Allegro Coffee Red Sea Blend:Notes from a Coffee Dufus
June 17, 2008 by Marye Audet
Filed under Coffee
I have been putting off this review. Honestly I have. And I will tell you why.
I have been reading reviews all over the internet and they all seem to say the same thing. Exciting fruity notes. Chocolate notes. Notes of tobacco and wood. Tastes of cherry, blueberry and spice…Exotic, complex.
Scroll back.
Last week Marc and I had to pick up a new flour canister at the restaurant supply house. O.k. I bet you want to know why I am heading off, 45 minutes away, to pick up a flour canister? Gosh, you are nosy.
It is because I buy organic white flour by the #50 bag. Yes. 50 Pounds of flour. I am able to get it for under $40 and we use that much easily in a month or less. I also get wheat berries in bulk like that. Anyway. SO, one cannot just set 50 pounds of flour in a vintage enamelware canister on the counter can one? My canister set rivals what the Jolly GreenGiant’s wife must surely have in her pantry. I bet her kids don’t eat more than mine either.
Coffee. Right.
So, since we were up in the wealthy part of town, as opposed to the ghetto part that we live in, we were thoroughly enjoying the landscape. I said, “Hey! Isn’t there a Whole Foods up here? ”
Marc said, “Yeah, I think so.”
Me, “Can we stop there? ”
Marc, “Sure.”
So we did.
I need to write a whole post in Baking Delights on the joys of Whole Foods, especially the one on Preston/Forest in Dallas. Wowza. They have a SPA, people, a SPA upstairs, o.k.?
Anyway, you are interested in the coffee, I know.
So all of the areas are set up like an exotic bazaar and the coffee area has loads of bulk coffees. Picking through I saw many that piqued my interest, but the Red Sea blend really seemed to be the coffee I wanted most. It spoke to me, people, seriously.
I opened the bag as soon as we got home and took a deep sniff of the beans. The aroma was medium. Not intense, not overpowering, just coffee like.
The beans are a medium roast, a blend of East African and Arabica beans. They were roasted on the day I got them, very fresh. I love the fact that it is sustainably grown but I am unsure if it is organic. On the Allegro Coffee website it is not listed among the organic coffees. I found that to be kind of a bummer because when I buy something at Whole Foods I sort of expect that it won’t be full of toxins.
So Marc brews the pot, he is the official coffee maker at our house. I don’t know why. I can make it but it seems so luxurious to have him make the coffee for me and serve it to me in my mug. 
If only I could get him to wear like a gladiator slave outfit when he was serving it….
O.k. cupping the coffee. It has a citrussy smell to me but very faint. The coffee flavor is mild, with a slightly acidic aftertaste. It did not taste complex or exotic. It did not remind me of blueberries, tobacco or chocolate. It tasted like a decent cup of coffee, but not a great one.
The beans were, admittedly, a medium roast and you know I prefer a dark roast but even so this was not a coffee I would buy again.
It is much better than Dunkin Donuts coffee though, and we are drinking it. I think I am going to use the Dunkin Donuts beans as a preschool craft.
Anyway. Sometimes I feel like a real coffee dufus. I read what others have said and it sounds so very eloquent …but when I read a review I want a bottom line. Should I try it or not? In the case of Allegro Red Sea Blend give it a shot, you may like it. If you do try it let me know..I am curious if I am a dufus or just more honest than everyone else.
Coffee slave. Uh huh. And to think I kept my comment to myself on Baking Delights!
LOL! Which comment was that, Julie?
Just about being Texan by injection.
I understand how you feel…sometimes I just can’t make the connection between what “others” are saying about a product and my reaction to it. I’m quite sure you’re not a dofus!
LOL thanks Ruth!
beautiful photo Marye!
Wow, thank you Carrie.
actually, I picked two nose characteristics: chocolate and tobacco … those are the adjectives i came up before heading to the internet to read what others’ wrote…. i’m a foodie and wine collector so my analyses usually match up in blind tastings with the review. don’t get down on yourself… it just tastes practice!
thanks Baz! WHoohoo! I did better than I thought…so let me ask you..
do you get frustrated when every other coffee review says the coffee was nutty and chocolatey?
Because that seems to be the main two adjectives used in coffee reviews..:)
Allegro Red Sea blend is the best of the Allegros offered at Whole Foods … except with the possible exception of Mocha Java (a blend also heavily Yemeni). Perhaps if your impression of Red Sea as “not particularly striking” was because you bought one of their pre-bagged portions? Those are roasted at Allegro’s Central Massive Production Facility.
In my local Whole Foods there are open bins of fresh-roasted coffee, and you can see the roasting date. Of course, I must admit that Red Sea is not currently in the offerings and Mocha Java is currently available only in the less-than-freshly roasted bags.
Anyhow, here’s what I do to capture the full impact of Red Sea or Mocha Java (I also use Allegro’s Eye-Opener Blend): grind it extra fine with my ($150) Starbucks Barrista burr grinder, directly into an espresso basket and run out a double shot from my Starbucks ($250) Barrista espresso machine. If you can’t handle mainline smack, bring it up to a 8-10 oz’s with 160-degree hot water from the convenient side-nozzle. It’s not just coffee-making, its a full blown expensive hobby with disturbing addictive aspects.
Then you be gettin’ the idea of those chocolate blueberries or whatever they say it taste like. Intense, fruity, sweet … sometimes if I hit it just right, I don’t need to add any Splenda at all (don’t want to add diabetes to my upcoming heart attack…).
Also, in the name of Gawd I implore you to use a decent grade of purified water.
Thank you for your suggestions.