Underwhelming Flavor: Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee!

The Good: Appropriately caffeinated, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Seems expensive, Not overly flavorful
The Basics: When it comes to coffees that don't quite live up to the promised flavors, one of the biggest surprises for me recently was, unfortunately, Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee.


I am, obviously, a big fan of coffee. I try a lot of different types of coffee and one of the biggest curveballs that can be thrown to me as a lover of coffees and a reviewer is finding a coffee that finds a good balance between coffee and the flavors it claims to be. Today, I finished the bag of Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee coffee I've been drinking the last few days and I realized that the bag was, unfortunately, a disappointment. As much as I generally enjoy Melitta, the Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee does not taste like any of its promised flavors - it's just coffee and expensive coffee at that.

Basics

One of the premium coffee roasters and distributors in the United States and Europe, Melitta produces a number of blends. Hazelnut Creme Brulee is a medium dark blend from Melitta that I have found in stores and for the 11 oz. bag it is priced on par with the other premium coffee blends. Hazelnut Creme Brulee is a surprisingly simple, coffee flavored coffee that does not quite taste like nuts or creme brulee desserts. This is an 11 oz. plastic bag of extra fine ground coffee. Because it is not whole bean, no grinding is required. The Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods, given that it comes with a tie to keep it sealed.

Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is a fairly aromatic blend in its bean form.

Ease Of Preparation

Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare. First, open the bag. Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, but it has only the initial foil seal to get through to break the vacuum seal. Procure a scoop (not included) and measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Hazelnut Creme Brulee 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 Coffee Filter (reviewed here), in which you put the Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time. Melitta does not take a stand on refrigerating the container after opening it, though they do recommend a cool, dark and dry place to store the coffee.

Taste

The Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee does not have a strong aroma at all to help indicate or bolster its flavor. The scent of the coffee is mild and smells just like coffee.

The flavor, however, is simply that of coffee. The real letdown of the Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is that it does not have a strong or recognizable flavor to it. The coffee flavor is not overly intense, but it tastes just like coffee, nothing else.

The Hazelnut Creme Brulee coffee has a mild, very slightly bitter, aftertaste, which does not last long in the mouth.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag does not have an ingredient's list or nutritional information.

This is a caffeinated blend, though and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open and I found it to be pleasantly caffeinated when I wanted to keep awake, even if the aroma was not overly invigorating. 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

Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its bag with the top firmly tied closed with the air out of the bag. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top sealed closed as best as one can. 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 lasted indefinitely; there is no expiration date on the bag.

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. This does not seem like an ideal coffee to make a second pot with (though a second brewing came out 1/3 as potent, which is way too weak to even be called coffee). These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost.

Overall

Melitta Hazelnut Creme Brulee Coffee is mediocre at best, which is disappointing for such a good brand.

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Taster's Choice Gourmet Roast Coffee
The Organic Coffee Co. Rainforest Blend coffee
Seattle's Best Level 5

4/10

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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Light, Dark, Absent: Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee Is An Erratic Blend!

The Good: Good taste, Appropriately caffeinated, Reasonably priced.
The Bad: Light on aroma, Creamer overwhelms the coffee flavor.
The Basics: Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is a decent coffee blend for those who like coffee flavor . . . unless they want additional flavors in it!


Back in the day when I used to write for a review website (which, much to my inner amusement has now gone bust!), I found that there was some success to be had on the site by broadening my horizons outside of movies and music reviews. As I branched out into food, pet products and book reviews, in addition to my wheelhouse reviews of music and movies, I discovered that there was additional value to reviewing items that were in the site’s database that had been overlooked by other reviewers. One such review I took on was reviewing Melitta #4 Cone Coffee Filters (reviewed here!). Well, now that I have my own review blog and I can write about anything I damn well please, I find I still enjoy writing food reviews and when I discovered a canister of Melitta Extra Dark European Roast coffee at a local discount store, I figured it was time for me to try some Melitta coffee!

I generally start my reviews of new (to me) coffee products and brands with the darkest roast I can find because I love coffee and I want my coffee flavor to be strong. Most brands have disappointingly weak medium blends that they sell as their primary coffee flavors and, frankly, life is too short to not enjoy the full flavor of coffee! Melitta Extra Dark European Roast coffee is a dark roast coffee that lives up to its flavor potential, without having a strong coffee aroma and only when it is presented black.

