Coffee Break

Trader Joe’s Organic Fair Trade Five Country Espresso Blend may be up there with the best TJ’s coffees I’ve ever tasted. The can describes the Five Country Espresso Blend as “strong, rich and well-balanced”, and that about sums it up - but man, if there was a way to amplify each of those adjectives by about 100, it would be a whole lot closer to true.

Let me start off by saying that Trader Joe’s is my fallback option when I’m buying coffee. Given a choice and a good cash flow, I love to buy my coffee beans green at Dean’s Beans and roast them myself when I’m ready to roast. Unfortunately, shipping and handling tends to make that too expensive for me to do too often - in order to make it worthwhile, I need to buy 5 or more pounds at a time and I don’t always have the cash on hand to do that.

Failing that, my next choice is a trip to Trader Joe’s and half an hour or so in the coffee aisle. I have my perennial favorites - Bali Moon and Bay Blend come to mind - and nearly always pick up a can or two of those, but I also like to pick up a couple of cans of something different to try. This week it was the Five Country Espresso Blend - and I’m so glad that I let myself be seduced by it.

First off, it’s both Fair Trade AND Organic - not all Trader Joe coffees are either or both, though they’ve got a great selection of both. Second, it’s a dark roast, which is usually my preference. And then there’s the five countries that go into the blend - Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and… Sumatra. Two Central American, two South American and a Pacific Island coffee are bound to make a smooth, balanced blend - and they do.

The aroma is very rich and very dark - just a bit burnt, which was a little off-putting right out of the can. That concern was put to rest in the brewing, though. The aroma that filled the house was as sweet and full-bodied as the best-smelling coffee houses I’ve ever been in. I  could even smell the notes of chocolate and smoke under the coffee aroma before  I even poured a cup.

When I did get around to actually drinking it - heaven! The South American coffees have just enough acidity to keep the Sumatran coffee from tasting flat, while the Sumatran adds a lush, spicy-chocolatey flavor that no other coffee origin ever seems to quite match. The Sumatran is also very full-bodied, which balances the very light mouth-feel that’s typical of South American coffees. The Central American coffees also tend to be the most smoothly balanced of all the origins, so adding them into the mix was a bit of genius.

I highly recommend this one for anyone that enjoys espresso - but you don’t have to make espresso to enjoy it. I loved it just fine made in my standard auto drip coffee maker.

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