Kalamazoo Coffee company Mexican Chippa Altura whole bean coffee
This is a review of the Kalamazoo Coffee company Mexican Chippa Altura whole bean coffee. I found this coffee while I was perusing a supermarket in Nappanee Indiana. I purchased a 12-ounce bag of whole beans for $9.99. The bag was of a good quality tightly sealed with a standard degassing valve. The Information printed on the bag about the coffee that was inside was minimal other than the name of the blend which was Mexican Chippa Altura and some propaganda about how the support the local farmers that it was whole bean coffee 100% Arabica of Mexican Chippa region origin. An expiration date was present of 12/26/2026 but no roasted-on date and no brewing instructions. the coffee claims to be a light roast. Tasting notes were listed of bright citrus, roasted nuts with a spicy finish.
Upon opening the bag, I got the sweet aroma of roasted nuts. Inspecting the coffee beans, I found very large beans of a high quality with no broken beans or bean fragments, a nice quality bean. The roast level appeared to be light to light medium. The beans were dry...no coffee oils present coating the beans.
My next step was to brew a batch, so I started with my usual 1:18 ratio coffee to water. A 67-gram dose was ground to about 825 microns on a Fellow Opus conical burr grinder (setting 7.5) and was brewed with 1.2 liters of filtered room temperature water in a Melitta Vision Luxe drip batch brew coffee maker. The aroma of the ground coffee was pleasant about the same as the beans in the bag sweet roasted nuts. The brewed coffee however had an aroma of old-fashioned donuts..
Cupping the coffee and tasting it, I found little acidity, no bright citrus like advertised and a pleasant silky smooth mouth feel. For tasting notes I got a slight brightness which transitioned into roasted nuts with a non lingering bitterness which i guess could be translated into spicy. This coffee wasn't horrible; it was just OK. It made a decent morning cup, but I don't know if it would be a good all day any occasion coffee.
Using the scoring system of the SCA which is the governing body for specialty coffee. A score of 80 or above indicates a high-quality specialty grade of coffee. I would rate this coffee at an 80. I honestly believe this whole bean coffee might have been past its prime and it most likely would have fared much better had it been fresher. All in all, it made a good cup of coffee. Would I purchase it again...probably not, but it made for a great souvenir of my stay in the area. It should be noted that I am not a coffee professional and this review is just my honest opinion.