Trader Joe’s Volcano Super Dark Roast
April 27th, 2008For kind of a while now, I’ve been on a dark coffee kick. From a strictly political standpoint, that’s dangerous; some would claim it’s a slippery slope from there to being another Starbucks drone. I disagree; I think that 20% of the problem with Starbucks is soporific music, and the other 80% is the fact that most of their beverages no longer classify as coffee. They certainly do roast their beans a bit dark, and that may not be to everybody’s liking, but that’s a standard coffee-house aesthetic decision, and not a sign of the apocalypse.
So, after working my way through a pound or so of some Viennese Roast that I bought out of the bin at the local co-op, I found myself at Trader Joe’s in desperate need of coffee.
After wavering indecisively a bit in front of the piñon coffee from New Mexico (I love piñon nuts, but as a matter of principle I generally insist that my coffee should be 100% coffee — it might be something to try someday but I’m not quite willing to invest in a whole bag), and spending 30 seconds trying to decide whether I liked Sumatra or Guatemala better, I settled the latter because it dared to call itself “super-dark”. (Also, it was somewhat cheaper.)
Anyway, the actual beverage it makes is pretty good. I made it slightly too weak this time (mea culpa), but last time was pretty good. There’s one thing I’d like to point out, and that’s that — to my palette, at least — it’s not any different than an old-fashioned French Roast.
Which, I know, shouldn’t surprise me. I’m drinking a dark roast. It tastes like roasted coffee. Ask any coffee snob and they’ll tell you the same. But I like it.
Even if all the connoisseurs are right (and I’m not saying they aren’t), I’m going to keep believing that it’s okay
to like dark-roasted coffee. Maybe I’ll ease into the more complicated stuff at some point. Until then, I’m going to keep enjoying coffee the way I like it.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a world to conquer.