Zing!

It’s the first word that popped into my mind upon the first sip of this coffee.

It’s a warm December day here in Texas. The windows are all open and the wind is blowing. My kids and I are all finally recovering from a bug I brought back with me from an airline on Thanksgiving day. And here I am, sitting back and enjoying a bright coffee on a brilliant morning.

Life is good. So is this coffee. The taste is so tangy and alive that it sparkles on the tongue.

The Berres Brothers package reads: “Kenya AA. Refreshingly aromatic, delectably smooth. African beans create a crisp, powerful balance with swirls of sharp.”

Sharp what? I don’t know. That’s literally how it ends. But this coffee is smooth, and the taste is very crisp. The highlights dominate the flavor. It’s sharply sweet with a citrus punch that glides high over the warm roasted nutty flavor of the more umber coffee notes, like a masterful saxophone playing with an aggressive and jazzy base guitar.

This is not morning coffee. This is afternoon coffee, or early-evening-before-the-party coffee.

And, my friends, it is most definitely a very Groovy Brew.

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This arrived unexpectedly in the mail. I remember contacting them back when I was writing a two part article called “The Triumphant Return of Instant Coffee?”

Months later, surprise! And a pleasant surprise it is.

I’ve always thought that packaging coffee extract in single serving packets would be a good idea. Especially if you’re backpacking or in some remote location where brewing a cup of coffee is difficult or a bad idea, it’s nice to know you can get something like this Java Juice to take along because … no matter what, coffee is an imperative. Even at the top of a mountain, or in a submarine. Or on the International Space Station.

The coffee must flow.

They sent me four flavors to try:

• Original
• French Vanilla
• Black Gold
• Swiss Water Decaf

A few minutes ago I opened one of the Original packets and dribbled the uber-black concentrate into 10 ounces of hot filtered water.

Right up front let me tell you it’s good. It has a strong flavor and tastes very fresh. That being said, the flavor of coffee is surprisingly delicate and easy to damage. I’ve tried several top of the line extracts over the years and none of them could be considered a replacement for regular coffee, mainly because of what I call “dilution tang.” Something about adding water to an already brewed suspension of coffee slightly damages the flavor. I mean, you get this even with regular coffee after you add an ice cube to it. So I’m not putting Java Juice down when I say the taste suffers from this dilution tang — it’s just a fact of life. I took a (albeit unnaturally strong) brew of coffee — the extract itself — and added water to it. What I ended up with is a very robust, fresh, flavorful cup of coffee with that tell-tale tang of dilution.

That being said, it tastes VASTLY better than ANY freeze-dried instant coffee, and much better than most pre-ground stale tinned coffees. The dilution tang can be masked by adding a sweetener, and the trade off is that you now have a good coffee that is completely portable. You don’t have to mix it with hot water — cold water works just fine, if you’re into drinking iced coffees — or you could add it to milk to make an instant cappuccino.

On the fly.

Anywhere.

That is where Java Juice really shines. Out camping, hiking, fishing or hunting, anywhere away from home — it’s far better than horrid office or hotel coffee.

I’m now drinking the “Black Gold” and it, too, is very tasty and especially fresh. It’s rich, full bodied, and exceptionally smooth.

I hereby make it official. Java Juice is Groovy. Not to mention very portable.

Other coffee extracts I’ve reviewed: X Cafe & CoolBrew

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As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve taken a break from reviewing. It involves a long business trip and catching a bug. While I’m home now, I’m still not well, and my sense of taste is thoroughly misaligned.

So instead I’m going to make some lists. I mean, why not? Lists are fun … and they might even be useful.

Going back over the last 9 months of reviews, these were my favorite coffees:

• SpecialtyJava.com “New York New York”
• CoffeeBeanDirect.com Dark Costa Rican
• Inland Empire Coffee’s Guatemala Huehuetanango
• Jalima H&A Coffee
• Coffeemaria’s Java Pancour
• Coastal Bean’s Jamaican Blue Mountain
• Stone Creek Cream City Blend
• California Coffee Roasters Costa Rican Tres Rios
• Country Morning Coffee: Columbia

I heartily recommend every one of them. These are the crème de la crème, the coffees that have spoiled me rotten for most of this year.

Now that we’ve covered the best, let’s take a look at the worst…

• Hello Boss Iced Coffee - Literally so bad I had to force myself from blowing chunks.
• Great Value 100% Arabica - Tasted like soap.
• Hillside Coffee and their Hot Cans of Doom - Sprayed me with burning chemicals.
• World Market Chocolate Turtle - Tasted like it included actual turtle shell.
• Casa Coffee Blue Mountain - Reminded me of bug poison.

Some of my readers may remember I had challenged a dozen leading coffee maker manufacturers to prove to me their machines could make a better cup of coffee than my little 49¢ cup top filter. These companies were:

• Black & Decker
• Braun
• Bunn
• Cuisinart
• DeLonghi
• Farberware
• Hamilton Beach
• KitchenAid
• Krups
• Mr. Coffee
• Sunbeam
• West Bend

Not a single one of them wanted to answer the challenge. None. Why? Because none wanted their machines to be showed up by a dime store piece of plastic. None of them wanted to admit it’s the coffee, not the coffee maker, that makes good coffee.

