavor that lives up to the promise of being a bold dark roast. Instead of finishing with a bitter flavor, though, the Espresso Roast is intriguingly dry as it moves from its primary to secondary flavor. This blend tastes exclusively like very concentrated coffee. This blend is not watery and its flavor does not diminish at all with additives. Sugar and creamer might eliminate the dryness, but the Espresso Roast continues to taste like super-coffee!
On its own, the Espresso Roast leaves the mouth with a fairly dry aftertaste. After a minute, that transitions to a slightly bitter flavor, though only after the final cup. This is not really unpleasant and it does not diminish the overall experience of drinking the Espresso Roast.
Nutrition
This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag does not have any ingredients, so I am forced to assume all that is in this blend is coffee beans, which would fit what it tastes like.
This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open between the taste, aroma and caffeine. Because it is a caffeinated coffee, it appears to not have undergone any of the chemical processes that sometimes cause complications in decaffeinated coffees.
Storage/Clean-up
Espresso Roast Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with the top firmly closed. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top tightly closed is highly recommended. There are different schools of thought on refrigerating open coffee and I have a very clean refrigerator with a lot of ways to segregate coffee, so I tend to come down on the side of refrigerate it. The container makes no recommendations in that regard, though the bag of Espresso Roast Coffee I bought at the discount store earlier this week had an expiration date of August 30 2014 (though I assume when it is bought on the shelves it has a longer shelf life).
After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and these grounds are no exception.
Overall
Starbucks Espresso Roast Coffee is an exceptional dark coffee and it is the best the brand has to offer to home coffee consumers!
For other Starbucks coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Starbucks Discoveries Vanilla Latte
Starbucks Via Colombia coffee
Starbucks Coffee Signature Hot Chocolate Ice Cream
8.5/10
For other food or drink reviews, please check out my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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