Signature Select's Buttery Caramel

I made another trip to the grocery store, heard the call of the coffee aisle, and returned with an impulse buy. I brewed some up, I drank it, and now I'm reviewing it.

SIGNATURE SELECT: BUTTERY CARAMEL

Signature Select is the house-brand for Albertson's and Safeway grocery stores. I've previously reviewed two of their other offerings, Double Dutch Chocolate and Sun-Kissed Blonde (in the second half of the linked post), and I found them tasty and worthy of recommending to all of you. Let's see if Signature Select will have a hat-trick!

The Signature Select Buttery Caramel blend consists of Arabica light roast. The packaging states that should taste rich, sweet, and creamy, which is what I would expect from a light roast that's caramel flavored.

When I opened the bag of pre-ground coffee, the scent of caramel wafted up from it, strongly and delightfully. That aroma was also faintly present around the coffee maker as it brewed, and when I poured it into the mug, the mix of caramel and coffee made me feel certain I was in for a treat.

That is why I was so surprised when this turned out to be one of the bitterest light roast coffees I've ever tasted. Initially, the flavor is what I expected when I drank it hot and black--coffee with a caramel flavor added--but it wasn't sweet nor creamy. It had an edge from the outset... and that got worse when a bitter aftertaste hit. Things got a little better when I tried the coffee with the Unsweetened Almond Milk and sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, as the caramel flavor was drawn out with both additions. The bitter aftertaste, though, hit just as strong.

I thought perhaps I'd somehow screwed up when brewing the pot. I dumped the rest, cleaned the pot and coffee maker, and brewed a fresh batch. But the result was the same. The bottom line is that this is just not a coffee flavor that I like when it's hot. 

Don't drink Signature Select Buttery Caramel hot,
or you'll find yourself asking, "What is this sh*t?"

The good news is that the bitter aftertaste fades as the the Buttery Caramel blend cools. At room temperature, it's quite tasty whether consumed with Unsweetened Almond Milk or the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer added. It's also quite good black with a packet of Stevia. There is no aftertaste, and the coffee and caramel flavors mingle nicely and almost with the mildness I expect from a light roast.

Where this blend really excels is when it's iced. The caramel flavor is even stronger and the coffee flavor milder. It's delicious whether mixed with Unsweetened Almond Milk or the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. It's even better with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (which REALLY mixes nicely with the caramel and coffee flavors); in fact, the Buttery Caramel blend iced with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk added was my favorite of the variations I tried.

In the final analysis, the Signature Select Buttery Caramel blend is an inexpensive option if you want a tasty iced coffee... but you need to avoid drinking it hot. I don't know exactly what causes the horrid aftertaste, but it's one that I experienced so you didn't have to. Brew this coffee, let it cool, pour it in a jug or bottle you can seal, stick it in the fridge for a while... then enjoy it over ice cubes. Do it any other way, and you're going to regret it.

Summer Dreaming... with Coffee

Lately, I've been drinking varieties of the black miracle juice that make me think of summer... and in this post, I'm going to let you know what I think of them!

The Shades of Gray gang may have fun in the sun,
or we may just join this gentleman for a quiet cuppa out of doors!

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: SHARK BITE

Nothing says summer fun and frolicking at the beach than shark attacks. So... this is a summer-themed coffee, right?

Shark Bite is the third rum-flavored variety from Bones I reviewed. Almost everything I said about the Coconut Rum and Highland Grog applies to Shark Bite: This is a smooth, medium roast-based blend where the flavor of rum dominates but mixes easily with that of coffee and other augmenting flavors. The flavor profile remains strong and consistent whether the drink is consumed hot, at room temperature, or chilled and over ice. The saltiness that sometimes creeps into Bones offerings as they cool also does not manifest itself in this blend.

Shark Bite is set apart from the two similar Bones offerings by having a hard-to-describe flavor that seems almost cinnamon-y as you start drinking, but the taste becomes sweeter as you get to the bottom of your cup. The rum flavor and the spiciness of the drink also seem to trade places as you drink, with the spice being the first thing you notice initially, but eventually the sweet undertones of rum become the dominant flavor. Underneath it all, is a constant foundation of smooth coffee.

If you liked the other two rum-flavored blends, but think you'd want a little more spice in the mix, then this is the one to go with. Another reason you might want to try try Shark Bite is that drinking it just a remarkable experience. 

