Angels’ Cup Black Box Coffee Subscription Review & Coupon – April 2016

Not one, but four word-class coffees in one box!  Angels’ Cup is a subscription coffee sampler.  You have two sampler-style options:  For nine bucks, you can get four coffee selections in the Cupping Flight.  I find that each 1 oz package in the Cupping Flight is just right for making a batch in my French press (which is 2 giant mugs or 4 conventional servings) or one big Aeropress serving.  Or, for twenty bucks, you can get the Black Box, which is 4-2.5 oz bags.  This box contains all the same coffees as the the Cupping Flight, but it comes with 150% more coffee and is cloaked in mystery.  This review covers the latest Black Box Sampler.

The Black Box challenges you to identify the coffee by region and preparation by identifying taste characteristics.

The Box comes with four handsomely packaged coffee selections and a tasting card for each.  Each pack is stamped with a numeric identifier and the roast date but is otherwise unidentifiable.

The Blind Tasting Cards lets you guess the origin of the coffee first before you peek at the tasting notes.

Take $40 off your first Hello Fresh with coupon code  7UT7K8.

Your tasting is also supported by a cupping app.  The shots above are from a previous Black Box that promo’d the app — the app is still available, but they’ve tossed the promo materials and the cheat sheet booklet from the Black Box.  Don’t fear, they still include cards with detailed tasting notes.

The app asks you to identify the brew by number, and you can input information on your brewing method, including time, temp, apparatus used, volume of coffee, grind, etc.  Then you move on to describe qualities of the coffee — everything, ranging from color and strength of brew to scent, flavor, and even defects.  The aroma and flavor wheels expand when tapped, allowing you select more precise notes within each category.  For example, the fruit section expands to allow selection of various categories of fruit (dried, tropical, etc.), which expand even further — within dried fruit, for example, you can select prunes, raisins, figs, and more.

There is a chart which allows you to graphically describe the qualities of the coffee along four indices.  This creates a unique four-sided shape to describe the coffee that can easily be compared to the shape other reviewers have noted.

Putting accuracy above self-promotion, they even include a wheel where you can document any physical or flavor defects you may detect in the beans.  Some beans have a pretty wild profile, but I’ve yet to taste any evidence of spoilage or adulteration.

Once you’ve input your notes, the brew is identified, and you can then compare with the notes of the roastmaster.

You get a composite score for the coffee.

And you also can compare your various notes, including the graphically representation of the coffee’s flavor profile.

In addition to the roastmaster’s notes, they also have a five point graphic to compare your notes with those of the community of various reviewers.

In place of the cheat sheet are individual tasting cards describing the numbered brews in greater detail.  The selections tracked the tasting notes very well.  I am impressed with the notes — they point out the major flavor notes, identify the roaster, variety, and growing conditions, and even give a nice brief narrative of the flavor profile.  The cards and the app often note very different coffee profiles for the same beans — I thought the cards tracked the flavors of the coffee more closely.  I suspect that each coffee retains its assigned number from year to year, despite annual variations in the characteristics of the actual beans produced, and the app’s long history of reviews may contain notes pertaining to last year’s crop.

#345:  A light Ethiopian with great floral notes and a beautiful tea-flavored tannic quality.  The typical high, dry, and floral notes are there, but the lemon and distinct tea really stand out.

#346: A complex Guatemalan with an array of chocolate, cola, and vanilla notes, with a slow-developing layer of tropical fruit.  I have come to appreciate Central American beans a great deal — this one is a good example of their appeal, balancing the dark, rich notes you expect from a Colombian or Brazilian with the lighter profile and fruity complexity.

#347:  This Burundian brew has some light, dry notes, but showcases a raisin and dried fruit palate, akin to the signature notes of a Kenyan coffee, but without the dark, molasses-sweet stewy notes.  This offering captures some of the diversity of East African coffees within a single bean.

#348:  This Kenyan has a bizarre profile.  It has the defining raisin flavor, but it also has a strong tartness that dominate the cup.  Distinct notes of tomato come through, as well.  An interesting cup for the curious, but not my pick for an everyday coffee.

I like the roasting preference of Angels’ Cup — it is dark enough to develop the flavor of the beans, but they stop well short of allowing the roast to overwhelm the beans, so the subtle notes aren’t cooked out or charred over.  This is a great subscription for coffee lovers.  Their selections are high-quality and well-prepared, plus I’ll get about 12 big brews out of the Black Box.

The Angel’s Cup tasting app available on the Android & Apple app stores! You can record and track 8 different properties of your coffees and compare them, providing a fun and informative resource and sounding board for your tasting adventures.

What do you think about Angel’s Cup? Get 20% off your first month in a pay per shipment plan! Use coupon code HELLO20.

Visit Angels’ Cup to subscribe or find out more!