Bones's Red Velvet and Chocolate Raspberry

It's Sunday, so I am once again telling the world about coffee I've consumed! Today, it's two more flavorful blends from the Bones Coffee Company, one of which they marketed squarely at Valentine's Day (so I'm posting my review early enough in case you want to get goofy and share some flavored coffee with a skeleton mascot with your sweetheart)!

This year, Valentine's Day will be spent renewing our love affair with coffee!

I approached brewing and drinking these blends in the way I do most of the coffees I consume with an toward writing about: I brew it in my trusty drip coffee maker, and then drink it hot, also as it cools to room temperature, and then iced. I drink it black or with Unsweetened Almond Milk, or with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. Both reviews were also written with 4-oz. sample packs as the source of the coffee.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: RED VELVET CAKE

The Red Velvet blend is one of Bones Coffee's seasonal/holiday releases that they only produce for a limited period of time each year. This one, they offer around Valentine's Day, and they've got their mascot dressed up like Cupid against a background of hearts to underscore that fact.

The Red Velvet blend is another one that starts with medium-roast Arabica beans, and then the people at Bones at their flavoring magic. My previous experience with their cake-inspired blends has been hit and miss--I enjoyed Birthday Suit but couldn't stand Strawberry Cheesecake--so I went into this one with no idea of what to expect.

The unboiled grounds didn't seem to provide any clue as to what might come; they smelled like coffee. That's, of course, not a bad thing by itself, but I've come to expect some other aroma to be mixed in when I open one of these bags.

As the coffee brewed, there was also no evident aroma other than that of coffee, and this was also the case when I poured the first mugful. Not unsurprising, there was also no detectable flavor other than that of high quality coffee with some from of sweetener added. I couldn't pick out a distinctive flavor, but it was sweeter and smoother than even typical medium- or light-roast coffee. This held true when I tried it hot with Unsweetened Almond Milk. When I tried it with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, it tasted no different than it would have if I'd added the creamer to Bones' Costa Rican blend, or maybe Seattle Best's House Blend.

Although the Red Velvet blend was unimpressive when hot, its flavor changes as it cools. Once it's luke-warm, the advertised red velvet cake flavor has emerged and it becomes increasingly dominant as the blend cools to room temperature. This is the case no matter which of the two standards I've added to the mix. From luke-warm to room temp, the Red Velvet blend tastes like cake that's been soaked in coffee... and it's a delight the way that flavor gets stronger and stronger.

It might be logical to assume that the cake-like flavor would be exploding all over the place if this blend is consumed cold and over ice. This isn't the case, though. The flavors are more muted (typical of iced coffees, really), but there's also a slightly sour after-taste that is present. I initially thought I hadn't been careful enough in rinsing out the tumbler I use for the iced taste-tests after a somewhat disastrous experiment in creating a cocktail using the Starbucks Iced Blonde Roast and gin and... well, maybe I'll post details about my failure down the line. Meanwhile, the sour aftertaste was not the result of a contaminated mug, but probably from some reaction with the Unsweetened Almond Milk--it wasn't present when I tried the drink iced with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. One very positive thing about Red Velvet when iced is that the saltiness that emerges in other Bones Coffee blends when had over ice is not present here.

In the end, I think the Red Velvet blend works best after it's had a little time to cool, and then as it continues to cool until room temperature. I recommend it, except as an iced coffee.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY
In theory, this is one of the more "well, yeah, of course" blends. In theory, a medium-roast with a chocolate raspberry should be an easy slam-dunk for Bones, what it being a flavor that works great with coffee, as well as medium-roast coffee already having a slight chocolaty undertone to it. But will Bones pull it off?

The aroma of raspberry rose powerfully from the bag as soon as I opened it. Past experience has shown that this could be a bad sign. As the coffee brewed, I couldn't there was a distinct air of raspberry in the kitchen, but it wasn't so strong that I could smell it all the way down the hall in my office. Past experience has shown that this could be either a good or bad sign. Clearly, this was a blend I'd have to actually try before any opinions were formed.

When this blend is consumed hot and black, the raspberry flavor is very noticeable, and sweet enough that I could drink this coffee without adding almond milk or creamer. However, the chocolate taste was very subtle, almost undetectable. In fact, it's only slightly more than the ghost of a chocolatey flavor that sometimes seems to just be present naturally in medium-roast coffee.

Once I added sugar free Italian Sweet Cream creamer to my cup, the chocolate really popped and there was a fabulous blend of coffee, chocolate, and raspberry flavors. Drinking a cup with Unsweetened Almond Milk had a similar effect--the chocolate flavor was still very much present, but raspberry and coffee dominated, and it remained a wonderful drinking experience. In fact, I liked it better with the Unsweetened Almond Milk, because the mix is less sweet (which is not something I say very often).

This blend works nicely at room temperature--which is how I end up drinking much of my coffee, because it cools as I get busy and/or distracted and let the mug sit for a while--with the raspberry flavor remaining constantly strong, and the chocolate present as a powerful undertone, no matter what else I mixed in. 

As with the Red Velvet blend, the flavors retreat when it's consumed iced, with only a hint of raspberry remaining to make the coffee seem slightly sweetened. This was the case whether I mixed it with sugar free Italian Sweet Cream creamer or with Unsweetened Almond Milk. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't anything to sing about either.

In the end, I recommend that you drink the Chocolate Raspberry blend hot and with some milk added. It really does seen to be where it works best. Drinking it over ice pretty much negates the flavors.

"Coffee--ah'll never quit yew!"
(Click here if you want to learn how to make cowboy coffee)