Blue Bottle Coffee Perfectly Ground Review – Voyager Pack

Blue Bottle Coffee is a whole-bean coffee subscription with multiple options to suit your coffee needs. Generally you’ll get 12 oz of beans every other week for $17, or double your bag for an extra $11. They also offer half bag and triple bag subscriptions. The prices vary by a buck or so based on your coffee selections.  My youngest liked the box’s artwork so much he embellished it!

This is the review for the Blue Bottle Coffee Perfectly Ground Voyager Pack.  Blue Bottle had announced a partnership or acquisition, well over a year ago, with a company that had perfected oxygen-free grinding and packaging, enabling shipping of pre-ground coffee without any deterioration in flavor.  Perfectly Ground is the culmination of that process. Unfortunately it’s not yet available as a subscription, but it’s newsworthy enough to merit a review.

The assorted coffee packs are good until March 2, 2017.   I have been using an Aeropress, so I chose the grind customized for that brewing method.

Packs are also available in grinds customized for other brewing methods.  Naming the grinds by method instead of coarseness makes it easier on the subscriber, as you don’t have to guess the best grind for your method.

The Voyager pack comes with five different single-serving selections.  I’ve tried several of these selections through my whole bean subscription, so I had a good baseline to judge the quality of the brew produced from the Perfectly Ground packs versus grinding my own.

The information card gives more details about each coffee pack.  Blue Bottle’s tasting notes are brief, but they are very accurate. The Voyager Pack contains both single origin and blend coffees, all of which are also available by the bagful through the whole bean subscription.

Everything in my Blue Bottle Coffee Perfectly Ground Voyager Pack!

Honduras Santa Elena Catracha Quality Project:  A distinct rhubarb note sets this single origin apart.

Ethiopia Hambela Estate Buku:  Tart cranberry accents the tropical and citrus profile.

Giant Steps:  This is the only one I hadn’t tried previously.  The mouthfeel and fullness of flavor is the signature quality of this blend.

Three Africas:  The dry, fruity notes of two Ethiopian beans is blended with the luscious, creamy body of a Central African selection.

Bella Donovan:  Blue Bottle’s version of Mocha Java, it combines earthy Sumatran with fruit-forward Ethiopian.

The grind is finer that what I normally use in my Aeropress.  When grinding at home, I found the recommended grind was too fine and was too difficult to press water through.  The Perfectly Ground, however, worked just fine – I suspect they grind bigger batches, so the dust doesn’t get packed with the desired grind.  The volume of grinds is about 5/6 what I usually use (probably due to the grind being finer), but it made a potent cup.

There’s also an instruction sheet at the back of each pack on how to prepare the coffee.  They recommend inverting the press and putting the grounds in with the piston in place, screwing the filter on after adding the water.  I do filter, then grounds, water, and piston – the method described in the Aeropress instructions.  The Blue Bottle method skips agitation, but it also ensures the full amount of grounds and water steep together for a whole minute (Aeropress method usually results in a portion of the water dripping through the filter into the cup prior to pressing).

The resulting coffee was great!  I didn’t notice a difference in quality or intensity of flavor from the whole bean versions of the selections I’ve previously tried.  The grounds were very fresh, and the pre-portioning and grind worked well for my method.

I was very pleased with Perfectly Ground, and I think it would be an incredible upgrade for any frequent traveller – you could have ultra-premium coffee without dragging along a grinder!

Visit Blue Bottle Coffee to find out more or to subscribe (to the regular whole bean version). Get a free trial when you use this link! (2 ounce whole bean).