Sampigehoney Review

Opened and tried a new coffee today: Blue Tokai’s Sampigehoney. Love the name of that estate.

This is the first time I’m buying coffee from BT, because of my handwavy anti-mainstream bias. But the experience all the way from order to cup has been fantastic. I ordered on 15th Aug, my coffee was roasted on 16th and delivered the same day without any hitch at zero shipping charge. They even threw in a couple of free cold brew bags with my order. Their scale probably helps a lot here.

The coffee itself is labelled as a medium-dark roast, but these are definitely the darkest beans I’ve got till now (darker than Kapi Kottai’s Tōdi, which is sold as “dark”). I tried it in a French Press and Moka Pot and got great dry-fruity brews from it. It's bitter, but in a pleasant dark-chocolatey way. There was also a dot of acidity in between the raisins and dark chocolate. The aftertaste of raisins lingers on for quite a while.

The tasting notes mention maple syrup, and while the brews I made had some sweetness, I honestly don't remember what maple syrup tastes like. So no comment on that.

The bitterness of this means that this coffee would take on milk pretty well. Might try a South Indian filter coffee with this as well.