Good Basic Dark, Fool's House French Blended Coffee Is All Right!

The Good: Reasonably priced, Good dark coffee flavor
The Bad: Not at all distinct in its flavor, Virtually no aroma from this blend
The Basics: The Coffee Fool Fool's House French Coffee is a good, basic blend for those who love dark coffee.


One of the reasons that I review so many different coffees is that I love coffee. I have a little morning ritual involving waking up, taking my dog out, dealing with my online accounts and making and consuming coffee. I've recently discovered that I can go a day without coffee, but after that, my head really begins to hurt! (Yes, I know it's either caffeine withdrawal or psychosomatic!) Between my love of coffee and a local discount store that gets in an incredible variety of brands and flavors, I have a lot of incentive to continue reviewing coffee. Today, that takes the form of getting around to evaluating The Coffee Fool's Fool's House French Blended Coffee.

This is my second experience with The Coffee Fool, following the bags of Blueberry Cinnamon coffee (reviewed here!) I got in a few months back. I'm on my second bag of Fool's House French coffee and I'm finding I accept it, but am not thrilled by it. It is an adequate, average coffee for those who like dark blends, but it is not going to light up one's morning and I think that has to do with the fact that it is not the most aromatic blend while it is brewing or after it is in the cup, so it does not contribute to the whole "coffee experience."

Basics

The Coffee Fool is a fairly well-established Minnesota-based coffee roaster that is expanding its influence outside the Midwest. Fool's House French is one of the darker blends by The Coffee Fool and it comes in a ten ounce foil bag. Fool's House French is very dark and is an "adjective coffee," meaning the name does not describe a specific flavor the coffee has to aspire to be. Because it is not whole bean coffee, no grinding is required. The Fool's House French Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods and the bag can be resealed using the wire-based "tie."

Fool's House French Coffee is a surprisingly unaromatic blend, but it is a fairly flavorful one.

Ease Of Preparation

Fool's House French Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, assuming one has a coffee scoop! First, open the bag. The Coffee Fool Fool's House French 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. Fool's House French 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 Fool's House French Coffee and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time.

Taste

The House French coffee has virtually no aroma. I was surprised by this because coming out of the bag, the scent from the coffee is potent and dark. After the first two minutes of brewing, though, this becomes a surprisingly scentless coffee!

On the flip side, the taste of the House French coffee is just the opposite. This is a potent, dark coffee flavor that washes over the tongue and finishes with an appropriate bitterness familiar to those who love real coffee!

With creamer or just a teaspoon of sugar, the House French coffee is quite a bit sweeter, but it retains its strong, dark coffee flavor. Additives seem to cut the bitter aftertaste from this blend. Otherwise, the House French blend has a bitter aftertaste that lingers on the tongue for about five minutes after it is consumed.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that has nutrients in it! The Coffee Fool Fool's House French Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the only ingredient for the cofee is 100% High Grade Arabica Coffee.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to energize consumers in the morning when one begins consuming it. 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 wakes up the consumer.

Fool's House French Coffee is not marked as Kosher or with any other dietary notes.

Storage/Clean-up

Fool's House French 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. The bag came to us fresh and would have lasted until its August 31, 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

The Coffee Fool Fool's House French Coffee is good, but for a blend as dark as it is, it comes across as more averaged than truly exceptional.

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Coffee Masters Mudslide Coffee
Dunkin' Donuts Jelly Donut Flavored Coffee
Four Sisters Coffee Caramel Coffee

5.5/10

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.
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