For this coffee tasting I try a flavored coffee. Flavored coffees add something to the roast, so the drinker not only tastes the coffee and its preparation but also the added ingredients needed for the proposed flavor. When I began critiquing gourmet coffees, I was unaware of this. It is easy to believe the coffee is made to emulate its advertised flavor, but more is actually going on. In this tasting I explore this phenomenon. The coffee I have brewed is Red Brick, Texas Pecan, Light Roast. The smell of this coffee is addictive. I kept sniffing it after opening the package. When I poured hot water on it the scent was beautiful. “Waft that pecan coffee heaven to your nose.” It was easy to taste the roast in my first unsweetened cup. While it was thin and light on my palette, there was enough roasted arabica bean flavor to keep it interesting. Add the pecan nut to the roast and I was able to enjoy a pleasing combination of flavors, a hot cup of tasty coffee. For my second cup I added sw...

  For this tasting of Draft Mule, Runaway Wagon dark roast coffee I needed a second day to be sure of what I was experiencing. Draft Mule, dark roast coffee smells and appears reminiscent of coffee from a plastic tub. Its smell is innocuous in the bag, but when poured out is less than desirable. It is a coarse grind and is not what I would call a dark roast appearance. After pouring hot water through it, there is a dark tint rather than an opaque liquidity, like a good dark roast. The packaging is enticing, it made me want to try it. The package appears simple and practical, like a paper bag with a mule on the front. Draft Mule’s package is designed well; in fact, it is overengineered. Its graphics catch the eye because of how exact they are. The paper bag is actually a plastic insulated containment pouch with a pull tab that exposes a zip lock access hole. After scooping some of the coffee into my pour-over funnel I started to notice how much attention was given to the packaging v...