Cameron's Espresso Blend From The Bin Review

The Crema: It's cheap. It will probably make fine coffee, but the espresso is very poor quality in my Breville BES870XL Barista Express Espresso Machine.

The Over Extracted: There really isn't any quality in the product I sampled. I can't speak for the rest of the line or if a different batch would have been better, but this particular one was poor in all areas except price.

The Whole Bean: I had never heard of Cameron's coffee until I visited my local Hy-Vee. I had been purchasing some amazing coffee from Williams-Sonoma, but they discontinued it, so I've been on a mission to find a replacement. I also enjoy tasting local and unique coffee's. And by coffee, I mean espresso. I don't actually drink regular coffee on a normal basis, but I do have a number of specialty drinks I enjoy.

I'm not sure Cameron's is unique, but it definitely isn't local. Cameron's hails from Minnesota where they have been a company since 1978. I'm not sure where the coffee came from that I purchased, but the bag ambiguously says the coffee comes from around the world. I wished they had stated where the particular batch I was purchasing had come from, but that's probably too much to ask of what is essentially a "store brand" coffee. As such, I also had no knowledge of how long the coffee had been sitting in the tube before I dumped it into my bag.

Therefore, it is hard to properly review this coffee beyond the general warning that bulk coffee is probably going to taste like anything else that comes in bulk. I would say the scent was ok, but it may have begun to turn. The taste was very hard to get consistent as an espresso. I didn't try it as a regular coffee, so it may have had a more consistent flavor in that environment.

The reason for the inconsistent flavor was due to the difficulty I had with my Breville trying to extract this espresso. The initial pack was tamped to my normal level with the nice, expensive coffee, but this resulted in an extremely under-extracted espresso. The pressure barely even registered on my machine. So, I tried a second pack after cleaning up the mess from the first. I like to start each pack with a completely clean system to produce the best extraction.

The second pack contained more grounds and was tamped with much more pressure. This pack resulted in an extraction that was still very low, but was just high enough to be viable. I went ahead and added this to my latte, and the taste wasn't great. It tasted a bit diluted and watery. It was just a pretty bland mix. So, if that's what you like, this may be ok. However, you're going to need Popeye to come and tamp it for you. Seriously, you'll need a vice to hold the portafilter and a press to push the tamper. I was never able to get a single good extraction from this blend.

For the reasons above, I can't recommend this coffee. It gives an inconsistent extraction, there is no expiration date listed, there is no country of origin listed, and the coffee is rather bland. Perhaps this blend is best suited for a regular coffee or a different batch would have been better, but my money is best spent elsewhere. I didn't even finish the bag, which has never happened.

Update: Fun Fact: The leftover coffee that wasn't good enough to drink makes for a great air freshener for that rustic, down-home feel.