Basics

One of the premium coffee roasters and distributors in the United States and Europe, Melitta produces a number of blends. Extra Dark European Roast is one of the darkest blends by Melitta that I have found in stores and for the 10.5 oz. metal canister it is priced on par with the other, similar sized, containers, which surprised me because I always thought of it as a more expensive coffee until I actually looked into it. Extra Dark European Roast is deliciously dark, coffee flavored coffee that lives up, for the most part. This is a 10.5 oz. metal canister of ground coffee. Because it is not whole bean, no grinding is required. With a plastic lid that one simply lifts off, the Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods. The container is fairly smooth, but easy to handle.

Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is an aromatic blend in the canister, that smells potently of coffee beans (until it is brewed) and it is caffeinated.

Ease Of Preparation

Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the can. Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is vacuum sealed when first purchased, but it has only a foil seal to get through to break the vacuum seal. After removing the foil seal, procure a scoop (not included) and measure out one heaping tablespoon for every two cups of water in your coffee maker. Extra Dark European Roast 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 Coffee Filter (reviewed here), in which you put the Extra Dark European Roast Coffee and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time. Melitta does not take a stand on refrigerating the container after opening it, though they do recommend cool, dark and dry for places to store the coffee.

Taste

Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee does not give up its flavor in its bouquet. Instead, the Extra Dark European Roast has a surprisingly mild aroma to it when it is brewed. In fact, based on its aroma, one might be tempted to think that Melitta had created a pathetically watery cup of coffee, as this brew smells like very average, utterly underwhelming, diner-quality coffee. In other words, it smells like slightly less than the average cup of joe.

On the tongue, however, the Extra Dark European Roast Coffee has a dark, rich, smoky flavor that is very complete and robust. What surprised me was how the thick, strong taste of coffee is not accompanied by an overwhelming sense of bitterness. Instead, the Extra Dark European Roast is a potent coffee blend that is not at all unpleasant, but entirely flavorful and distinctive the way one hopes coffee to be. Despite the lack of a strong aroma, this coffee tastes very much like coffee beans that have been heated from a solid to a liquid; it is not at all watery in its primary or after-tastes.

Unsurprisingly, given its lack of bitterness in the primary flavor, the Extra Dark European Roast has no bitter aftertaste. In fact, even the coffee flavor the beverage possesses only endures on the tongue for a few seconds after the beverage is swallowed.

A teaspoon of sugar does almost nothing to the Extra Dark European Roast Coffee. This coffee takes the sugar and refuses to be overly sweetened by it. Interestingly enough for such a robust basic coffee, the Melitta Extra Dark European Roast is fairly easy to overwhelm with creamer and/or flavor syrups like the Torani syrups my wife and I have taken to using since she bought me an espresso maker. That creamer will completely dominate the flavor of this coffee is somewhat surprising and a drawback for a consumer like me who enjoys adding flavor to my coffee.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the canister lists only 100% premium coffee as the only ingredient.

This is a caffeinated blend, though and it feels like it! This has enough caffeine to pop one's eyes open and I found it to be pleasantly caffeinated when I wanted to keep awake, even if the aroma was not overly invigorating. 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

Extra Dark European Roast Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with the top firmly on. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top on 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 December 2014 expiration date found on the bottom, but we won’t let it survive that long, especially now that we alternate between regular coffee and espresso!

After brewing, coffee grounds ought to be disposed of. This does not seem like an ideal coffee to make a second pot with (though a second brewing came out 1/2 as potent, which is about as strong as a standard cup of weak/medium coffee). These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost.

Overall

Melitta Extra Dark European Roast Coffee is a good coffee, but honestly I was expecting to be bowled over by the premium coffee maker’s darkest blend. Instead, it met my expectations for a cup of black coffee; nothing more and a little less for coffee with flavored creamer added to it. That robs it of perfection, but not enjoyment for me!

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Seattle’s Best Level Five
Maxwell House Dark Roast
Gevalia Medium/Dark Blend

8/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Finding The Right Balance: Melitta Caramel Macchiato Café De Europa Coffee Hits Its Mark!

