Today we’re going to be looking at an offering from Ozone Coffee.
They’ve been around since 1998 and have two locations, one in New Zealand and the other in London. I decided to give them a try as they sent me an email inviting me to sign up for a coffee subscription and offering my first bag free so I figured I’d see what they had on offer.
Now, I did have some trouble when it came time to place my order, the site initially refused to accept the code for my free coffee so I needed to ping them on twitter about it and eventually speak to someone by email to get it resolved. They did sort it out very quickly and I was able to place my order without any further issues.
Ozone not only sell coffee, they also offer barista training, equipment and merchandise. Their site is fairly easy to navigate, with everything being accessible through the dropdown in the top left corner.
They offer nine different kinds of coffee consisting of four house blends, four single origin choices and one decaf. I won’t list them all here, but prices range from £9 to £80 depending on the type of coffee and how much you want to purchase in one go. They offer 250g, 1kg and 2kg options for those who like their coffee in industrial quantities!
For 250g the shipping was £3 and for 2kg the shipping was £3.50, both with Royal Mail. I encountered no issues placing my order beyond the aforementioned problem with the discount code and my order was dispatched and delivered to me quite briskly.
As you can see, it doesn’t come flat packed and it’s not what I’d describe as properly re-sealable, coming with those little twisty-tie bits instead of a ziplock like some other roasters use. Booo! But it does come with a clearly marked roasting date and one of those little cards that gives you more information about what you’ve bought. Yay! I have a little collection of those cards now, helps me decide what I’m going to buy in future.
Now here’s where this review becomes slightly problematic. I’ve tried this one in both my Barista Express and my syphon filter. I’ve tried it as a latte, americano and a filter drink and really all I can say about it is….it tastes like coffee. Now I’m sure some of you are going “Well what else should it taste of, Mr Coffee Blogger?” and by that I mean that I couldn’t really detect any of the tasting notes listed on the bag.
Unlike others where I can go “That tastes of berries, that tastes of spice, etc” this one simply tasted like coffee. A very pleasant coffee, I must add, but there was nothing in it that made it stand out compared to any of the others I’ve tried for review so far. That’s not to say it’s by any means a bad coffee, it really isn’t, but nor was it a standout one.
Which, as my wife pointed out, is not necessarily a bad thing depending on who you plan to be making coffee for. One of my friends is an avid coffee drinker, but she doesn’t like coffees with a strong berry or fruit flavour to them while I tend to favour them. My wife, also, bless her though she does try, has no real nose for coffee. I’ve plied her with multiple different beans from multiple roasters and her opinion at the end, without fail is “it smells/tastes/looks like coffee”. I could serve her coffee that costs £50 a bag, but in her words, it would be utterly wasted on her as she simply can’t tell the difference, so there’s always a place for those beans that, well, simply taste like coffee.
I’m trying not to sound like I’m damning with faint praise, the Ozone “Brothers” blend is a perfectly decent coffee, the kind of beans I’d buy if I knew I had a lot of folks coming round who really weren’t all that bothered about the kind of coffee they were having as long as it tasted good. I did enjoy it, but I don’t think it’s one I’d rush back to purchase.
Next time we’re going to be looking at what Strangers Coffee Company has to offer. Mainly because I was fascinated by the name!
The Proto Coffee Snob 