Intelligentsia Coffee, Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee – Black Cat Espresso 12 Ounce Bag with Flavor Notes of Stone Fruit, Dark Sugars and Dark Chocolate
Original price was: $16,968.00.$14.14Current price is: $14.14.
- Intelligentsia Coffee Black Cat Espresso, medium roast whole bean coffee
- 12 ounce bag
- Flavor notes of stone fruit, dark sugars, and dark chocolate
- Direct trade commitment
- Recommended grind and brewing ratio for excellent flavor
- Seasonal blends with consistent profiles
- Product dimensions: 3.2 x 4.4 x 5.8 inches; 12 ounces
- Made in USA by Intelligentsia Coffee
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Buying Guide: Intelligentsia Coffee, Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee – Black Cat Espresso 12 Ounce Bag
Introduction
Welcome to our buying guide for Intelligentsia Coffee’s Black Cat Espresso. This medium roast whole bean coffee offers a unique flavor profile with notes of stone fruit, dark sugars, and dark chocolate. In this guide, we will help you understand how to select the perfect bag of Intelligentsia Coffee that suits your taste preferences.
1. Familiarize Yourself with Black Cat Espresso
Black Cat Espresso is known for its syrupy sweetness and a perfect balance. It has been a staple in Intelligentsia Coffee’s lineup since the beginning. Understanding the characteristics and flavor profile of Black Cat Espresso will help you decide if it aligns with your preferences.
2. Direct Trade Commitment
Intelligentsia Coffee’s commitment to direct trade ensures a transparent and sustainable coffee sourcing process. By partnering directly with growers, Intelligentsia eliminates unnecessary intermediaries, which allows them to offer the sweetest coffees in the world. This commitment is something to consider if you value ethical and high-quality coffee.
3. Brewing Recommendations
To brew a perfect cup of Black Cat Espresso, follow these recommendations:
- Grind: For espresso, a fine grind is recommended.
- Ratio: Your finished espresso should weigh 2.5 times as much as your coffee dose.
- Extraction: This ratio ensures an excellent total extraction and maximizes flavor.
4. Seasonality and Freshness
Intelligentsia Coffee’s Black Cat Espresso is subject to seasonal changes. The components used in the blend may vary throughout the year to incorporate new arrivals. Despite these variations, Intelligentsia guarantees freshness and optimizes quality to uphold consistent flavor profiles.
Product Details
| Product Dimensions | 3.2 x 4.4 x 5.8 inches; 12 Ounces |
|---|---|
| Item Model Number | 510199 |
| UPC | 800222120124 |
| Manufacturer | Intelligentsia Coffee |
| Country of Origin | USA |
Price History for Intelligentsia Coffee, Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee - Black Cat Espresso 12 Ounce Bag with...
Statistics
| Current Price | $12.02 | November 13, 2024 |
| Highest Price | $14.14 | June 9, 2024 |
| Lowest Price | $8.79 | October 17, 2024 |
Last price changes
| $12.02 | November 13, 2024 |
| $14.14 | November 13, 2024 |
| $8.79 | October 17, 2024 |
| $12.02 | September 28, 2024 |
| $14.14 | September 28, 2024 |
Specification: Intelligentsia Coffee, Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee – Black Cat Espresso 12 Ounce Bag with Flavor Notes of Stone Fruit, Dark Sugars and Dark Chocolate
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8 reviews for Intelligentsia Coffee, Medium Roast Whole Bean Coffee – Black Cat Espresso 12 Ounce Bag with Flavor Notes of Stone Fruit, Dark Sugars and Dark Chocolate
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Original price was: $16,968.00.$14.14Current price is: $14.14.
Isabella dasilva –
Great flavor. 4.5 out of 5.
Aaron Martin-colby –
Pros:
Very complex
Rich
Excellent for doubles and triples
Cons:
A bit expensive
Merely adequate for singles
Overall:
I very much like Black Cat Espresso. I consider it the bar against which other espressos are measured. I like it more than Kicking Horse, Lavazza, and Stumptown. Its flavor profile is very complex. It has its fair share of caramel and chocolate, but it also has a spicy, savory nature to it, and very fruity notes that come out well in singles.
This is not a large-scale, homogenized coffee. Different regions and roasts result in different flavors from each bag. Sometimes that spiciness becomes a sort of salty flavor, and the fruits can turn very flowery. It is an easy espresso to make. Even shots that aren’t perfect come out tasting pretty good. It’s also a forgiving blend in that the shots are not prone to channeling.
Singles are good, because any good coffee becomes light and toasty in a single, as opposed to the rich, crema-bombs of doubles and triples. Still, this espresso is very much intended for doubles or triples.
