{"id":2566,"date":"2017-04-11T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=2566"},"modified":"2017-04-10T22:39:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T03:39:52","slug":"review-blue-bottle-coffee-bella-donovan-oakland-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=2566","title":{"rendered":"Review: Blue Bottle Coffee Bella Donovan (Oakland, California)"},"content":{"rendered":"

My lovely friend Chlo\u00e9\u00a0recently made an order from Blue Bottle for two bags of this blend, and she graciously let me have one of them to review. When I started dipping my toe into the world of craft coffee around 5 years ago, Blue Bottle was one of the first craft roasters I tried, and Bella Donovan was one of the blends I tasted at that time (Giant Steps<\/a> being the other – I’m a sucker for musical references in my coffee naming, and that one evokes\u00a0John Coltrane <\/a>AND the Boo Radleys<\/a>). I remember thinking the Bella Donovan\u00a0was fine at the time, but that was also back when I brewed almost exclusively in a french press and I still added milk to my coffee (which I don’t do any more). I was looking forward to seeing what I thought of it now!<\/p>\n

This probably wasn’t intentional on the part of Blue Bottle, but thanks to the naming, I had Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow”<\/a> stuck in my head throughout the duration of this tasting, and for a few days afterward. The earworm was reflected in my tasting notes, as you’ll read shortly!<\/p>\n

Whole bean: These beans were a medium roast, but with the barest hint of oily sheen to them. I get a little nervous these days when I see oil on the surface of beans, as it generally indicates the coffee is roasted darker than I personally like, but this was such a minuscule amount of oil that I wasn’t too worried. The beans smelled like cedar and clove.<\/p>\n

V60: Throughout the tasting, in all brewing methods, even though I occasionally tasted notes of chocolate, the general feeling I got from this coffee is that it’s blended to taste like “coffee.” Since the Donovan track was playing on a continuous loop in my head at this point, I chose to assign treble and bass levels to each brewing method based on what I tasted. This V60 cup had some liveliness to it but was otherwise pretty generic.
\nTreble: 6 (out of 10)
\nBass: 5<\/p>\n

AeroPress: No additional water was needed other than what was used for brewing. Nice, fudgy flavor and consistency. Semi-sweet chocolate flavor abounded.
\nTreble: 4
\nBass: 8<\/p>\n

Chemex: Not too dissimilar to the V60 cup but a bit on the brighter side.
\nTreble: 7
\nBass: 4<\/p>\n

French press: Smoothest flavor but had\u00a0the least amount of personality. Kind of murky.
\nTreble: 2
\nBass: 7<\/p>\n

Espresso: I was kind of underwhelmed with this coffee blend in the pourover brewing methods, but based on the nice result from the AeroPress, I had a hunch that it would make a decent espresso. I was right! The best shot I got from the bag had a lovely chocolaty flavor.<\/p>\n

Favorite brewing parameters for this shot: 202 degrees F, 17.5 grams in, 35 grams out at a 25 second extraction.<\/p>\n

With milk: Shutterbug tried a latte or two made with the Bella Donovan, and he approved. Not much else to say other than that, though!<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong>: I think this is a good middle-of-the-road coffee, either in drip methods or as espresso. If your tastes run to the more complex, fruity, floral, and distinctive side, you’ll likely be bored with the lack of layers, but this is a coffee that tastes largely like “coffee,” and won’t be offensive to most coffee drinkers. Blue Bottle describes the Bella Donovan as the “wool sweater of our blends – warm, comforting, familiar.” I think they hit the nail right on the head with that description.\u00a0This may not be marketed as an espresso blend, but I think it shone best pulled as espresso. It also made a delicious fudgy coffee in an AeroPress.<\/p>\n

From the roaster: red berries, milk chocolate, caramel<\/p>\n

Blue Bottle Bella Donovan<\/a><\/p>\n

Review conducted 13-14 days post-roast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My lovely friend Chlo\u00e9\u00a0recently made an order from Blue Bottle for two bags of this blend, and she graciously let me have one of them to review. When I started dipping my toe into the world of craft coffee around 5 years ago, Blue Bottle was one of the first craft roasters I tried, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"I've made espresso blends as drip coffee before (with good results), but this is one of the few times I've made coffee intended as drip into an espresso (with arguably better results).","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[158,87,157,3,154],"tags":[26,296,18,152,61,295,107],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/tn_IMG_5724-e1491841343544.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6097,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=6097","url_meta":{"origin":2566,"position":0},"title":"Review: Blue Bottle Coffee Giant Steps (Oakland, California)","date":"September 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"James Freeman, the founder of Blue Bottle, is a former professional clarinet player, and I've always appreciated the occasional musical references thrown into the names and descriptions of his company's coffees (for instance, the \"Brahmsian\" characteristics of Blue Bottle's Hayes Valley Espresso). This particular blend was named after John Coltrane's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG-7720-e1567995146857.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=249","url_meta":{"origin":2566,"position":1},"title":"Review: Blue Bottle Hayes Valley Espresso (Oakland, California)","date":"April 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I have my cousin Lynn to thank for introducing me to Blue Bottle Coffee Roasters. Headquartered in Oakland, CA, they've expanded to include locations in Los Angeles, New York City, and Japan. 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