Techno Fresh

At Coffee Con LA I met and spoke with the team at Perfect Coffee (http://www.perfectcoffee.com/). They had samples of a lot of top roasters (Blue Bottle, Ruby, Four Barrel, etc). They were wonderful to talk to and very passionate about their product.

They are a coffee subscription company that sends pre-ground coffee through the mail. We instantly called shenanigans on this. There is no way you can grind coffee and it still be fresh by the time it gets to the consumer. We pressed to try and get more information, but they wouldn’t spill the beans. The most they would give us is that it is a zero oxygen environment (???) All I can imagine is people in space suites and oxygen tanks grinding coffee and putting it in little bags. 

I checked the website and the most it says is, “…our secret technology ensures your ready to brew, pre-ground packets stay fresh for months!” I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt because they said they taste tested with the owner of Blue Bottle and he couldn’t tell the difference. Not a bad achievement.

In my experience, things that sound too good to be true, usually are.

So, we finally put it to the test. We did two packets, one from blue bottle and the other from Chromatic. As is the usual for this blogger, I brewed it using the V60.

Thoughts before brewing: The grind is very consistent and the coffee did not smell stale at all. High hopes in magical technology. I appreciated the label that had the mass and provided recommended water mass. I love having a flavor profile to reference as well.

Thoughts at the bloom: completely flat. There was no bloom at all. The bloom is the most important part of the brew in my opinion. It is the first major experience with the coffee as the aroma explodes from the grounds. It also helps control the flow through the V60. You have to have a good bloom. There was nothing and I was very disappointed.

Thoughts during the brew: there were some bubbles coming up and kind of crema on top. Perhaps the coffee is still fresh and the lack of bloom is only because it was pre-ground.

Thoughts on the aroma and cup: had a decent aroma and a nice color.

Thoughts on the taste: both coffees were very light roast. Both cups had a surprising amount of flavor for what I thought was going to be stale coffee. Both coffees had a very heavy mouth feel and the tea like flavors came through very strong. I did not pick up on the other flavor notes listed on the label, but they were spot on with the tea notes.

Overall, I think the coffee was good. I still don’t like that there was no bloom, but the coffee was very good. I just wish they would tell me what their “secret technology” is. The price is also fairly reasonable in comparison to other coffee subscription. If you were looking for a good subscription, I would back this.