In drip coffee, it’s alright. And by drip, I mean any immersion process, be it French press, Aeropress, drip, pour-over, etc. The flavors get blown out, with the spices overwhelming the chocolates and caramels and resulting in a coffee that’s not terribly smooth. Of the immersion processes, Aeropress tasted the best, probably because it most closely approximates espresso.
Black Cat is a bit expensive, but not terribly so. Especially when one considers the increases in coffee as of late, -even Starbucks Tribute was $14 per pound- the price isn’t crippling, but it is definitely above many other brands. You can save a little money by buying in five-pound bulks on Intellgentsia’s website, but it’s not a good idea to keep coffee beans around for that long when you can just as easily get it fresh.
All said, Black Cat is espresso that more often than not finds its way into my machine.
UPDATE:
Something that I forgot to mention in my initial review is that Black Cat is a very complex blend. That means that cheap stepped grinders WILL NOT grind the coffee correctly for espresso. Some higher-end stepped grinders will do the job, like the Rancilio Rocky, but you’ll want a good, stepless grinder to fine-tune the grind. This is especially important if you have an espresso machine that’s very picky about grind.
Finally, this is not a terribly cremariffic espresso, which means to get a good amount of crema out of it, and thus really have a good canvas for latte art, you’re going to have to prepare triples.
UPDATE #2 ABOUT WEIGHT:
It is very important to realize that the various sellers selling this are NOT SELLING THE SAME PRODUCT. The beans are the same, and most of the sellers are selling freshly-roasted beans. They are selling different weights, though. Need Caffeine is selling one-pound bags (16oz), whereas Trade Concepts and Abernook are selling 12oz bags for the same price.
If different sellers than the above mentioned become available, e-mail the seller to ask the weight of the bag. It’s the only way to ensure that you are getting a full pound. This is supposed to be the product page for the full-pound bag. That’s why there is a separate product page for the 120z bag. I am very disappointed in Trade Concepts and Abernook.
Amazon Customer –
This is the second bag I have purchased within a month. The bag was sent with the white label marked out in black. Looking closer at the marking, the best before date was intentionally covered. The item was expired on December 13, 2020.
Please do not sell expired items. It is unethical and it showed the seller values money or profit over the customer’s well-being. I am very disappointed!!!
Susan E –
We live on Black Cat Espresso. It’s a really delicious not overly roasted espresso. I’ve tasted a lot of other good beans, but always come back to this. I usually order 5 pounds direct from Intelligentsia, but this time the shipping time was so long we were about to run out of beans. Decided to order a small bag from Amazon to tide us over. Pleasantly surprised that the roasting date was Quite recent (I don’t have that kind of luck if buying in a grocery store) and the price was less than at the grocery store.
Mik –
Spendy espresso but it is so delicious!!!!
James McNabb –
This coffee was roasted over 2 months ago, not good. Why is this the new norm with these guys?
Jade –
Image of the size unreliable. On the picture of the product, for the cost of 50$, I tought I was receiving a larger bag size. The price is disproportionate for a 12 once bag.
S. A. –
I’m an espresso nut and have several machines that I call my friends. One of these is a Jura S9 Avantgarde, and after trying dozens and dozens of various beans to find the perfect mate, Intelligentsia Black Cat Classic prevailed as the very clear winner. There may be better beans out there, but not for this machine. I’ve served thousands of shots of this espresso out of the Jura, and everyone is impressed by it… actually, not just impressed… blown away. It’s not uncommon to have neighbors coming in the back door in the morning to grab a shot. This bean produces a perfect espresso… great crema, thick legs… smooth with no bitterness and a slight nut/chocolate finish. The best thing is the consistency… the beans are always the same… which is not true of so many other small producers. It’s also great in cappuccini, macchiati, etc.
I live very close to Intelligentsia in LA and buy beans there in person… but, my other house is 2 hours away… and when there, I order these beans online through Amazon. These mail order ones are fine… and are very similar to what you get in the store. It is a serious downer that Intelligentsia switched the size from 16oz to 12oz, which essentially upped the price by about 30%… but, it’s still much cheaper than Illy or some others.
When you buy in the store, the beans have usually been roasted only a few days before. From Amazon, it seems to be about 2 weeks… something like that. To be honest, it really doesn’t make much difference… since the beans are whole and sealed, the taste between beans that are a few days from roasting versus 2 weeks is virtually indiscernible. If the beans were 1 day old versus a month or so, there would be a slight difference, but here… there’s nothing really worth mentioning… and certainly nothing to prevent me from ordering them. There’s lot of hype about this… but…
As an aside, I much prefer these Classic beans to the Organic beans. The Classic seem to produce better crema, have less bitterness and less of the bright-forward flavor I try to avoid.
UPDATE 7/30/2012: Purchased again from Amazon and the beans were about 2 months old. That’s really pushing the limits of acceptability… probably will not order from Amazon again. Changed from 5 stars to 3.