Bones Coffee makes humorous ads (such as this one) where they tout the notion that drinking their coffee is an experience rather than just an act of sustaining ones existence. While most of their flavored coffees are exceptional beverages, and I've used the word "experience" in describing the act of consuming them, I think that I say that Shark Bite is quite literally an experience. It's remarkable the way the flavor shifts as you consume it. This is definitely one of the more interesting blends Bones has brought to market--and what with this being the 37th of their offerings I've reviewed, I think I can make that statement with authority.

I would be amiss if I didn't commend Bones Coffee Company on yet another entertaining and evocative cartoon on the front of their package. I hope our friend Bones recovers his arm from the shark though!

SIGNATURE SELECT'S SUN-KISSED BLONDE 

Is coffee sexy? Well, I usually wouldn't think so--Folger's television ads aside--but when I saw the bags of Signature Select's Sun-Kissed Blonde on the shelf at Safeway, something along this line popped into my head:

It goes without saying, I bought a bag... because if I hadn't, I couldn't be writing this review.

Signature Select's Sun-Kissed Blonde is described on the package as a light roast... which means it could be a blonde roast as that's something of a shifting definition. The flavor of this coffee is almost mild and sweet enough that it could be a blonde roast, although it does have a little more of the bite that you find in darker roasts than was present in the Iced Blonde from Starbucks which is officially described as a blonde roast.

(A "blonde roast", by the way, is the lightest possible roast. It's basically a roast for coffee drinkers who aren't terribly fond of the typical coffee taste; at least in my book, the darker the roast, the more bitterness there is to the coffee and the more it tastes like what I think of as "traditional coffee"... and the more sugar or milk/creamer it needs before it's drinkable. Blonde roasts are almost mild enough that I can drink a cup without adding anything--almost. Blonde roasts are also ones that you should stay away from if you have stomach issues--the resulting brews are more acidic than darker roasts.)

The thing that I noticed primarily about Sun-Kissed Blonde is that it was every bit as mild as the package promised. The "nutty" undertones weren't noticable until I added almond milk or creamer but then they really popped. I suppose this means this blend behaves like a number of blondes out there--they're demure until they have some liquid refreshments and then they turn nutty!

All joking about blondes aside, I tried Sun-Kissed Blonde with a couple different agendas in mind. First, could it be a possible replacement for the pre-made Starbucks Iced Blonde--a bag of this will yield roughly 1.5 - 2 times the amount of coffee as the Starbucks bottles, for about 2/3rds the price. Second, would it be a good foundation for making my own "flavored coffees"?

Addressing the second agenda first, I put Sun-Kissed Blonde through all the usual tests--drinking it black, with Unsweetened Almond Milk, and then with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer; it all three ways, I drank it both hot, at room temperature, and chilled over ice. I enjoyed it in all three modes, although my favorite standard test mode was drinking it hot with the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer. Additionally, the Sun-Kissed Blonde blend went great with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk when hot... and it mixed great with vodka and Unsweetened Chocolate Almond Milk when I used it to make one of my half-assed homemade variant on a White Russian. 

This blend as worked extremely well when used as the foundation for my home-made chocolate-flavored coffee (which involves mixing ground coffee with dark cocoa powder), regardless of whether I drank it hot, room temperature, or over ice. I have been using medium-roasts from a variety of outlets for this, but I liked the results not only with the chocolate but also with the vodka. This coffee really sang when mixed with vanilla- and cherry-flavored vodka, too.

Which takes me back back to the first first agenda: How effective is Sun-Kissed Blonde as a replacement for Starbucks' Iced Blonde? Very effective, I say. 

The coffee flavor is stronger with the Sun-Kissed Blonde than it is with the Starbucks Iced Blonde--or at least it weathers mixing with other liquids and flavors better. This could be attributed to different roasting styles, or maybe because I make the coffee stronger than Starbucks does? There's really no way for me to know for sure. The only benefit I can see offhand to having a bottle filled with Starbucks Iced Blonde instead of one filled with chilled Signature Select's Sun-Kissed Blonde is that the Starbucks coffee comes pre-brewed and pre-chilled, so there's ease and instant gratification.

Overall, though, I found Sun-Kissed Blonde to be better-tasting than Iced Blonde. In the future, I'll most likely be taking the cheaper (yet more demanding) path toward having coffee available for drinking iced.

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, demonstrating how flavored coffees are created.
(Mad science plays a part, whether in Steve's kitchen or at a roastery.)

Signature Select's Double Dutch Chocolate

It's Sunday... so it's time for a post about coffee I've been drinking!

