**COFFEE REVIEWS** Luzianne Premium & Door County Flavored

Remember me talking about my percolator saving me so much money? It will once I stop trying new coffee in it. So far, I have bought one coffee, gotten a sample of another, and subscribed to one from the sample brand. I'm about to pick up some Luzianne Medium Roast (red) and I will be good on coffee for the next 3 months or more!

First up, is the Luzianne that I had already started writing this review for. 

Luzianne Premium Blend Coffee and Chicory

For a long time, I've been telling people that I prefer dark roast coffee and that Luzianne chicory coffee is the only brand I loved black. What my no-attention-to-details brain never clocked was that the chicory coffee by Luzianne only comes in a medium roast. Luzianne has a dark roast coffee but it's minus the chicory. I never bought that one.

Anyway.

As you know, I am obsessed with my new percolator. Ob-SESSED. I've been consumed with finding the perfect coffee for it. I've been grinding beans and sampling coffees sent to me by sellers. When I saw this

Notice that it is only 16 ounces

for size comparison

I had to grab some. It's coffee with chicory, and it's a dark roast.

I did realize that I might end up having to water it down a bit. After all, I want to do black coffee as often as I can and the red bag Luzianne is a medium roast. However, I usually can do the milder-tastingArabica beans sans cream and sugar better than I can Robusta beans.

But...

This is a roast that is beyond dark. Child. This is- I don't even know how to tell you how strong this coffee is without explaining it in detail.

The suggested measurements are 1 level tablespoon to 6 ounces of water.

Don't do it, sis. Just don't.

They suggest that because (I guess) they know that the standard 2 tablespoons to 6 ounces is way too strong with this blend. And, trust me, they didn't stutter, lie, or overstate this. As a matter of fact, I found the coffee too strong with just 1 tablespoon to 8 ounces. So, for my 4 8-ounce cups, I used a smidge under 4 tablespoons. I say just under because I was using my finger to level it off and went a little deep.

Anyway.

After I made it the way they suggested, the coffee brewed up stronger than Samson, Hercules, and Andre the Giant combined. It was so strong that I put it all aside to make some cold brew later. It was SO strong that when, as an experiment, I just ran more water (about 12 ounces from a bottle I was sipping from) through the just used grounds. And that made a brew good enough for me to actually drink.

This is the kind of strong coffee I imagine cowboys or slaves - or anyone way back in the day - drinking. You know, when people drank coffee to make it through a day with no sleep. When people drank coffee instead of doing cocaine or Adderal or, I don't know, whatever the E.R. doctors, stockbrokers, and mothers of quintuplets and no nanny do to work 90-hour weeks on no steady sleep.

I like my coffee strong but, good golly! This stuff here... I can see Crocodile Dundee looking at someone make a pot of Folgers and whipping this out to say, "That's not coffee, this is coffee." 

You get my drift. Anyway.

So I decided to use 1 weak tablespoon to about 10 ounces of water. "Weak" being the opposite of "heaping" and a tiny bit less than "level".

The next morning, I used my measurements to make the 4 cups of coffee. Then, fingers crossed, I pushed my sweetened and flavored creamer away and the first cup.

Blow, blow, sip.

The verdict: I can do this or... can I do this?

Here's the thing. I can do this without adding anything sweet but I need the cream. I don't know if it's a mind trick or what but there's something about lightening the coffee - to the eye and on the tongue. But I said I was going to give this black coffee thing a real go. I'm doing tofu, for heaven's sake, I should be able to do black coffee!

Blow, blow, sip...

Hmm... 

Yes, I can do it without cream but I will need to make it a little bit weaker. As is - with the already watered-down measurements - I really need at least a little bit of unsweetened cream. Next time I will do 1 tablespoon to 12 ounces of water. I think that will be the sweet spot for me. (And I was so busy sipping, I forgot to get a photo!)

NEVER bitter!
It would make great Cafe Au Lait 

As big a deal as I make about this brew being so strong, the thing is, even at its strongest, the coffee truly has zero bitterness. With the first pot that I made strong that I had to re-purpose it? Even that wasn't bitter in the least. Now, it was overwhelmingly strong but there wasn't even a trace of bitterness. I think that, for anyone who likes their coffee black by default, this would be the perfect brew for them. My father would have loved this coffee. I know that he liked chicory with his coffee (he was from Arkansas via Lousiana, you know) so this would have been something he preferred over the usual brands found on store shelves. He and my mother used to make Folgers so strong you could gnaw on it.

Anyway, I'm not mad at this coffee like I wanted to be because of the price. Since it takes so little of it to make a pot, it will last me a long time. Maybe longer than the huge 12-ounce cans of Yuban that I used to favor. Plus, you know, chicory.

Will I buy this again? Yes. I will.  Unless I can find the cheaper bricks of the red bag Luzianne's mild roast. But this is worth it for the reason that I can drink it black without hating it and because it really is a nice quality of coffee. I'm no expert and even I can tell that this coffee is better than your average easy-to-find shelf brand. However, if I had to use the regular amount of coffee per cup, there is no way.

Brownie Batter Chocolate Flavored Coffee (by Door County Coffee)

 Okay, so this is a much shorter review. This is a medium roast coffee that is so delicious you will feel like you should be putting on weight. It's so good that I've been drinking it with only unsweetened creamer. 

Two things to know about this one:

• It's decaf. Yeah. It was a freebie so I didn't see the product page first. I don't mind. I save it to drink later in the day when I won't drink caffeinated java. Think of it as dessert.
• It's a medium roast. However, in my opinion, you still need to go light on the grounds. In the percolator, The label suggests 2 tablespoons of coffee to 6 ounces of water (that must be the new standard) but I use about a tablespoon and a half to 8 ounces of water. Find your preference and enjoy.

This is so decadent that I started a Subscribe and Save for Door County's Chocolate Caramel Truffle. It's also a decaf. I wanted to try it to see which flavor I like best. I can always switch over the Subscribe option. It's a 10-ounce bag that runs sort of high (about $11.50 right now) but is nice for the occasional treat.

As I said, this is wonderful - if you get the brew strength right. I made one cup too strong and there was a bitter bite to it. Even creamer didn't help. I went too weak with the next cup and I got that dirty water bland ickiness. It took another couple of tries until I hit the mark. Ever since then I have been sipping on this as an after-dinner treat. Creamer brings out the sweetness perfectly.

There are a ton of flavors under this brand. Some only come as ground, while some are available in whole beans. Some are caffeinated. I couldn't find one right off that I wanted to try except Bourbon Vanilla. Since I like the idea of drinking a decaf after dinner hours, I don't mind. 

Last of all, I did pay attention to some of the reviews but I think it's tough to rely on someone else's opinion of a flavored food or beverage. Maybe someone's idea of good chocolate or vanilla is a lot different than my own. I didn't see a lot of bad things about the Brownie Batter but I did see where some reviewers recommended other flavors I don't think I would like. I won't be rushing to try a flavor like Cherry Cream or Amaretto. Those are favorites of mine in general. At least with this brand, there are a LOT of flavors to choose from.

Peace

--Free