Tony Packo's House Blend whole bean coffee
This is a review of the Tony Packo's house blend whole bean coffee. I found this coffee while I was perusing the gift shop of the Original Tony Packo's restaurant. I purchased a 8-ounce bag of whole beans for the king of overpriced price of $10.99. The bag was of a good quality tightly sealed with no 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 House Blend and that it was whole bean coffee 100% Arabica of Central and South American origin and was roasted especially for Tony Packo. No description of the roast level, not description of the origin of beans, no roast date or expiration date, not even basic brewing instructions.
Upon opening the bag, I got the aroma of burnt sugar and roasted nuts and chocolate. Inspecting the coffee beans, I found very large beans of a decent quality with no broken beans or bean fragments, a nice quality bean. The roast level appeared to be medium like a city or city+. 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 850 microns on a Fellow Opus conical burr grinder (setting 8) and was brewed with 1.2 liters of filtered room temperature water in a Melitta Vision Luxe drip batch brew coffee maker. The aroma of the ground coffee was pleasant about the same as the beans in the bag sweet burnt sugar and roasted nuts. The brewed coffee however had a woody, roasted nut aroma..
Cupping the coffee and tasting it I found little acidity and a pleasant silky smooth mouth feel. For tasting notes I got a slight apple like brightness which transitions into roasted nuts with a nonlingering milk chocolate finish. This coffee wasn't horrible; it was just OK. It made a decent morning cup, but I don't know if it would be a good all day any occasion coffee. I suspect that these coffee beans even though they are a proprietary blend made specifically for Tony Packo were stale...way past their prime.
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 a 84. I honestly believe this whole bean coffee was stale and past its prime and it most likely would have fared much better had it been fresh. All in all, it made a good cup of coffee. Would I purchase it again...probably not, but it made for a great souvenir. It should be noted that I am not a coffee professional and this review is just my honest opinion.