Wood Burl Coffee

For a good part of the month of May I was using a local coffee: Wood Burl Coffee in their variety “don pepe PANAMA” (I’m not sure if the capitalization there is styling…I assume it is). I wanted to visit 2nd Street Market in Dayton and I found that there was a local roaster, Wood Burl Coffee, nearby. I get most of my fancy (i.e. not purchased at the grocery store) coffee as gifts from California, so I thought something local would be a nice change.

Wood Burl Coffee had three bagged coffees available. Two were from Africa and one was South American. As it is normally my preference I chose the South American. Their packaging is simple, but it matched the store decor and everything had a very cohesive feel. The back of the package has gold script writing that says, “It’s That Good Good”. I can’t find a reason for that anywhere on

The café itself had a really nice atmosphere. The ceiling was high and there was a lot of natural light. They had cold brew coffee on tap and it looked like they did a lot of pourover. There was also a pretty good crowd for early on a rainy Saturday morning.

In addition to my bagged coffee I purchased a cup of their cold brew. It was an Ethiopan (and I should have known better!). It was an oddly orange color and adding cream just made it brighter. It was so bitter. Undrinkably bitter.

It took me about a week to finish up the bag of coffee I already had open, and when I opened the Wood Burl Coffee the initial smell was nothing amazing. It just smelled like a typical grocery store bagged coffee (think 8 O’Clock or Seattle’s Best). There was another underlying smell and I still cannot place it. It was acidy? Burnt? …something? I had mom smell it and she said it smelled like cooking tomatoes. I didn’t smell that, but she’s normally better at such things. I asked dad and he said it smelled like coffee. Not helpful.

Pouring the beans out of the bag they were tinier than the beans I normally use and darker. They had no visible oil on them. Do any of these things matter? Maybe not, but that’s what I observed.

I keep my burr grinder set on a pretty coarse grind for the Chemex. Grinding these beans was difficult. It’s a hand crank, and sometimes it was like the beans would “catch” and you’d have to back up and try again. They did not come out of the burrs at an even texture and I’m not even sure how that happens. I have since ground other coffee and the grinder is working fine.

First I made a pot of Chemex. The coffee didn’t “poof” during the bloom. Again not sure that matters, but it was not the usual result.

The coffee itself had an almost oily mouthfeel and the taste was nothing impressive. Just coffee…kind of weak. Absolutely no bitterness though.

The next day I made another pot of Chemex. I used an additional 5g of coffee to my normal amount of water. Still no bloom, but the coffee was slightly stronger. Still no bitterness.

The next day I switched things up and brewed in the French Press. The bloom was fantastic. I have no idea why this would happen. (I feel like I need to do some more research on this topic.)

For whatever reason the coffee tasted better than from the Chemex, but still not something I looked forward to.

I made it a couple more times in the French Press, but then decided that was ridiculous. Coffee is supposed to be something I enjoy and I wasn’t enjoying it.

I ground the rest of it up in my electric grinder and used a 4:1 ratio to make cold brew. I let it sit in the refrigerator for about 14 hours. The iced coffee is enjoyable. It’s rich and not at all bitter-but here’s the issue with that: I prefer cheap coffee for cold brew. Wood Burl Coffee seems to run around $15 a bag. That’s just too much expense for the amount of coffee cold brew takes.

I visited their website this morning and it looks like they have all new varieties of coffee (their FAQ says their varieties change).

My final verdict is that I’m going to have to pass on Wood Burl Coffee for future purchases. I had something they made in store, I brewed their beans at home, and I didn’t enjoy either. I highly suggest supporting local businesses, and if you’re in the Dayton area maybe you do want to stop and check them out, but I don’t think I will be visiting again.