Hometown Blend Whole Bean Coffee, Medium-Light Roast, 24 Ounce

It's tempting to be a coffee snob and dismiss these mass roasted, mass market beans as drek. Not give them a second look. Let me say up front, these are not as fresh as beans that you home roasted within the past few days, or ones that you bought from your local roaster. They'll make a decent crema on top of your espresso, but not competition winning. They are absolutely fresh enough for a great cuppa via pour over, drip machine, moka pot, Aeropress etc. Not at all stale, not even close. Roast is on the lighter side, but not a light or blond roast. City roast is a perfect description. Deep dark brown, not black at all. Not a spec of oil anywhere on them, not dark and not charcoal. In other words, it's properly roasted coffee that tastes like the beans that it was made from. When you open the bag, the first and only thing that hits you is chocolate. Chocolate! Brew a cup, make a shot of espresso and the taste in your mouth is as if you just munched on roasted cacao nibs. Literally. A splash of cream or 1/2 & 1/2 dulls the bitterness and accentuates the chocolate. In 50 years of drinking coffee, 30 years of roasting it, I have never had a coffee that is more purely chocolate. Take a cup of some other medium roast coffee, stir in a spoonful of dark unsweetened cocoa/ cacao powder and that's what this tastes like. For the price? Are you kidding me? Get it. Outstanding everyday cup.

The price fluctuates like crazy but when it gets under $10 for 1.5 pounds of coffee, this is a great value. The reviewers complaining this isn't fresh need to align their expectations with the price they are paying. If they want fresher coffee, pay more and get it from a roastery. The actual taste of the coffee is quite smooth and excellent for this price point. The roast is definitely lighter which causes my lesser quality grinder to work a little harder, but well worth it in my opinion.

i'm a little bit of a coffee snob w/o the funds currently to live the coffee snob lifestyle, so i ordered these beans hoping they would be alright. i chose this item based on price and because it was a city roast, which from what i saw, is the lightest roast i could find in this line. the (now old) packaging shows/implies lighter roasts being available, but i didn't see them. i'm always worried that the roast will be too dark with these cheaper beans. i think the roast is as advertised here and would say it's a city roast. the beans aren't visibly oily, but they will clump a bit when ground. nothing too extreme. i grind right before brew and use v60 or aeropress. i found the flavor to be fine. it's not great, but it's not bad. if brewed properly, even cheap beans can yield a decent cup of coffee. i would not recommend for the purists or the snobs. this is for folks who want a cheap fix, but don't want to debase themselves by drinking yuban. i thought it was good enough to order again, and when i saw it was over 10% cheaper than my last order, well, it was a no-brainer. i would rate 3.5 stars but we'll round up to 4 since they dropped the price.

Great basic coffee . I order the large bag. Grind my own beans.

Good price, but definitely low quality. More of a dark roast than anything light, and is very bitter and drowned out flavors.

Nice robust flavor, not bitter, not overpowering

I prefer a light roast and this blend fits the bill. The price does fluctuate but around the time I need to buy a new bag the price drops, well it seems that way. I typically grind the beans right before I need them and use a pour over and the flavor is good.

Taste just ok, but best price when on promotion. Good as a daily drinker.