on a recent trip up to portland, we stopped in at coava coffee roasters. i had seen it online and i was excited about seeing it in person. well i have mixed feelings of the place. it was a very large store with cement floors and an industrial vibe (which i love). however it was quite sparse. even though they opened in 2010, it looks like they aren't finished moving in. they had maybe 3 communal tables in the front, a bar along the length of the store (but it didn't have enough stools) and there was a huge table way in the back but it looked like it might be used for cupping, plus there were no seats. they also had some flooring samples on display which i thought was strange. my daughter and i just stood there wondering where we would sit if we were to buy a cup of coffee because the few seats they did have, were all being used. unless we sat on the floor, there was no room for us so we only purchased bags of coffee to bring back home.
i chose el comun because the description said it "has flavor notes of orange liqueur, lavender, walnuts, and sugar cookies" plus it was from costa rica. we've been drinking it for a few days now and while it does have a very nice flavor, the package seems to be running quite low very fast. i checked the weight and noticed it was 250 grams. normally the coffee bags are 12 ounces. so what does 250 grams mean? i had to go online to convert grams to ounces. wow! 250 grams is only 8.81849 ounces! i paid $14.00 for the coffee, which is about average, but it's average price for 12 ounces. since i only got 8.81849 ounces, it was a bit on the expensive side. it seems a bit deceiving to mark the package weight in grams. i mean really, who knows how many grams are in an ounce? (fyi, it's 28.3495.) so i feel a bit ripped off. i think if i ever go back to portland, i am sad to say i will not return to coava.
The description just sounds so yummy !!
ReplyDeleteYou make it sound like Coava did something very tricky. In fact, the weight is prominently marked in large bright red lettering at the bottom left of the label. It can even be made out in your photo - 8.8 OZ.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is just me but I am fairly accustomed to the pricing as it seems in line with other national boutique coffee roasters such as Intelligentsia in Chicago, Heart in Portland, Wrecking Ball in SF, Ceremony in Annapolis etc. where prices of $17-18 per 12oz is typical. I prefer the smaller quantity as it means I am using fresher beans on average.