My name is Mike and I am a coffee addict.
I love coffee for it’s caffeine.
Yawwwwwn. When I first get out of bed, I’m half asleep until I get my first cup of coffee. That first cup of coffee, I barely taste. It’s not until that caffeine starts to flow though my blood stream that my eyes open up and my senses come to life.
For my caffeine deprived body, Versanto’s Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee sounded like welcome relief first thing in the morning. It promised three times the caffeine of a normal cup of coffee. That was enough to get the attention of my sleepy brain.
I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and checked out the bag of coffee. It promised all natural energy, so I brewed up a cup of the High Octane Premium and gave it a test drive via my pour over.
The Drink: High Octane Premium, Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: Two Out Of Five Coffee Mugs
I took the first sip and felt the caffeine start to flow into my body. It opened my eyes a little more and I took a look at the ingredients.
When I posted pictures on Facebook, Benjamin Hall suggested that they may have pumped in the added caffeine buy using Robusta beans instead of Arabica. (Robusta = quantity, commodity coffee. Arabica = quality, better tasting coffee).
However, as I looked at the ingredients, Robusta was nowhere to be seen. It was just 100% Arabica coffee (although no mention of the origin of the beans).
But then there were these other ingredients. There was Guarana extract (Guarana natural flavoring, maltodextrin, citric acid, silicon dioxide), which kind of scares me because I try to only drink beverages and eat foods only with ingredients that I know what they are. It turns out that is a plant that has fruit, about the size of a coffee bean. That fruit is a stimulant with twice the amount of caffeine than a coffee bean.
Even more than the caffeine, I love coffee for it’s aromas and flavors.
By now my sense were coming to life. My nose picked on a generic coffee aroma with an earthy/vegetable aroma that I just couldn’t identify. I was expecting a chemical filled aroma like the one healthy coffees have, but it wasn’t bad. (It wasn’t great either.)
My tongue found the generic coffee flavor too. There was a hint of chocolate too, then a darker flavor that I couldn’t identify either. There was a hint of bitterness.
Ten ounces of the High Octane Premium is $10.29 on the Versanto website. It’s only avalibale in ground form.
Overall, High Octane Premium earned a below average rating of two out of five on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. It wasn’t a horrible cup of coffee, actually better than I was expecting, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of caffeine in the morning either.
The Drink: Vortex Vanilla Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: 0.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs
I turned to one of their flavored offerings, the Vortex Vanilla (I pronounced it Vortex Vanilla like a television announcer saying sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY! Can you tell the caffeine was starting to kick in?). I was curious if the flavored coffees would cover up the unidentifiable aromas and flavors that I didn’t like in the High Octane Premium.
Before I even got too far with the Vortex Vanilla I noticed a pretty serious labeling issue. The front of the bag says it’s All Natural Energy. However, the back of the bag says the ingredients include natural and artificial flavors. It doesn’t even mention what those artificial flavors are. I was willing to look past the citric acid, silicon dioxide ingredients, but now it was getting a little crazy.
However, it did have a sweet Vanilla aroma that I did like. It even smelled natural, of course I’m not a chemist so I’m not sure if actually was.
There wasn’t much that I liked about the taste. It tasted like a dark, dark roast with a bitter taste and almost no vanilla flavor.
Vortex Vanilla is also $10.29 for a ten ounce bag.
No matter how much caffeine was in it, I couldn’t finish my cup of Vanilla Vortex. It ended with a 0.5 rating on the Daily Shot Of Coffee Scale.
The Drink: Supersonic Cinnamon Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: Two Out Of Five Coffee Mugs
The caffeine was pulsing through my body as poured a cup of the Suuuuuper Sooooonic CinnaMonMonMon.
The aroma had a cinnamon scent with a Christmas feel to it. It reminded me of a dessert or snack from the Holiday season, but I just couldn’t identify which one exactly.
There was a nice cinnamon flavor up front, but lurking in the background was the slightly bitter flavor that reminds me of a coffee that’s been roasted too much.
Ten dollars and twenty-nine cents will get you a ten ounce bag of the Supersonic Cinnamon.
Supersonic Cinnamon fell into the same category as the High Octane Premium. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It also ended up with a two out of five on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale.
I love my caffeine in the morning or late in the afternoon when there’s an attack of the sleepies, but I love the natural aromas and flavors of coffee a lot more. I’m probably not the target market for this coffee. I wonder if I would’ve liked this coffee when I was a caffeine addicted college student staying up late studying or working long hours in retail when I got out of college.
What do you think? Would you try this coffee?
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P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster, I would like to try your coffee and give my fair, honest opinion about it. Send me a message via the contact form if you’re interested.
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