Coffee Party: Add Some Flavor to Your Morning Brew

I have a slight caffeine addiction. And by slight, I mean if I don't have half a pot of coffee in the morning I am sluggish, irritable and have irrational fears that operatives in black helicopters are flying overhead, ready to rappel down my building and drag me off to a cell where I will have to listen to blaring Joni Mitchell music 24 hours a day and never drink coffee again.

But I'm sure that's typical, right?

Imagine my delight when I went into the Savings.com office a few weeks ago and was handed a suitcase full of coffee and told to write a review!

Truly, it was Christmas morning for Heather S! (Sorry, no last names here. It's those black helicopter operatives- you understand...) My delight was tempered a little when I saw that the majority of the coffees were flavored. I'm more of a deep, dark unadorned coffee fan. But I resolved to keep an open mind. Coffee Beanery had been kind enough to send us the coffee, after all. And the wicker suitcase it arrived in was adorable. I enlisted the help of a few fellow staffers and got to work sampling the twenty 1.75 oz vacuum-sealed packets of caffeine-laden goodness.

Here are the flavors we've tried so far:

Toasted Almond - Like all the flavored coffees in this set, the aroma was absolutely uncanny. It smelled like I was toasting almonds in my own oven! That toastiness totally came through in the flavor as well.

Cafe Carmel Cream - Coffee Beanery says this is their most popular specialty coffee drink, and I can understand why. The tinge of caramel on the palate was delicious, particularly when I added just a little milk to my mug.

Sinful Sundae - I was most intrigued by this one. Sundae? What kind of sundae? How is this even possible? I don't know what kind of sorcery Coffee Beanery is engaged in, but while this one was brewing, my apartment really and truly had the unmistakable smell of an ice cream shop (you know, that mix of cold dairy and waffle cones and syrups you smell whenever you walk into a Baskin Robbins or Coldstone Creamery). And sure enough, after a sip of this coffee, the finish left in my mouth was exactly like after you swallow a nice big spoonful of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Spooky.

Amaretto - Guy took this one home and came back with "The Amaretto blend was sweet and smooth. Very aromatic. It lightly danced along my palate with all the grace of a classic Baryshnikov routine." (Editor's note: Guy promised not to spike the Amaretto coffee with any of the real thing. Given the last sentence, I'm not convinced he kept that promise.)

Creme Brulee - Ray was kind enough to try this one and appropriately enough, said it was "sweet like candy." Actually, I guess "sweet like creme brulee" would have been even more appropriate. But a positive review nonetheless.

Double Dutch Fudge - While I ended up enjoying all the beverages in this flavored coffee experiment, I have saved the best for last. Double Dutch Fudge. Yes, yes and yes!

I have yet to try the Butter Rum, Hazelnut and Chocolate Raspberry flavors, as well as the Sumatra and Colombian blends, yum! The magical suitcase full of coffee contained some other non-flavored blends as well, namely:

Italian Dark Blend - Awwwwww yeah. Deep, dark and full bodied. This is my kind of coffee!

Breakfast Blend- Ray took this one home and reported back "pretty robust and had a nice aroma."

Beanery Blend - Tom brewed this one at the office using a fancy French press and we all agreed this is the perfect office coffee, guaranteed to please all palates.

Thanks to Coffee Beanery for opening my eyes to the joys of flavored coffees! I think I still prefer deep, dark and non-flavored for my every day drinking. But for a Sunday morning or any time you can take an extra minute to appreciate nuances of flavor and aroma, these flavored coffees are absolutely aces!

And make a great gift, I think, especially when presented in the wicker suitcase (the Small Coffee Suitcase pictured sells for $29.99, by the way).

And if you're inspired to try any of the fab flavors or blends above, we happen to have a 15% off any order among our Coffee Beanery coupons, good through the end of this month. Enjoy!