Berardi's Fresh Roast Costa Rican whole bean coffee
Berardi's Fresh Roast Costa Rican whole bean coffee
This is a review of the Berardi's Fresh roast coffee company Costa Rican whole bean coffee. Berardi's is a small family-owned roaster in the Cleveland area who has been roasting coffee in small batches since 1982. I found this coffee while I was perusing a Home Improvement store in Middlefield Ohio. I purchased a 12-ounce bag of whole beans for $8.99. 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 Costa Rica and some information about being Fair trade whole bean coffee 100% Arabica of Costa Rican origin. No expiration date and no roasted-on date. There were brewing instructions. The coffee claims to be a mediun roast, but i found it to be in my estimation a light to light medium. Tasting notes were listed of high acidity, with excellent aroma and full bodied finish.
Upon opening the bag, I got a slight aroma of roasted nuts. Inspecting the coffee beans, I found 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 850 microns on a Fellow Opus conical burr grinder (setting 7.75) and was brewed with 1.2 liters of filtered room temperature water in a Cuisinart DCC8350 drip batch brew coffee maker. The aroma of the ground coffee was about the same as the beans in the bag roasted nuts. The brewed coffee however had a flat aroma of cheap brewed diner coffee...acidic
Cupping the coffee and tasting it, I found bright citrus like acidity, and a pleasant mouth feel. For tasting notes I got a brightness which transitioned into more acidity that was non lingering in the finish. This coffee was just OK not really a good representation of Costa Rican coffee. I have had much better examples in the past. In my opinion the coffee was not very well balanced and could have benefited from being roasted a little darker.
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 81. 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, I really didn't care for Berardi's version of Costa Rican coffee. Would I purchase it again...maybe, it was just a little light for my taste although I would try it again if I had a fresher example. Who is this coffee for...anyone looking for a bright acidic morning cup of coffee. It should be noted that I am not a coffee professional and this review is just my honest opinion.