Black Mountain Gold French Roast Premium Gourmet Coffee

Black Mountain Gold is a brand of sustainable Fair Direct Trade coffee that is available at grocery stores around the country. They also have a website where you can order direct from them. On orders priced from $30-$49.99 you are charged a flat rate price of $5.99 for shipping, but if your order is $50 or more shipping is completely free.

The website also offers loyalty points and the Java Perks Coffee club so that you can avoid worrying about ordering your coffee as well as other features.

The website is clean and has a lot of interesting information, so I requested a sample of the French Roast Premium gourmet coffee to try and review.

The packet they sent me was enough for a single pot of coffee--more than enough for a good trial. It was vacuum sealed and smelled divine when first opened. It is one of the more pleasant coffees I have smelled.

I placed the grounds in my coffeemaker and allowed it to brew. The coffee appears to be a rich color, but not so dark as to be completely opaque. The aroma of the brewed liquid smelled nice, but there was a hint of strength that I didn't detect when I first opened the bag.

I sweetened the cup as to my preference and took a sip. To my surprise I detected a serious bitter note, unlike I've tasted in French roast coffees in the past. It reminded me of when the filter messes up and the grounds get in the carafe, so I checked and this was not the case.

The bitterness was not bad enough for me to stop drinking on the sample so I continued the sampling process. Overall, if you ignore the bitter note the coffee has a good flavor; if that note were removed it would be an excellent coffee.

French Roast is a rich-tasting coffee; it has always been one of my favorites for waking up in the morning because of the kick it seems to contain, but this bitter note is quite distracting. Reducing the amount used does not seem as it would help because the other flavors in the coffee are fine. My concern would be a more obvious loss of flavor if less coffee grounds were used per pot, but for some who prefer a weaker brew this may be the solution.

Personally, I would leave this coffee on the shelf and choose a less bitter brand. While I love the aroma and the overall flavor, that bitter note is still in my mouth now, several minutes after I finished my cup. It is not a pleasant sensation.