SIGNATURE SELECT DOUBLE DUTCH CHOCOLATE

Lately, I've been checking out other reviews of coffees you can buy and brew at home that people have been posting. A common theme is that the coffee you get at grocery stores sucks, but the coffee you order from independent roasters rock.

How does this work when you can both order a kind of coffee straight from the roaster or buy it in the grocery store--like Death Wish Coffee, for example? Well, then it's bad to buy it at the grocery store because it's stale and it sucks. You should brew coffee within a week or two of it being ground, or within a month of it being roasted for maximum flavor.

Those who hold such opinions do have something of a point. There's no question that the Bones Coffee varieties that I've tried have a stronger taste when I drink them quickly after receiving them instead of opening the package and letting it sit for a while. 

I tried this with the White Russian blend, one of my favorites. and there was no question that the flavor got weaker when I let an open pack sit for a few weeks between brewing some cups. What I didn't detect was the alleged staleness that I've seen reported as being a mainstay of grocery store coffee. In fact, when I tried the Signature Select Double Dutch Chocolate blend from Safeway, the resulting brews from the 12-oz. bag I purchased were as tasty from the first cup to the last. Maybe it was the way I stored the coffees--the ground White Russian got resealed in its package while I poured the ground Double Dutch Chocolate into a different container and sealed it there. Or maybe it's the way the flavors were obtained. I have no idea... but what I never did encounter was the staleness others claim to, either in the coffee from Bones, nor the coffee from Safeway. Maybe I just am not thinking the way they think in regards to taste--although I DO think I know what stale coffee tastes like, because I can be a slob and let coffee sit in an open pot over night--but I can't bring myself to issue blanket statements about what you can pick up at the grocery store.

So what can I say about coffee that was picked up at the grocery store--specifically the Signature Select Double Dutch Chocolate blend, one of the many offerings from this store brand?

Kate Moss is standing in for the Little Dutch Boy today.
(He's not old enough to smoke, nor drink coffee.)

Well, I can say that I enjoyed it--a lot. Chocolate-flavored coffee is one of those things I tend to make myself by mixing ground coffee and unsweetened dark cocoa powder (usually around a one-to-one ratio). My efforts in this direction have been a bit hit-and-miss, and I've never achieved the level of flavor that is present when the chocolate is added during production. And I doubt I will ever achieve the level of chocolatey goodness that's present in Signature Select's Double Dutch Chocolate blend (possibly because I'm using real cocoa so I only have the first half of "natural and artificial flavors" that are present in the various flavored coffees. Including the Double Dutch Chocolate blend that's the topic of today's rambling post.

The Double Dutch Chocolate blend is a light roast made from Arabica beans, and as soon as you open the package, you get a preview of the strong chocolate taste that you'll be experiencing in your cup. Even empty, the bag smells strongly of chocolate. It is therefore not surprising that the smell of chocolate fills the air around the coffee maker as brews. Similarly, as the coffee is poured, you can smell the chocolate.

My preference in coffee leans toward the smooth and sweet, so it's not surprising that even straight light roasts would appeal to me. I also love chocolate, and I am very fond of Dutch-style chocolate. And in the Signature Select Double Dutch Chocolate blend, the two flavors mingle with great effect. I virtually never drink coffee straight, but this was smooth and tasty and chocolatey enough that I could have. I drank about half a mugful before moving onto the next step in my usual taste-testing protocol.

Whether I added Unsweetened Almond Milk or sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer to this blend, the chocolate and coffee flavor profiles came through, mixing with the add-ons rather than being overwhelmed by them. This drink was even better when I broke with my usual habit and tried it with Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk.; the vanilla flavor enhanced this coffee drink even more. The flavors remain stable as the coffee cools to room temperature (which is great if you're like me and it can take a while to drink your coffee due to distractions... or the need to use both hands to type.)

The Double Dutch Chocolate blend also works well when iced. The chocolate flavor remained strong, and there was none of the saltiness that sometimes creeps into flavored blends when you ice them (as I've noted several times in my review of the offerings from Bones Coffee Company). And if you're of an age and a mindset where an adult beverage seems appealing, I recommend trying this coffee iced, with rum or vodka added, along with some kind of milk or creamer. It's very good.

So... if you're at the grocery store, maybe you should swing by the coffee aisle. There ARE good things to be had there! (The Signature Select brand is at Albertsons, Safeway, and Vons stores... and probably other Albertson-owned outlets.)