Shuffle Bean – a medium roast coffee from Costa Rica.

First off, many thanks to the folks at Shuffle Bean for sending us some of their coffee.

This is a medium-roast coffee from Costa Rica. It’s also shade-grown and Rainforest Alliance Certified.

This is the kind of coffee we really like to review. Or rather, it’s the kind of company we like to feature. Shuffle Bean is a new company, and committed to selling coffees that have a positive impact on the people who grow them, and on their environment.

We like to support small companies and startups, particular when they are trying to do the right thing by everyone…from the grower through to the drinker.

As you can see from the photo above, we brewed the coffee in our Chemex brewer. And before that, we ground the beans fresh, weighed them to the gram with our scales, and made sure the water was just off the boiling point.

In other words, as with all the coffees we review, we did our best to make sure we brewed this coffee to bring out the best in its tastes and flavors.

Now for the tasting.

The first thing you notice is its wonderful aroma. Not all coffees have much of an aroma, other than smelling of coffee. In this case, the aroma is sweet and caramel.

Next up, our first sip. 

In spite of the mild roast, Shuffle Bean is bold and strong. Very little in the way of bitterness, and with a nice blend of that caramel sweetness and a hint of citrus.

But the real difference here lies in its brightness. Not altogether unexpected in a Costa Rica coffee, but unusual in the hint of dryness you feel in your mouth, almost like what you might find with a fine wine.

Overall, we liked this coffee very much. It has the boldness we both like, plus an unexpected layering of flavors that both surprised and pleased us.

If you like the idea of a bold coffee that is a little different from the norm, give it a try.

You can get Shuffle Bean coffee here.

About the author: Nick Usborne, aka Coffee Detective, is a writer and long-time coffee enthusiast. Read more…