Advertiser Disclosure
X

Advertiser Disclosure: We may have financial relationships with companies listed on our site. We may receive compensation for placement of sponsored products or services and this may affect our decision about who to promote and where to promote them. We make every effort to be authentic and accurate with every article we write.

Product Reviews

Review of Captain + Stoker Coffee


I am a coffee drinker, and recently a coffee shop opened up near me called Captain + Stoker.  I found out they offer their own beans, so I grabbed some beans to write a review about them.  (I’ve got such a cool job, I know!)

The Captain + Stoker coffee is single-origin coffee.  That means it’s not a blend of any sort and it doesn’t go through all the processing that a lot of other major brands of coffee go through.

And boy can you taste the difference.  The first time I tried single-origin coffee, it didn’t even taste like real coffee to me.  It tasted like some sort of fruity drink.

In fact, I wasn’t immediately drawn to single-origin coffee the first time I tried it.  I was used to “normal” coffee, and that’s what I was expecting and wanting.

But over time, I’ve grown to love it.  And now it’s hard for me to go back.

The single-origin coffee at Captain + Stoker was just as good as others I’d tried at places like Blue Bottle.  Each time I go there, I can’t wait for that first sip.

What’s also cool about Captain + Stoker is that when you get the coffee in person, it’s the perfect temperature right when you get it.  When I order from Starbucks, a lot of times I have to wait several minutes for the coffee to cool down because it’s so hot.

I mentioned those fruity coffee flavors before.  These two pictures might help give you an idea of why there is a difference in flavor.  First, here is some Starbucks coffee that I made at my house:

To me, that looks like what I’d expect with coffee.  It’s a very dark brown color and is what I usually see when I spot people drinking coffee.

Now, compare that to the Captain + Stoker single-origin coffee that I made at my house with their beans:

Notice the color!  It’s like a reddish-amber color.  And it tastes completely different to me than the Starbucks coffee.  This one was fruity.

To give you an idea how different they are in flavor, when I drink Starbucks coffee (or any other coffee that isn’t single-origin), I drink it with cream and sugar.

With the Captain + Stoker, I could drink it with no cream or sugar.  It was already delicious enough just as it was.

For fun, I tried drinking a single cup of Starbucks coffee with no cream or sugar, and it was hard not to gag.  It was just so bitter.  It seemed like a burned flavor to me.  If I cover that with cream and sugar, then it tastes like normal to me and I like it.  But as a stand-alone beverage, it’s hard to tolerate.

There is one other aspect of Captain + Stoker coffee that I want to highlight:  its potency.  I don’t know the science behind it, but this stuff is strong.  And the way they make it at their coffee shop is, for me, almost too strong.  I get beyond wired when I drink it.

After drinking Captain + Stoker for a few weeks, I was out one day and decided to drink Starbucks instead.  It seemed so weak by comparison.  It was almost as if I hadn’t actually had my cup of coffee yet for the day.

Maybe that’s a sign of my increasing my caffeine tolerance, which isn’t necessarily a good thing!  But for better or worse, Captain + Stoker coffee seems to be quite strong.

So for all those reasons, I give Captain + Stoker my highest rating.  I set myself up with a bean subscription so that the Captain + Stoker coffee is constantly flowing at my house.

I can’t imagine ever purposely choosing to drink a different coffee at this point unless I’m out of town.  I’m very thankful it came into my life and I have this part of each day that I look forward to where it feels like I’m giving myself a gourmet treat.

 

 

 

Photo of author

Erin Thompson

Erin Thompson spent years managing her own blog about budgeting and debt. Because of that, she has great insights not only about managing spending and borrowing but also about running websites profitably. When she's not writing articles for us, she's traveling and looking for new types of wines to try.
Want to Say in the Loop?

Get the latest updates we offer about all things "Money" by signing up for the CashBlog newsletter.


As Seen on

The content on Cashblog.com is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial advice and we are not certified financial advisors. Cashblog.com strives to keep its information accurate and up to date, but it may differ from actual numbers. We may have financial relationships with companies listed on our site. We may receive compensation for the placement of sponsored products or services. We work hard to write authentic and accurate articles.