This is a grocery-store bag, bought the way most people actually buy coffee, off a shelf on a normal weekday. Trader Joe's Ethiopian is organic, Fair Trade, and shade grown, all of which I like to see, and at around seven dollars for thirteen ounces it is one of the cheapest single origins I keep around.

What the bag says vs. what I taste#

The label calls this a medium-dark roast with a "sweet floral aroma" and a medium body. My cup tells a different story. This drinks like a dark roast to me, closer to the edge of the roast than the middle. The florals the bag promises are mostly roasted out. What is left is dark chocolate and molasses over a heavy body, with a roasty, almost burnt note that sits on top of the finish.

If you come to it expecting the bright, jasmine-and-stone-fruit Ethiopian profile, you will be surprised. This is the opposite end of the spectrum, heavy and toasty rather than light and floral.

How it brews#

Because it leans dark and a little burnt, I treat it like a dark roast rather than a delicate single origin. It holds up in milk, where the dark chocolate and molasses have something to lean on and the roasty edge reads more as depth than as scorch. As straight black drip it is drinkable, but the burnt note comes forward, so I grind a touch coarser and keep the brew a little short to stop it turning harsh.

It is not a bag I reach for when I want to taste origin. It is a coffee for a fast, no-fuss morning cup, and for that it does the job.

The verdict#

Judged as an Ethiopian, this misses. The roast buries almost everything that makes Ethiopian coffee worth seeking out. Judged as a cheap, organic, Fair Trade daily dark roast, it is fine, and the price is genuinely good. I like the dark chocolate and molasses well enough, I only wish the roast were pulled back a notch so the origin had room to show. I would probably not rebuy this one, and only because I would rather spend a few dollars more and get the florals I was hoping for.