Hawaiian Gold at Kroger

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

Usually my favorite estate coffee is in short supply during the summer. Due to circumstances, I drank the last of it yesterday and was resigned to drinking a warm, brown liquid . . . with a milk buffer . . . until the new crop came in. But walking the dogs, I stopped by the Kroger grocery store and was surprised to find:

Hawaiian Gold "100% Hawaiian Kona Coffee", $14.99 for 10 oz. 

Now they also sell 'blends' and I have no interest in them. Regardless, the beans are slightly oily, dark, which is close to the degree I like. I prefer roasting to just pre-oil. I also don't have the roasting date and given a top shelf in Huntsville AL Kroger at more than double the price of other coffees . . . it probably has been there for a while. So the crema (?), the foam on top, suggests it is not the freshest roast.

Sipping, it doesn't have the subtle flavors of home roasted, green kona. It seems a little bitter for the darkness of the roast but that might be shelf aging. The mouth, after flavor is OK. Would I buy it again, not sure. I'll have to drink a few more cups over time to make sure this initial impression was not a sampling problem. 

In the past, I blended French Roast and Sumatrian with a bit of milk. It worked but was somewhat self-limiting. Home roasting, green kona made a big difference. Pre-roasted kona, ordered from the estate (Smith Farms) works but on a Huntsville, AL, Kroger shelf . . . we'll probably walk on by this kona. 

It may be a fine product fresh but there is no explicit roasting date code that I could find. Still, I did find a stamp:

Best if used by

MAY 16 15

160514

If the last series of numbers means 16 May 2014 as the roasting date, it was only 3 months old. Just I've never kept home roasted coffee for 3 months.

Anyone else try this kona?

Bob Wilson