I’ve had the pleasure of trying coffee from Ceremony Coffee Roasters before; in addition to their single-origins, they offer blends with nerdy names, and I had made a mental note that someday, I wanted to try their Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis blends. The packaging makes it appear that the Thesis is light, Antithesis is dark, and Synthesis is medium, but from tasting all three, I think the roast levels are closer than the packaging indicates. This review will focus on the Antithesis blend.
I meant to take a picture of the Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis blends side-by-side to compare roast levels, but I forgot to do this before I ran out of the Synthesis beans so I just have a pic of the Thesis and Antithesis blends together. As you can see from the photo, the Antithesis blend is on the darker side, but there’s not quite as much of a difference between the roast levels as the labeling might suggest.
Whole bean: Dark but not oily. Evenly roasted.
French press: Plush, creamy, and toasty cup. This being the darkest roast of the three varieties, it mostly tastes of the roast level to me, more than any origin characteristics.
Clever Dripper: The bit of sweetness that was in the French press cup seemed to be filtered out in this method. Overall taste was similar though.
Chemex: Tastes like coffee… I know that’s not a very detailed description but it’s the truth! And for that segment of coffee drinkers that don’t enjoy the flavors of light-roasted coffee, this blend could be right up your alley without tasting bitter or burnt.
Hario V60: Same notes as the Chemex cup.
Summary: I think this blend is one for dark roast fans who want to enjoy a specialty grade coffee that’s of higher quality than the typical oily beans you might get from lesser-quality coffee roasters. It’s very consistent across all brew methods.
From the roaster: dark chocolate, molasses, creamy
Ceremony Coffee Roasters Antithesis Blend
Review conducted 17 days post-roast.