That being said, there is one amazing little device I did discover this year: The Java Wand. If there is one coffee maker that could make a better tasting cup of coffee that my little 49¢ wonder, it would be a coffee press. The Java Wand is a coffee press at the end of a straw. And, no, it does not burn your lips off. Check it out.

So my coffee loving friends, that’s my recap. After I get to feeling better, and can taste properly again, I’ve got several yummy looking coffees all lined up and ready to be reviewed.

Thanks for reading! And thanks for coming back!

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This is an actual scan of the package. Country Morning Coffee - Colombia Roast. It’s such a fresh, small batch roast that each bag is hand labeled with a Sharpie.

Right up front, let me tell you this: It’s wonderful! This is a light-hearted, lovingly roasted bean with a sparkling pure flavor, sprite and sweet, with just enough dark undertones to give it some depth. The aftertaste is pure magic. It’s the most consummate example I have had of a Colombia roast.

I could quite easily drink this coffee all day long, everyday, for 11 days straight.

The woman behind Country Morning Coffee is Elizabeth Wolf. From her website: “I roast my coffees in small 20 lb batches with a gas powered, drum coffee roaster. Small batch roasting and straightforward technology give me more control over the roasting process. Many variables, including the weather can affect how a batch of beans will roast. Small batch roasting allows me to give every roast the meticulous attention they require. After every batch is completed I taste it, guaranteeing our customers the delicious coffee they have come to love.”

Her company motto: “Fresh Coffee is Happy Coffee.”

All I can add to that is: Groovy!

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Oh my God this is horrible.

It’s so horrible it’s like watching a disaster movie. You can’t tear your eyes away. It’s like watching a boulder crushing cars and houses.

I’m having problems controlling my gag reflex.  Seriously.  I can’t drink it.

Yes, it’s that vile.  That is my opinion.  That’s my review, short and sweet.

I cannot finish drinking it.  I’m throwing it away.

Avoid this swill. It’s not groovy, not at all.

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A quandary. How should I judge an espresso roast against other coffees? By making an espresso?

No. That’s apples to oranges.

So I brewed it up like any coffee, using my cup top filter maker. After all you can use just about any coffee you want in an espresso maker. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an espresso blend.

So that is what I did, and wow, it was good. Really good. California Coffee Roasters Espresso Blend is as smooth as it is aggressive, with a rich smoky taste edged with a touch of coco and hint of nutmeg. It makes a good strong cup of regular coffee.

I wanted to establish that up front, because the next thing I did with it was fire up my machine and made myself a cappuccino of hot frothy goodness.

And now I’m wired up like a house with 10,000 Christmas lights and ready to go take a really long fast walk around the neighborhood. Which is a good thing. I need the exercise.

I am zinging right now. Really. Zinging.

And this Espresso Roast? Rich, fresh, outstanding, and definitely a groovy brew.

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Berres Brothers touts this flavored blend as “Indulgently sweet, richly enticing. Our top seller… an explosion of caramel, butterscotch and hazelnut.”

I’m going to have to come up with a new category on this website, and call it “Candy Coffee” because a lot of the brews I’ve sampled this month fall directly into that niche.

This one is no exception.

I have a sweet tooth. I freely admit that. It’s caused me some problems in the past, too, and I admit that as well.

But this coffee and a bit of non-sugar sweetener will quell any coffee lover’s sweet tooth for about one calorie per cup.

Let’s go through Berres Brothers claims for this coffee one by one:

• Indulgently sweet? Yes.
• Richly enticing? I’d say so, as long as you have a sweet tooth.
• An explosion of caramel? Not quite an explosion but it’s undeniably present.
• Butterscotch? Present.
• Hazelnut? Accounted for.

I have no doubt that it’s one of their top sellers. As far as a flavored coffee goes, I’d say it makes it to my top three favorites. It’s smooth, with a creamy texture for the tongue, the flavors riding atop of (but overwhelming) a mild, probably Kona-based blend.

So to the above list I must add:

• Groovy? Most definitely.

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I think you might consider this is a biased review.

Up front, let me just say that I do not like Irish Cream flavored coffee. Irish Cream itself, yum, and some Irish Cream coffee creamers, yum, but as a flavored coffee, no. Yuck.

So I am not a good one to judge California Coffee Roasters Irish Cream. Just to say I don’t care for it means nothing, really, because it’s not the coffee itself, nor the quality of the roast, that I am putting down.

Some of you out there must love Irish Cream flavored coffee. This has to be a fact. Otherwise no one would make it, because no one would buy it.

To me, the Irish Cream flavoring masks the coffee taste with this unnatural pseudo-cream ick that hints of turned milk and cheap whiskey. But for those whose palates are fond of it, I will say that California Coffee Roasters’ version is strong in flavor, fresh, and very smooth.

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