Eight O Clock Coffee, Central Highlands

This is Eight O Clock coffee's dark roast.  Brewed in moka pot.  About 8 tspn of fine grounds for a 10 oz cup.  The beans did not stand up well to the moka pot heat and tasted a little burnt.  Also, I feel like the roast date of these beans was past their prime.  I included a picture of what this coffee looks like next to Starbucks Espresso Roast.  You can see that this roast is not as dark as the package makes it out to be.  Would not buy again.

Ring of Fire

The "Ring of Fire" blend is from Dean's Beans in Massachusetts. I received these roasted beans as a Christmas present. They are long gone now of course!

I ground the beans fine - finer than the range marked "drip" on my grinder - and brewed them in my old Braun automatic drip machine. I used about 16 grams for a 12 ounce cup. It was very delicious. Sweet and smoky were the words that came to mind. 

The Dean's website simply calls this a dark roast. If you're into the fine naming gradations, I think I'd say"Vienna" or "Light French Roast." It's not as heavily roasted as Starbucks French Roast, with the roast flavor dominating (which I love, but not everyone does). 

Dean's also put the roast date on the bag - December 4 in this case - not just a "best by" date. So you really know what you're getting. This was perfectly fresh when opened.

Recommended!

Bulletproof Coffee

Have you heard of this?  It's called "bulletproof coffee" and is becoming increasingly popular.  I first read about it here, Bulletproof Coffee, and it is popular among people looking to get healthy fats in the morning.  The idea being that your metabolism will be inspired to burn more body fat and you'll have a more energetic morning, without eating breakfast!  That's highly oversimplified but follow the link to read more.

I decided to make my own version and I'm starting small to ease my way in.

16 oz Starbucks Espresso roast brewed in moka pot
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp ghee (clarified butter) I know, whacky!

Put ingredients in bottom of blender.  Mix on low for 15 seconds (try not to wake your sleeping two year old)

The ingredients can be ramped up to over a Tbspn of the coconut oil and ghee but I wanted to see if I liked it first.  I do!  I only tasted a hint of the coconut in the coffee, Starbucks espresso roast which was already delicious, just tasted a little sweeter (no doubt due to the added butter).  I did feel the energy boost too, it felt like I had had two cups of coffee instead of my usual one.  I'll be bumping up the ingredients to see how far I can take this.  Highly recommended!

Eight O Clock coffee, Columbian Peaks

Starbucks French roast was not on sale this week so I went cheap and picked up some eight o clock coffee beans. It claims to be 100% arabica. No nice oily sheen on the beans like Starbucks. Who knows when these beans were roasted after all. I would call this a city roast. Decent flavor when brewed black. I enjoy Dunkin donuts coffee and this might be a nice at home replacement. Hopefully Starbucks goes on sale again soon so I can switch back!