Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Flavorful, But Pricy, Green Mountain Organic House Blend Is Delightfully Dark Coffee!


The Good: Appropriately caffeinated, Good aroma
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend Coffee is an initially impressive dark coffee that fails to defend itself against . . . coffee creamers?!


When it comes to coffee, I have never been one to unnecessarily laud standard blends and, to the best of my knowledge, before having the Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend, I had never had organic coffee. Go figure. But, now that I have had organic coffee, it is hard to want to go back, save that this is so expensive.

Basics

One of the dominant restaurant-grade coffee roasters and distributors in the United States, Green Mountain Coffee produces a number of blends. Organic House Blend is one of the new organic blends by Green Mountain Coffee that I have found in stores, in their usual ten ounce bag. Given that that, locally, runs in the $15 range (on sale), this was a very expensive coffee by my standards. And it’s not that I am not sympathetic to Fair Trade Certified or Organic causes, but the cost is so disproportionately expensive that it became almost impossible for me to justify all those great social and health benefits at this cost.

Because it is not whole bean, no grinding is required. With a resealable bag, the Organic House Blend Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods. Organic House Blend Coffee is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend.

Ease Of Preparation

Organic House Blend Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, but it opens easily. Procure a scoop (not included) and measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Organic House Blend 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 Melita coffee filters (reviewed here), which you put the Organic House Blend Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time and refrigerating the beans to prevent them from absorbing other flavors and aromas.

Taste

Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend Coffee has a very earthy, almost muddy aroma to it. This coffee smells mildly of coffee and even the peaty aroma dissipates remarkably quickly.

What does not disappear is the flavor. On the taste front, Organic House Blend Coffee is undeniably coffee-flavored. This is a bitter, rich, drink that actually tastes quite a bit darker than most house blends. Moreover, it does not just taste like browned water, like too many coffees (especially standard house blends) do. This is a coffee that helps define what coffee should taste like.

With sugar, Organic House Blend Coffee becomes only minimally sweeter. With creamer, the Organic House Blend coffee adds the coffee flavor, refusing to be dominated by any flavored additive. In other words, this is a good coffee for those who like the flavor of coffee and the flavor of the creamers one adds!

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend 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 organic 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.

Storage/Clean-up

Organic House Blend Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the bag sealed 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. Stored properly, this coffee might have easily made it to the February 13, 2013 expiration date, but we didn’t let it survive that long!

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. This does not seem like an ideal coffee to make a second pot with (second brewings I attempted came out 1/2 to 5/8 as potent as the first brewing) unless one is in a household with a number of people some who like powerful coffee and others who like powerful water. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost and I swear the pine tree I've been putting these grounds around has shot up since I started caffeinating the ground around it!

Overall

Green Mountain Coffee Organic House Blend Coffee is a bitter, strong coffee sure to delight those who like strong, but not entirely black, coffees. Were it not for the rather incredible expense of this coffee, I would more enthusiastically recommend it.

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Folgers Gourmet Supreme Coffee
Tim Horton’s Fine Grind Coffee
Starbucks Café Estima

5/10

For other food or drink reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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