Can’t tell you about their decaf, but we find the Hummingbird coffees very nice. It’s tough suggesting food and drinks as everyone will have their own taste preferences, but for us the Hummingbird coffees are not bitter and burnt like some, just smooth and delicious, but that’s just us!!
Thanks! My issue is I get good coffee from somewhere, and then I get a decaf and it doesn't taste that great. Gotta brew it for ages too and use extra coffee or it's weak.
I don't think I've tried the hummingbird decaf so will give that a go.
Seconding Hummingbird decaf - I used to have Hummingbird Crave every morning, which was my favourite from their line, but now I prefer the flavour of the decaf one anyway.
I think they also do a few 50/50 decaf/caffeinated blends too.
I guess the decaffing removes the flavours as well. I monitor my blood pressure with a wrist strap that optically measures it 20+ times a day. I can easily see my BP rises coinciding with whenever I have a coffee. Luckily it doesn’t make me jittery though.
If I have coffee in the afternoon I notice it affect my sleep, and I don't get enough of that as it is. But sometimes I just really feel like a coffee. So the answer is decaf 🙂
$17.50 for 250g of single origin, high Q-score coffee is not unreasonable. You'll see some single origins at Flight Coffee go for $23 for 250g or so, and obviously very high Q-score coffee goes for significantly more. I don't usually buy 1kg lots of coffee due to freshness concerns.
Hummingbird claims to source speciality grade coffee but I have seen so many defects (both roast defects and defects in the green) when buying from them that I kind of don't believe them (or they're getting ripped off by their suppliers). You still can make tasty coffee with Hummingbird but I think the quality of raw ingredients and the skill of the people who roast the coffee is lower than basically all of the other roasters that are targeting the speciality NZ market (as opposed to the commodity coffee market).
I'm pretty sure you and I are on totally different levels haha. I wouldn't know how to spot a roast defect and I don't think I notice the difference between freshly roasted coffee or a few weeks old.
I think I'll stick to $40/kg coffees until such time as I can appreciate high grade coffee a bit more.
I've never been under the impression that owning coffee gear would save me money. I used to only occasionally drink coffee, when other with others (I would say I was only a social drinker), but when I started to get coffee equipment for home (since I now work almost full time from home) it was always going to cost more than not drinking coffee 😆