Berardi's Fresh Roast Organic Peru whole bean coffee
This is a review of the Berardi's Fresh roast coffee company Organic Peru whole bean coffee. Berardi's is a small family-owned roaster in the Cleveland area who has been roasting coffee in small batches since 1982. I found this coffee while I was perusing a Home Improvement store in Middlefield Ohio. I purchased a 12-ounce bag of whole beans for $8.99. The bag was of a good quality tightly sealed with a standard degassing valve. The Information printed on the bag about the coffee that was inside was minimal other than the name of the blend which was Organic Peru and some information about being Fair trade and Organic whole bean coffee 100% Arabica of Peruvian origin. No expiration date and no roasted-on date. There were brewing instructions. The coffee claims to be a mediun roast, but i found it to be in my estimation a light to light medium. Tasting notes were listed of mild acidity, with a sweet roasted nut finish.
Upon opening the bag, I got the sweet aroma of roasted nuts. Inspecting the coffee beans, I found beans of a high quality with no broken beans or bean fragments, a nice quality bean. The roast level appeared to be light to light medium. The beans were dry...no coffee oils present coating the beans.
My next step was to brew a batch, so I started with my usual 1:18 ratio coffee to water. A 67-gram dose was ground to about 825 microns on a Fellow Opus conical burr grinder (setting 7.5) and was brewed with 1.2 liters of filtered room temperature water in a Cuisinart DCC8350 drip batch brew coffee maker. The aroma of the ground coffee was pleasant about the same as the beans in the bag sweet roasted nuts. The brewed coffee however had an aroma of wet hay, vegetal..
Cupping the coffee and tasting it, I found little acidity, very mild like advertised and a pleasant silky smooth mouth feel. For tasting notes I got a slight brightness which transitioned into roasted nuts with a non lingering slight hazelnut like finish. This coffee was just OK nothing to really make it stand out and no glaring distractions. It made a decent morning cup, but I don't know if it would be a good all day any occasion coffee.
Using the scoring system of the SCA which is the governing body for specialty coffee. A score of 80 or above indicates a high-quality specialty grade of coffee. I would rate this coffee at an 85. I honestly believe this whole bean coffee might have been past its prime and it most likely would have fared much better had it been fresher. All in all, it made a good cup of coffee. Would I purchase it again...maybe, it was just a little light for my taste although the wife truly enjoyed it. Who is this coffee for...anyone looking for a mild morning cup of coffee. It should be noted that I am not a coffee professional and this review is just my honest opinion.