The Good: Wonderfully caffeinated, Great aroma, Reasonably priced, Consistent strong flavor
The Bad: Is best when accented with a sweet creamer.
The Basics: Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee is incredible; so close to perfect that


As part of our holiday celebration and as a very direct show of love, my wife has been getting me some awesome treats to consume this month. The latest was the Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee and after a long string of disappointing coffees, Melitta has a hit for a flavored coffee. Unlike so many coffees that fail to live up to their promised flavor – and have, at best, aromas that hint at their flavor – Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee actually tastes like both coffee and the sweet caramel flavor that defines Caramel Macchiato. Given how wonderful this whole coffee line is, I find myself shocked that I have not reviewed any other Melitta coffees up until now. Until the Caramel Macchiato Coffee, I had only reviewed Melitta #4 Cone Filters (reviewed here!); based on the power and impressiveness of this coffee, I am bound to have quite a bit more of Melitta’s flavored coffees.

Basics

One of the mid-sized coffee roasters and distributors in the United States, Melitta produces a number of blends. Caramel Macchiato is one of the medium dark blends by Melitta that I have found in stores and it has an extra find grind. Caramel Macchiato is fairly dark and very flavorful. This is a 10.5 oz. foil bag of ground coffee, found as part of their Café De Europa line as an extra fine grind coffee. Because it is not whole bean, no grinding is required. With a resealable top that folds down, the Caramel Macchiato Coffee is easily protected from absorbing scents of other foods.

Caramel Macchiato Coffee is an aromatic blend that smells potently of coffee beans and it is a caffeinated blend.

Ease Of Preparation

Caramel Macchiato Coffee is remarkably easy to prepare, no advanced culinary degrees necessary! First, open the bag. Melitta Caramel Macchiato 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. Caramel Macchiato 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 permanent coffee filters (reviewed here), which you put the Caramel Macchiato Coffee in and then brew through your coffee maker. The directions recommend making a pot at a time. Melitta does not take a stand on refrigerating the container after opening it, though they do recommending removing all air from the bag before one seals it up.

Taste

Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee smells sweet and like a strong coffee. The aroma is both that of a potent coffee and the sweeter, caramel flavor that is indicative of a caramel macchiato.

In the mouth, the Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee is dark, but surprisingly sweet with a rich coffee taste. The Caramel Macchiato flavor is a strongly dark coffee that has no bitterness to it. The coffee flavor is dark and delightful, with a distinct caramel flavor to the secondary flavor of the coffee.

Wonderfully, the Caramel Macchiato coffee sweetens delightfully and takes on a strongly creamy flavor that is indicative of Caramel Macchiato with ordinary cream and/or a teaspoon of sugar. The addition of creamer eliminates any hint of dryness to the coffee, which does take on a slightly bitter aftertaste when it cools on its own.

While this coffee leaves the mouth slightly dry, it does not have a strong coffee aftertaste, which is surprising given how powerful this coffee blend is.

Nutrition

This is coffee, not something that appears on the nutrition pyramid! Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee does not contribute anything to one's daily recommended allowance of anything. In fact, the bag only lists 100% Arabica Coffee Beans, so how it actually manages to taste like caramel is something of a mystery.

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

Caramel Macchiato Coffee ought to be stored sealed in its container with the top folded down and no air in it. Coffee is known to absorb flavors of food nearby it, so keeping the top folded down is highly recommended, after the air is removed from the bag. 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 lasted until the October 2015 expiration date, had my wife and I not drunk this all up so quickly.

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 very weak coffee. These grounds may be thrown in the trash when used or put in a compost pile, if available. Coffee grounds make great compost.

Overall

Melitta Caramel Macchiato Coffee is a near-perfect coffee. It is so strong that it truly needs a creamer in order to fully achieve its flavor potential, but it is so close on its own that it still deserves high accolades and a strong recommendation!

For other coffee reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Illy Issimo Mochaccino
Gevalia Medium/Dark House Blend
Four Sisters Caramel Coffee

9/10

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

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Go Easy On Me: I Try My Hand At Reviewing Melitta Coffee Filters (#4 White)!

