Classique Supreme From Melitta Café Collection Review

Drink: Classique Supreme From Melitta Café Collection
Type: Extra Fine Ground
Overall Rating: Two Out Of Five Coffee Mugs

Classique Supreme is a non-organic, non-free trade, pre-ground coffee from Melitta. According to the packaging this is a blend of a variety of beans; which it advertises as being strictly high altitude coffee beans. Given that the coffee is not only pre-ground, but is “Extra fine” ground coffee I did not prepare this coffee in a French press as I otherwise would have. I used a Chemex (pour over method) to brew this coffee.

This coffee presents a nutty and earthy aroma that is very pleasing. Unfortunately, the positive characteristics of the aroma do not carry over into the flavor of this coffee. The coffee does have an earthy flavor to it that develops first into a woody flavor and then into some pungent nutty aftertaste that I would say probably resembles a hazelnut or black walnut flavor.

Perhaps, however because it is a pre-ground coffee, these flavors are fairly “muddy” and underdeveloped. The flavors also tend to “run together” and are not separately discernable on the palate. While the aroma is relatively vibrant, the flavors are much more muted, which does tend to give the coffee a fairly good mouth-feel. As you would expect from the muted flavors and the muddy characteristics of the coffee it is a fairly heavy coffee.

For a medium roast coffee, in which one would expect to detect a variety of nuances in the flavor, this coffee is fairly disappointing: tending more toward what one would expect to find in a significantly darker roast.

At $6.99 for the eleven ounce (11 oz.) bag this is probably an average or slightly below average value. For someone who does not have a grinder and who needs an extra fine grind coffee for their particular brew method (though it is not fine enough for espresso in a non-pressurized portafilter) this may be a decent choice. For a coffee aficionado or connoisseur, however, this would probably not be much more than acceptable.

I did not try this coffee with cream or with sugar, which may well improve somewhat the flavor as well.

About the Author, Neil Fruit: Before I was old enough to go to school my mom would take me with her to my grandma’s house. I remember mom and grandma sitting at the kitchen table and drinking coffee. Even as a young boy the smell of coffee was intoxicating and I wanted to try it. When I was four or five my mom let me have a sip of her coffee. She and grandma were both “dippers” who dipped their buttered toast in their coffee. I remember the smooth butter residue and the coffee came together in my mouth and I was hooked.

From that day to this I have been a coffee drinker, but my purpose for drinking has changed over the course of the years. In those early days I drank it because I liked the film of butter and the way it tasted and felt in my mouth. When I went to college and to law school, I drank coffee to survive. It was in law school that I developed my three pot of coffee a day “habit,” and I did not particularly care how it tasted. After law school I drank coffee more for enjoyment and would typically drink flavored whole bean coffee I would grind at home.

About a year and a half ago I came across a small coffee shop that roasted its own beans and I became intrigued. I got on the internet and began to research coffee roasting. I knew immediately that home roasting was something I had to try. I went to the basement, pulled out a cardboard box of old appliances, and found just what I needed: a hot air popcorn popper. I ordered some green coffee beans from an internet vendor and virtually pitched a tent by the mailbox waiting for them to arrive.

I was hopelessly and irretrievably lost to home roasting. I quickly “outgrew” my popcorn popper, bought a Nesco fluid bed roaster, and now have a Behmor 16oo drum roaster as well. To say that I have become a gourmet coffee connoisseur would be, for all who know me, a major understatement. I admittedly prefer to roast my own coffee, but I am always more than willing to try any custom roasted coffee. It is that ongoing quest to find quality coffee that has led me to websites like DailyShotofCoffee.com and others: to find new coffees and to learn as much as I can about nature’s most perfect beverage.

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Fine Print.

Tags: Melitta

Category: Coffee Reviews