Gourmet Coffee, Roasted to Order – ROASTe Review

I stay up late at night. This wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t also have to wake up early in the morning to catch the 40 minute train ride into work. There are some mornings – like this morning – where getting out of bed is close to impossible and I inevitably fall asleep on the train (with a magical internal clock that wakes me up a stop before mine.) And it’s mornings like these where I need caffeine. I usually get a vanilla chai or some fancy $5 drink from Starbucks (one of my “treats”) but sometimes you want something different. I’m not about to go and buy the cheap-o coffee from the hot dog vendor on the corner, but I would still like something affordable yet gourmet tasting.

But with so many different places and types of coffee to choose from, how does one even start to find the right coffee? Launched less than a year ago, ROASTe (www.roaste.com) is a new website that specializes in selling almost 1,000 gourmet coffees and is designed to help you find just the right coffee.

ROASTe steps up to the coffee decision-making plate by giving you a few different ways to help sort through their selection to help find the coffees that suite your coffee taste. Prominent at the top of their website is an interactive scroll that asks, “How would you like your coffee today?” You can click the left and right arrows to see more ways to sort, but I knew that I wanted Chocolaty coffee. I clicked on the chocolate covered strawberry and it brought me to a page that contained all of the available chocolate coffees, in addition to other sorting options – such as roast level, grind, or geographical region. Each listed coffee also has 5 coffee beans underneath, where you are able to see how other customers rated that coffee and where you can read their reviews.

If you’re open to any type of coffee, then you can also sort by Most Popular coffees, Top Rated coffees, or utilize their new Coffee Personality Quiz – a new tool that allows you to chose your preference in coffees and will result in 20 roasts that likely suite your tastes.

After much browsing, I finally settled on Iron Brew Coffee Co.’s Brazilian Cerrado Special Reserve Coffee in Chocolate Chip and Peppermint Patty. Don’t those just SOUND delicious? Chocolate chip? Good. Mint and chocolate? Good. Ordering these coffees almost made me feel like I was cheating on my no-chocolate diet. Each bag of coffee was $8.95 and shipping cost $3.75. If you order $25 worth of coffee from the same vendor, then shipping is free. I ordered my coffee on July 9th. It was shipped on July 11th and was at my door ready for me to brew up on July 15th. By shipping directly from the roaster, ROASTe is able to help ensure that the coffee is as fresh as it possibly can be.

I was so excited when my box of coffee arrived. The Iron Brew Coffee I ordered says that their coffee is shipped directly from farmer to roaster, and then roasted to order. The bags have information about the Cerrado region of Brazil and list the ingredients as 100% Cerrado Arabica Coffee. This isn’t your typical off-the-shelf coffee, folks.

I wanted my coffee ground so I could use it in my Ready-Set-Joe maker, which Iron Brew Coffee did for me. I opened each bag with glee and inhaled DEEPLY. The Chocolate Chip is described as having a “Rich Dark Chocolate Flavor.” It smells as delivered – a coffee flavored with chocolate and a hint of bitterness that would come from the dark chocolate. The Peppermint patty is described as “Refreshing Mint Chocolate.” I could distinctly smell the mint as the prominent flavor, with a chocolate, almost nutty, undertone.

Tasting both of these coffees, they were fresh and actually tasted similar to how the smelled (although with the extra bitterness that comes from the nature of coffee. I’m not a big coffee drinker so I preferred to drink them with a little bit of sugar and milk, which seemed to bring out the flavors even more.

If you are looking for some new gourmet coffees to add to your morning routine, I suggest you check out ROASTe at www.roaste.com. There’s a great chance you’ll find something new, different, and delicious. If you see something you like, shoot me a note with your email address and I can send you a link that will get you $5 off your order! Stay tuned to see if I can negotiate a cool giveaway or another coupon code. 😉

Disclaimer: This post consists of my (and/or fellow tester) opinions only. No compensation was given for this review/giveaway. I did receive a $20 ROASTe coupon from the manufacturer or representing PR agency to use and test for the purposes of this review. This did not affect the outcome of this review.