The Good: Well caffeinated, Great aroma, Reasonably priced, Tastes like it is supposed to . . .
The Bad: . . . only reaches its promised flavor with creamer!
The Basics: Leelanau Snicker Cookie Coffee smells good and wakes the consumer up, but requires creamer to become the flavor it promises!
The last few days, my new cat has been a real pain in the ass. He seems determined to not let my wife or I get enough sleep and, because he was a holiday gift for me and because it’s worse around the house when my wife doesn’t get her full eight hours of sleep, so, I’ve been forced to wake early and keep Elim entertained. Keeping a little, very active, cat from jumping up on things, scratching everything and generally being a nuisance is a very active job and not one for a sleep-deprived person. So, I’ve needed assistance getting out of bed (other than my wife kicking me and saying, “He’s your cat” or “today’s the day we’re getting rid of him.”) and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that Leelanau Snicker Cookie Coffee is doing the job quite well.
There is something ironic about my reviewing Leelanau Snicker Coffee now; Leelanau is a Michigan-based company and while Michigan has been my home for the past two and a half years, I only find myself reviewing the “local delicacies” now that I have the first glimmers of hope that I am soon to return to New York! So, my first experience with Leelanau is earning the coffee roasters a very soft “recommend,” largely because their flavored coffee gives me the kick I need to be attentive to the crying cat who would otherwise be tearing up the carpet!
Unfortunately, while this coffee smelled exactly like it was supposed to, it did not quite nail the flavor on its own.
Basics
Leelanau is a fairly well-established Michigan-based coffee roaster that is very easy to find in Northern Michigan. Snicker Cookie is one of the medium dark blends by Leelanau and it comes in a twelve ounce foil bag. Snicker Cookie is dark enough to satisfy me (I’m a dark dark dark coffee drinker!), but not flavored like it is supposed to. Because it is not whole bean coffee, no grinding is required. The Snicker Cookie Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods and one of Leelanau’s gimmicks is to include a little metal bag clip to help keep the bag shut when one is not using it!
Snicker Cookie Coffee is an aromatic blend that smells precisely of cookies and it is a delightfully-caffeinated blend.
Ease Of Preparation
Snicker Cookie Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Leelanau Snicker Cookie Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased. After opening foil bag, procure a scoop (not included) and measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Snicker Cookie Coffee is intended for automatic (drip or percolating) coffee makers, like my Hamilton Beach coffee maker (reviewed here!). This is NOT an instant coffee. As a result, it needs to be brewed.
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, like the Crucial Coffee #4 permanent filter (reviewed here) we use, into which you put the Snicker Cookie Coffee and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time. Leelanau recommends freezing the bag after opening it (in fact, a good portion of their packaging for this coffee is spent arguing how to keep the coffee inside freshest!).
Taste
The Snicker Cookie Coffee smells like exactly what it is supposed to; a combination of a medium-dark coffee and snickerdoodles. The cookie scent manifests in an aroma that mixes cinnamon and more subtle scent, like that of a sugar cookie. The cinnamon and coffee scents are the dominant predecessors to the taste of the coffee itself.
Unfortunately, on the flavor front, the Snicker Cookie Coffee is surprisingly bland, or perhaps basic is a better word. This coffee tastes like a medium-roast blend of coffee without any enhancements or differentiating flavors.
Interestingly, with any slightly sweetened creamer – we used sugar free French Vanilla and sugar free Sweet Italian Cream and found they had similar results – the flavor of the Snicker Cookie pops just like one hopes it might! Creamer seems to draw out the flavor of cinnamon in the coffee itself and it also makes the beverage sweeter. With creamer, the Snicker Cookie coffee comes alive as a sweet beverage that tastes like one melted a cookie into a pot of coffee! It’s surreal and delicious.
The Snicker Cookie coffee does not leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth, regardless of how it is prepared.
Nutrition
This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Leelanau Snicker Cookie 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, though 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. This is a blend that actually lives up to energizing the consumer.
Snicker Cookie Coffee is marked as Kosher.
Storage/Clean-up
Snicker Cookie Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with bag’s top folded down. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the bag folded tightly closed is highly recommended. Leelanau recommends getting the air out of the bag, then sealing the foil bag with the provided clip and then freezing it to maintain freshness. The bag came to us fresh (I assume it was being clearanced as an end of the season thing, not a freshness or discontinuation) and would have lasted until its September 15, 2015 expiration date had we not consumed it all before then!
After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. This is not an ideal coffee to make a second pot with (second brewings I attempted came out 1/2 as potent as the first brewing), so this is not an ideal coffee for the coffee miser. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost.
Overall
Leelanau Snicker Cookie Coffee is fair on its own and would not have earned a recommendation from me if it did not perfectly synergize with creamer to reach its potential. That makes it far less than perfect, but the result with creamer is truly spectacular!
For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Dunkin’ Donuts Apple Pie Coffee
Seattle’s Best Level Five
Melitta Extra Dark European Blend Coffee
6/10
For other drink reviews, please check out my Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment