Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Hair Bender - Whole Bean Coffee - 12 Ounce Bag, Flavor Notes of Citrus and Dark Chocolate

It’s funny, I tried Holler Mountain in my BBE, and had so much trouble with the dial in while its okay, Hairbender is several times better.This may be one of the best bean blends for espresso that I have ever tasted.Upon opening the bag, you are greeted with a dark chocolate smell that is reminiscent of home and comfort. I was able to dial this in on my first try. The quality is exceptional. The blend is very smooth and balanced on the palette with a predominant dark chocolate taste. The description notes citrus but for me its subtle.A lot of “citrus” blends taste like battery acid. Here, it’s reminiscent of a cream soda and feels nostalgic.I have tried a variety of beans from counter culture, intelligentsia, trade coffee, and other local roasters, and somehow this reigns supreme.I would get this again and again.

Great, smooth coffee. Consistent roast, and Stumptown has great variety in their flavor.

Read an article that gave this coffee high marks so decided to try it. Overall I am not disappointed with the flavor, but definitely not my favorite. Flavor is too mild for my taste. I tried adding more, but never could get it up to my standards for a good cup of coffee. If you like a very mild flavor this might be for you, but definitely not for me.

I got a bag of Homestead Blend a few months ago from the Stumptown cafe during a visit to Portland. I typically get Dunkin or Tim Hortons beans from Amazon - both have a pretty good flavor and are inexpensive. I usually do pourover but sometimes use an Aeropress. The Homestead Blend bag from Portland had a nice strong body with no hint of over-roastedness. The flavor was sweet, light, nuanced, and very enjoyable. It instantly became one of my new favorites.I was apprehensive about ordering a bag from Amazon because I've seen reviewers mentioning that they were expired and/or tasted off. Stumptown is typically about $16 at my local grocery store, compared to about $6 for Hortons on Amazon, so kind of a step up in cost. I saw that Homestead Blend was on sale on Amazon so I decided to try it.I received my bag on October 2. It was roasted on July 30 and the expiration is given as November 27, so indeed it is not fresh from the roaster. But as far as I can tell, it tastes as good as the bag from Portland. And it'll be used up long before the expiration. So this order was a win for me. I'll definitely try another one.

The Negative Reviews Were On Point- the beans were not fresh, hardly any notable coffee flavors, it does take more beans to make a cup (I thought it was just me), and it is overpriced considering the end product. I guess I should have read the reviews before buying it. Noticed the beans on the left are more glossy (meaning the oils haven't been stripped) than the ones on the right (Stumptown, which I received a little more than a week ago and only opened a couple of days ago).My experience:- I first tried it with my espresso machine. The grind was dry and powdery. The crema was lacking and it looked a little watery. The taste was acidic, not nutty or roasted. The taste was akin to stale beans or decaf, slight sour taste. The notes were definitely not of vanilla or cocoa powder (as the label advertised).- I admit I'm no barista, so I gave it another go. This time with a pour over, which IMHO I'm better at. As another reviewer noted, it did take a little more beans to make a comparable cup. But the end results were still the same, still the same acidic/sour taste of stale beans, no notes of vanilla or cocoa powder.I threw away the package so I don't know when the roasted and good by dates were.FWIW, I didn't like their bottled cold brews (same acidic/sour taste) and was willing to try them out bc heck we're talking whole roasted organic beans and at a relatively attractive price.. But no. I'll stick with my Lavazza (the beans on the left in pic).

EDIIT—I tired the Holler blend and much prefer the Mountain Blend! I hVe it on subscribe and save and will be upping the delivery timeline! It’s great?First, I wish Stumptown would train other companies on how to package (specifically vacuum-seal) coffee beans! I think I’ve ordered a total of at least ten different brands from Amazon over the years and this is the first that’s been packaged well and sealed tightly to keep them fresh! I ordered the Homestead blend. It’s a good stout medium blend; maybe slightly bitter but that’s easy to counter if it’s an issue for you. The reviews I read had me a little concerned at firstly but I’m glad I took the chance on this brand, One review mentioned they can’t taste the flavor profile and while that’s true for the Homestead too, in my experience you don’t always have to in order for it to be good coffee. I play around with my own spice blends in coffee and don’t always taste the exact spice, but it still flavors it differently. I think that’s what this (at least the Homestead blend) is doing. Homestead is a milk chocolate and candy blend, which honestly I don’t think I’d like to taste in my coffee, but the coffee just tastes well-rounded and bold for a medium blend. I also wonder if the chocolate may be where that slight bitter taste I get comes from. Several reviews also mentioned the brew and best used-by dates. Mine was brewed in late June, purchased in August, and best used by October. I purchase whole bean coffee for its freshness and it loses freshness quickly, so to me that’s a good time frame. I usually will go through a bag this size is maybe 2-3 weeks so if I received it as some did within a couple weeks of best used-by date, it would be an issue but I would hope returns would be accepted based on late dates. I’ll definitely be taking a chance and ordering this product again! (And would update review if the use-by date were an issue because I’m a firm believer in holding companies accountable for intentional or unintentional issues in business practices.) Stumptown will be my go-to coffee bean on Amazon as long as they’ve fixed their use-by date issue!