Verve Coffee Roasters Buena Vista Dark Roast

This month I’m reviewing Verve Coffee Roasters Buena Vista Dark Roast. This roaster is based out of Santa Cruz, California and believe in fairtrade as well as knowing the farms their beans come from.

Their site has “brew bytes” with brewing information for multiple coffee brewing systems which is a really nice touch. I followed their Chemex instructions and while novel, it was a bit stressful with all the timing and math. I’ll pass on that, but if you’re a new brewer, it would give you a really good baseline.

The variety I tried had the following tasting notes:

As one of the darker roasts on our menu, Buena Vista can be characterized by its deep structure and full body. This extended roast coupled with Buena Vista’s Latin American roots yields a dark chocolate savor, nutty sweetness, and lasting cup. Its smooth and consistent profile also makes it a very dynamic and adaptable blend that holds up well to just about every brewing device out there. So if you like waking up to a darker, richer flavor, look no further; Buena Vista will give you a dessert first mentality that won’t give you cavities and goes well with milk.

The bag mentions almonds specifically, so one pot I brewed I actually tried almonds along with it. They were very complementary. I didn’t so much get the “dark chocolate” taste any more than any other coffee. Mom, who doesn’t drink caffeinated coffee very often, even had a cup after tasting it.

The Chemex gave a good cup of coffee, but I only used the Chemex twice–for the rest of the bag I used the French Press. The French Press seems to make a “thicker” coffee and I felt that fit the taste of this coffee better.

The price is affordable at ~$15/12 oz. The packaging was nice and professional without being over the top.

Overall I’d highly recommend this variety, and I imagine the rest of their coffee is pretty good too. It’s not too late to order a bag of this for your favorite coffee love for Christmas–or if you’re reading this later, really anytime’s a good time if you’re a coffee drinker!