Moon Roast Coffee Review & Roasters Profile
A friend of mine told me about Moon Roast Coffee and said they were his favorite coffee as his local roasters.
Now, it’s my absolute favorite way to discover new roasters, people talking about the roasters local to them who are doing great work and producing great coffee.
And I’m happy to say that Moon Roast do exactly that!
I went on to their website and saw they had a Sumatra coffee with notes of “lightly peated highland whiskey” and I knew I had to try it.
So I got in touch with the super friendly team and they agreed to send me a couple of bags of coffee to try.
Long story short they were delicious. Superb taste, excellent roast quality and top quality beans.
Now for the longer story…
About Moon Roast Coffee
Moon roast are an awesome independent roasters based on a farm in the south of England.
They started their coffee roasting journey in 2012 operating out of a barn in the back of the founders house with a Probat roaster for company. From there, they’ve continued to improve and refine their roasting process and have now moved to a farm nearby with another Probat roaster, a cafe, and a space to train budding baristas at the start of their coffee journey.
What I also found out that was really awesome was that the founder is the fourth generation of his family to be dealing with tea and coffee. Pretty cool right?
Moon Roasts Coffee and Roasting
There are a few checkboxes I look for when deciding what coffee to buy. Is it roasted fresh every week and does it seem likely that the farmers who grew the coffee are getting a fair price.
With Moon Roast it’s check and check.
They state on their website that they tend to roast coffee twice a week and always put the roast date on the bag. Both huge pluses for me, because if there isn’t a roast date then you’re left with no idea how long it’s been sat or what the storage has been like. Yikes, so twice a week and a published roast date is ideal.
They also only use speciality coffee graded as 80+ by the Speciality Coffee Association (if you don’t know they’re the sort of governing body of speciality coffee).
This means not only is the coffee of the absolute highest quality, without becoming ridiculously expensive, it’s also been bought through channels that allow the coffee farmers to get a fair price for their premium product.
This isn’t even to mention the lengths they go to to ensure a quality roast every time, or to mention they’re sustainable packaging, which I noticed and enjoyed when the coffee arrived in the post, minimal packaging was involved, nothing I hate more than a box full of packing peanuts.
The Coffee
Now the bit you’ve all been waiting for, the coffee review!
Both coffee’s I tried were absolutely excellent, superbly consistent roast, delicious flavors and I am confident that any coffee you try from them is going to be excellent.
Burundi – Murambi Hill Review
This is a medium-light roast coffee and the initial smell gave me sweetness and some fruitiness, the beans were a beautiful light colour with that white line down the middle letting you know it’s a lighter roast. I realise now I could have gotten a photo of the beans but I was too busy enjoying them!
I went with my gut and decided to brew this with a Moka Pot and with an Aeropress, the Moka pot was so I could make it as a cappuccino for my wife and the aeropress was so that I could use a paper filter to see how it tastes as a really clean cup.
Moka Pot
When I opened the bag and smelled the delicious fruity smells I was confident this would make a really nice cappuccino, So I brewed in my 6 cup Moka pot using its standard measurements of coffee to water, then pouring it out I saw a lovely red brown color in it which I didn’t expect.
I kept mine black and made my wife a cappuccino using an electric milk frother, and I was right, the sweetness of the coffee was perfect with the milk. Delicious.
The black coffee was a much darker taste than I imagined for a medium-light roast, so I’m very glad it wasn’t roasted any darker. A nice sheen of coffee oils on the top and a nice mouthfeel, not too heavy and not too watery either.
The same as the proverbial porridge it was all just right, a really tasty cup of coffee.
Aeropress
For the aeropress I went for a 1:13 ratio, you could certainly go a lower ratio, 1:11 maybe but I was happy with the lightness the 1:13 ratio gave me.
The coffee was super clean and crisp and it reminded me of fresh air and being outdoors, so I picked up my cup and went and enjoyed it in the winter sun on my patio. Beautiful.
A great morning coffee, not too intense, a little sweetness to lure you in, and an all round delicious cup of coffee.
French Press
For a second opinion on these I sent some to Scott the co founder of this site to try and he gave them a go in the French press at a 1:15 ratio.
He got chocolate notes from the initial smell, with a smell of bakewell tar and and he also got a lot of delicate sweetness.
BUt interestingly the French press gave it more of a nutty bitterness (in a good way) with a citrus acidity aftertaste and a buttery mouthfeel.
Sumatra – Burni Telong review
Now the Sumatra is a lot of fun to drink, where the Burundi was sweet and welcoming, the Sumatra was complex and mysterious. I opened up the bag and the initial smell made me give an audible “ooo” to myself because there were a lot of very rich and complex flavors going on.
It was slightly too much for my nose but I got some dark chocolate and a little of that whiskey aroma I was excited about.
My gut on this one told me to go for a French Press to get a full experience of it and then I was curious how it would be in my drip filter machine.
French Press
I went for a grind of 26 on my Baratza Encore but could have gone a little finer because it brewed up surprisingly lightly.
There was a little sweetness present and a little sourness (in a good way) and all in a lot of very interesting flavors which I couldn’t quite pinpoint. It’s really tasty and very interesting to drink.
If you’re into coffee then you’re going to absolutely love it, but if you’re a more casual drinker and just like “a coffee”, no deeper thought than that then I think you’d be better off with the Burundi.
But coffee lovers will love the more complex array of flavors and trying to pick out some of the more unusual flavors. An excellent job has been done with roasting to bring these beans to life.
Again Scott did these with a French Press to and he got a biscuit berry aroma from the first smell, then the french press taste was also very light with some sweet biscuitiness and a little citrus tartness. And that is probably the same sourness I was getting. And while the Burundi made me want to go out side the Sumatra made Scott want a digestive biscuit!
Drip Machine
The drip machine turned out really well, I got some more fruitiness compared to the French press and a lot of rich flavors alongside a much lighter mouthfeel.
Overall it was very balanced and just very enjoyable to drink. A cup of coffee you could be mindful with.
Final Thoughts
Moon Roast have a lot of respect for their craft, and a lot of care goes in through the whole process, from buying, to roasting, to selling. These are the kinds of coffee businesses I love, passionate people working hard to bring you delicious coffee.
Go check them out at their website and order some coffee today,you won’t be disappointed.
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