Sunday, November 6, 2016

A Trade Off Of Flavor: The Coffee Fool's Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee!


The Good: Reasonably priced, Flavorful for those who love strong coffee
The Bad: Does not taste strongly like chocolate or pumpkin on its own . . . or much like coffee once creamer is added.
The Basics: The Coffee Fool Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is problematic for the flavors it promised, but is a decent strong coffee blend in its own right!


Autumn is a time for pumpkin spiced everything and pumpkin flavored coffees are a particular favorite of mine. So, when a pumpkin flavored coffee from The Coffee Fool arrived at my local discount store, I was all over it. The coffee is Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee and despite it being an American blend that is supposed to be light to medium, the espresso grind we purchased results in a strong, dark coffee flavored coffee.

Basics

The Coffee Fool is a fairly well-established Minnesota-based coffee roaster that is expanding its influence outside the Midwest. Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie is one of the medium dark blends by The Coffee Fool that brews a delightfully dark coffee and it comes in a twelve ounce foil bag. Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie is a very dark coffee, but it is not flavored like it is supposed to be; it lacks the promised secondary flavors. Because it is not whole bean coffee, no grinding is required. The Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods and the bag can be resealed using the wire-based "tie."

Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is a blend that has a strong coffee aroma and flavor, but the promised chocolate and pumpkin pie flavors are not present.

Ease Of Preparation

Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. The Coffee Fool Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie 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 Chocolate Pumpkin Pie 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 Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee and then brew through your coffee maker.

Taste

The Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee smells entirely like coffee. There is nothing in the bouquet that hints at chocolate and in the afterscent there are hints of cinnamon and nutmeg in the aroma. But the coffee scent of the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is far and away the dominant one.

Similarly, the flavor of the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee is almost entirely dominated by the flavor of the rich, dark chocolate. On its own, the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee tastes like coffee with a fairly bitter aftertaste. The dark coffee flavor is powerful and does not diminish as the coffee cools. Indeed, even as the coffee cools, the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee does not pop with any other flavors, subtle or overt.

With creamer or just a teaspoon of sugar, the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee actually does manage to present some spiced flavors. With a very basic sweet cream flavored creamer, there manifested a slight dry flavor akin to the aftertaste of chocolate in the palate. But the primary flavor of the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee takes on a watery quality when creamer is so added, so it is a trade-off; get hints of the promised flavor, lose the potency of the coffee flavor.

On its own, the Chocolate Pumpkin Pie coffee has a strong, bitter aftertaste to it that lingers for at least five minutes in the mouth after the last of the coffee is consumed.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! The Coffee Fool Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the only ingredient for the coffee is 100% High Grade Arabica Coffee.

This is a caffeinated blend and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open. 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.

Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is not marked as Kosher or with any other dietary notes.

Storage/Clean-up

Fool's Chocolate Pumpkin Pie 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 December 30, 2016 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 1/3 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 Chocolate Pumpkin Pie Coffee is good, but it is not one of The Coffee Fool's flavors that immediately lives up to its promised flavor, which is problematic for me . . . and anyone else who loves the flavors of autumn!

For other pumpkin flavored food reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Pumpkin Spice Thomas' English Muffins
Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Flax Granola cereal
Celestial Seasonings Sweet Harvest Pumpkin Tea

5/10

For other drink reviews, please check out my Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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