Blind Assessment

A ready-to-drink bottled black coffee tested over ice. Full, intriguingly fermenty. Dark chocolate, tangerine zest, Concord grape, fresh vanilla, a hint of tequila barrel. Pungent, richly sweet-tart in structure with a sweet-salty edge; impressively full and smooth/syrupy in mouthfeel. The finish is woody but fragrant with tequila-barrel pungency. Adding whole milk develops the salty-edged chocolate, nicely complicated by a fine floral vanilla nuance.

Notes

This coffee tied for the second-highest rating in a tasting of ready-to-drink bottled black coffees for Coffee Review’s July 2018 tasting report. Sold in 12-ounce bottles. Prepared by the cold-brew method, which involves prolonged steeping of ground coffee in cold or room-temperature water and subsequent filtering. No additives or ingredients other than coffee and water. The green coffee used to produce the tested beverage is a blend of Guatemala and Ethiopia. Founded by roaster Keith Gehrke in 2015, States Coffee is a hybrid roastery/cafe and a mercantile that features handmade, artisan wares. Visit www.statescoffee.com for more information.

Bottom Line

Not a coffee purist’s cold brew, but a very engaging one: rich, syrupy and eccentric in its tequila-barrel nuance and odd yet pleasing overlap of salt, vanilla and chocolate.

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