So, I can say without a matter of doubt in my mind that City of Saints Coffee Roasters’ The Woodsman is definitely a coffee. Now I know some of you were wondering “Hey it says coffee, but what if they are trying to pull a goof and a gaff and its really tea?” Well bud I got your back. This bean juice right here is 100% coffee. It’s quite good too. Good flavor and great aroma, it really has it all. Now the flavor profile is a little hard to describe, but the best way to put for my other coffee connoisseurs out there is that it tastes like coffee. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got my bag in the mail from Trade Coffee Co. What if it tastes like kombucha? Kombucha is popular these days, so what if City of Saints Coffee Roaster’s tried to capture its essence? Now this is going to be tough for my SCOBY loving friends, but it doesn’t. Instead this bean juice has the flavor of another bean, Cocoa Nibs. I didn’t even know what a nib was before I wrote this. I had to google search it. Its basically the cocoa bean. So, this coffee’s beans borrows flavors from another bean. Beanception. It really adds to its overall flavor of tasting like coffee.
The Smell
The Aroma of the coffee in particular is quite remarkable. At first it was too bitter, but then I realized that I had put an extra scoop of coffee beans in my grinder, not my usual four scoops. So, the next day I did my usual four and examined the aroma. On the coffee bag it says that the coffee has hints of tobacco. This threw me off. Because quite frankly the closest I’ve come to tasting and smelling tobacco is a cigarette. So, does that mean this will taste and smell like a cigarette? I was really hoping it wouldn’t smell like a cigarette because I don’t like the smell of cigarettes. They smell icky. I remembered the wafting method I learned in high school chemistry of putting your nose close to a chemical and essentially pushing the air around it towards your nose. You don’t want to put your nose on top of the beaker, because some chemicals if smelt directly can have dire consequences. It happens with hydrochloric acid all the time. In short, I didn’t want cancer. So, in the off case that this did smell like cigarettes I got a safe distance from the coffee and began to waft. Well I would like to commend City of Saints Coffee Roasters because it smelled like coffee.
The Taste
Now let’s address the most important part of a cup of joe. The taste. Was it going to taste like a cigarette? Was it going to have flavors of another bean? Or does it taste like the advertised burnt sugar? To my surprise it tasted like coffee. That’s right coffee. It had me scared for a minute, because I don’t think I could drink something that tasted like a cigarette. Another bean I could do. But only cocoa nibs. I don’t think I could handle vanilla bean flavored coffee. That is where I draw the line. And in regard to burnt sugar, I’d be cool with that too, since that is simply caramelized sugar. The coffee flavor of the coffee was strong, but not overwhelming in a sense that it was bitter. More in a sense of it definitely being coffee. I do have to say I nailed the water to coffee grounds ration. I don’t use a scale to get the ratio to an exact ounce. I use four scoops of a coffee scooper and use basically all of the water in my Hario goose neck kettle. Then I let brewing process take place in my Chemex. It led to a strong-tasting coffee with subtle hints of coffee to round it off.
Post Brew Thoughts
This is a strong contender for one of the best cups of coffee I have had. It really made me feel like I was in my apartment drinking coffee. Which is nice, because I like my apartment. From top to bottom this was an enjoyable brew. The flavor didn’t overpower my palette and I could still taste my breakfast. The coffee bag itself is resealable so it’s very easy to store for future coffee brewing. Would I recommend it to my friends? Yes definitely. But not if they are looking for a coffee that tastes like cigarettes, because this is definitely not that.
Hammared 