The Good: Durable, Do what they claim to
The Bad: Not as environmentally sound as a reusable filter, Not the best pack (economically or environmentally).
The Basics: A product that does exactly what is promises, the 40-pack box of Melitta #4 Coffee Grounds is only brought down by there being more economical packs of the same.


My wife likes challenging me with my reviewing. In addition to coming home with innumerable products from the pet store she worked at (as if a backlog in Movies, Music, and Food wasn't enough, I now have a slew of Pets products awaiting review!), every now and then, she suggests my writing will remain sharp and get better by stretching myself in new directions. To this end, she occasionally pulls out an item and suggests I review it. Today's game of that ended when we found the Melitta #4 Coffee Filters. As it turns out, these are the precise coffee filters we use in our Hamilton Beach Brewmaster coffee maker (reviewed here!).

A coffee filter is a generally necessary component in brewing coffee as the filter is what keeps the coffee grounds out of the pot of coffee and allows water to pass through the basket of the coffee maker. It is exactly what its name suggests, a filter, a semi-permeable membrane which allows liquids to pass through, but prevents solid matter from following. This allows hot water to soak coffee beans (ground up, of course) and take the essence of those beans and carry them in liquid form into the carafe below the coffee maker. This is, of course, the beverage we all know as coffee. If it weren't for the coffee filter, coffee makers would either get backed up as the grounds resisted going down the drip hole in the coffeemaker's basket and formed a dam or the coffee one attempted to drink from the pot would have coffee grounds swimming in it.

Melitta #4 Coffee Filters are thick paper filters designed for coffee makers that brew eight to twelve cups of coffee. This is the only type of paper filter designed to fit into the basket of my coffee maker. The Melitta #4 Coffee Filters come in boxes of forty filters and my experience has been that that will last for about eighty pots of coffee. The white filters are appropriately colored white and they are composed of paper that has been bleached and then had the chlorine removed. This is generally regarded as a less environmentally friendly filter than the brown paper filters, but they serve the same function and I've noticed no difference in the quality of the coffee being produced.

The #4 coffee filters are two inches wide at their base and seven and a half inches wide at their curved top and they have an opening only at the top. The bottom and side is crimped in two lines to keep the filter sealed closed on those sides. This allows the water to enter through the open top and filter over coffee grounds placed in the filter without the grounds passing through the filter and into the basket of the coffee maker.

Melitta #4 Coffee Filters are very easy to use. Simply open the basket to your coffee maker, remove a filter from the package and open the filter at the top. The top separates easily as there is nothing holding the top together. Place the filter into the basket with the bottom over the drip hole and fill the filter with coffee grounds. The Melitta #4 Coffee Filters hold up to six Tablespoons of coffee grounds. Then close the basket and brew according to the directions of the coffee maker; the coffee filter does the rest.

Truth be told, I have only used Melitta #4 Coffee Filters in my coffee maker and the only differences I've noticed in coffee quality have come from different flavors of coffee I have brewed and how find the grounds have been. My ideal coffee grinder makes coffee beans into more of a powder than a sandy ground and the Melitta coffee filters flawlessly brews with that. By this, I mean that I have never had a coffee ground that has been too fine for the Melitta #4 coffee filters to actually retain. Solid coffee does not get through this filter, only the liquid we want!

It is worth noting, though, that I tend to reuse the coffee filters because I am cheap and these are exceptionally durable. Even wet, they do not tear very easily. As a result, I tend to scoop out a day's coffee grounds and compost them and reuse the filters for a second brewing, usually on a second day. The Melitta #4 Coffee Filters are so strong that I have never had a coffee ground get through on a second brewing, either.

When one is done with these coffee filters, they just have to remove it from their coffeemaker's basket. After that, they may be thrown away. Supposedly these may be composted, but I have not done that as I suspect they take quite a while to biodegrade. For real environmentalists, there are now reusable coffee filters and that offers a more environmental and economical way to brew coffee than these paper filters.

Still, the Melitta #4 coffee filters do exactly what they promise: they provide the means to make coffee while keeping the grounds from getting in the coffee. Honestly, who could ask for more?

For other coffee-related products, please visit my reviews of:
Cuisinart Supreme Grind Coffee Grinder
Proctor Silex E160 Coffee Grinder
Tim Horton’s Fine Grind Coffee

5/10

For other appliance reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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