Headquartered in Monrovia, California, Trader Joe’s is a chain of markets with almost 600 locations across the United States. Unlike a typical chain supermarket, Trader Joe’s curates a selection of products that lean more heavily toward gourmet items and things not easily found elsewhere. Many of their products are private label, meaning Trader Joe’s strikes deals with producers and suppliers to package and sell the products under the Trader Joe’s brand, in exchange for the supplier to reach a wider customer base. For this particular bag of coffee, this means that there’s no real way of knowing who the roaster is – it’s not publicized and we can only guess.
I haven’t bought coffee from Trader Joe’s in years. I’ve tried a few different kinds from there, but in the past, there haven’t been roast dates on the canisters, I had a disappointing experience with a Trader Joe’s-brand Geisha, and a friend had a grinder ruined because their Trader Joe’s coffee had a small rock in it that he didn’t see until it was too late. But, on a recent grocery shopping trip, I spotted these bags and picked one up for the hell of it, after seeing a roast date within three weeks. The price ($ 9.99 for 12 ounces) is quite reasonable as far as specialty coffee goes so I thought it was worth investigating!
Trader Joe’s calls this a medium roast, and I’d agree, but I would say it’s just a little darker than most “medium roast” I encounter from places like Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, etc. It’s hard to see from a cell phone picture, but I’d say one out of every ten beans or so had a sheen of oil on them.
If you’re seeing oil on coffee beans, that indicates that your coffee is roasted to a level where the oil that was inside the beans is making its way to the surface. The darker the beans are, the more oily your beans will be. I used to drink much darker-roasted coffee than I do now, and the oily beans kept static to a minimum in my grinder. This sounds great, until you realize that all that oil goes rancid pretty quickly and you have to clean your grinder frequently to ensure you’re not drinking musty, fishy coffee!
With all this said, I wouldn’t call these beans from Trader Joe’s oily — just verging on becoming so. Buyer beware if you are not a fan of medium roasts!
Whole bean: Hint of oiliness aside, these look good – pretty evenly roasted without any quakers or chaff. There was a lot of bloom as I brewed, so these beans are indeed pretty fresh.
French press: I taste more of the roast level vs. the origin. It tastes like coffee, and this method doesn’t bring out much sweetness or liveliness. It’s got a heavy mouthfeel and is closest to bittersweet chocolate but without the sweetness or complexity on the finish. These might be single-origin Colombian beans but the roast level makes it near impossible to tell.
Chemex: Better in my view – the thick filter made the coffee a lot cleaner and smoother and it was an easy cup to drink. The French press cup wasn’t bad, but this was more pleasant.
Clever Dripper: A little blander than the Chemex cup but otherwise close.
Hario V60: Nearly the same as the Chemex cup; more flavor here than in the Clever Dripper.
Summary: While I don’t taste the “red fruits” that Trader Joe’s lists in the coffee description, this is a good medium-roasted coffee, especially for the price. These days, I’d expect to pay something between $ 13-20 for a 12 ounce bag of medium-roasted coffee like this, and to find it on a grocery store shelf roasted within 3 weeks, for $ 9.99? It’s a good deal. Go with a bleached paper filter to bring out the most sweetness and smoothness in these beans.
From the packaging: “well balanced with notes of dark chocolate and red fruits”
Trader Joe’s Organic Colombia Anei (limited run)
Available in-store only!
Review conducted 25 days post-roast.
