{"id":3228,"date":"2018-07-30T09:58:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=3228"},"modified":"2018-07-30T09:58:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:58:50","slug":"review-dark-horse-coffee-roasters-no-problemo-espresso-blend-san-diego-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=3228","title":{"rendered":"Review: Dark Horse Coffee Roasters No Problemo Espresso Blend (San Diego, California)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the same trip when I bought the Dark Horse Odd Harmonics<\/a> blend, I also picked up this bag of their No Problemo, which the barista told me is their espresso blend. As of summer 2018, this is a blend of beans from Guatemala, Brazil, and Colombia.<\/p>\n

Whole bean: Smells like chocolate with a hint of cherry.<\/p>\n

Espresso: I pulled around 8 shots with various parameters and I think I got the best results on shot #6, which came out with a lovely semisweet chocolate flavor and balanced character. This espresso seems to work best at moderately high temperatures – too low and the shot comes out sour, too high and the shot was too aggressive.<\/p>\n

Favorite parameters for these beans: 204 degrees Fahrenheit, 18 grams in, 40 grams out, 20 second pull (pretty short, but longer pulls seemed to reduce the sweetness).<\/p>\n

With milk: This is a pretty assertive blend and it stood up fantastically well in milk.<\/p>\n

AeroPress: Smells like chocolate graham crackers. Toasty and approachable. My first thought was that it wasn’t particularly attention-grabbing like the espresso seemed to be but after my initial impression I realized I liked it all the better for its understatement – it sweetens as it cools and I think it tasted better than most of the espresso shots!<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong>: Bit finicky of an espresso but very easy to drink in an AeroPress. Suited well for milk drinks.<\/p>\n

From the roaster: No tasting notes provided<\/p>\n

The No Problemo espresso blend is not currently on the website, but check out their other stuff (including some pretty cool merch – I rather like the t-shirt designs<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Dark Horse Coffee Roasters Roasted Coffee<\/a><\/p>\n

Review conducted 11 days post-roast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the same trip when I bought the Dark Horse Odd Harmonics blend, I also picked up this bag of their No Problemo, which the barista told me is their espresso blend. As of summer 2018, this is a blend of beans from Guatemala, Brazil, and Colombia. Whole bean: Smells like chocolate with a hint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"For a blend called \"No Problemo,\" I actually had a little tougher time getting a good result than I expected, but this did make nice espresso-based drinks in the end. Particularly nice in an AeroPress!","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[158,87,157,3,154],"tags":[28,18,72,107,55],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/IMG-2697-e1532962603499.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5626,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=5626","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":0},"title":"Review: Cuv\u00e9e Coffee Stella Cometa Espresso Blend (Austin, Texas)","date":"March 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This bag came from a trip to our local Whole Foods. I continue to be really grateful that they feature freshly roasted beans from local and local-ish roasters like Cuv\u00e9e. Whole bean: These beans were roasted very evenly and I'd classify it as a light-to-medium roast. I sometimes get questions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AeroPress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG-5945-e1550451706657.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3193,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=3193","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":1},"title":"Review: Caf\u00e9 Grumpy Heartbreaker Espresso Blend (Brooklyn, New York)","date":"July 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Caf\u00e9 Grumpy calls their Heartbreaker blend their signature house espresso blend. Like a lot of blends, this one appears to rotate components based on availability and current flavor profiles. Right now, this blend is a combination of Guatemalan and Ethiopian (Kochere) beans, so I guessed that I could expect chocolate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AeroPress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/IMG-2573-e1529333802519.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":693,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=693","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":2},"title":"Follow-up Review: Intelligentsia Black Cat Classic Espresso (Chicago, Illinois)","date":"June 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope you all enjoyed reading my friend David Cooper's excellent guest post\u00a0on Intelligentsia's Black Cat Classic Espresso back in April. This espresso\u00a0blend\u00a0is a celebrity as far as espresso blends go, and for some reason I didn't buy a bag of this for myself on that trip (oh yeah, now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AeroPress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/tn_IMG_1104.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4174,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=4174","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":3},"title":"Review: Single O Killerbee (Sydney, Australia)","date":"November 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This was the second bag I bought from my visit to Single O. Most of the other beans I was bringing home from Australia seemed to be designed for drip (realized too late about the Sensory Lab Steadfast Blend, oops!), so I was excited to get my hands on an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AeroPress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG-4387-e1541190949775.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":391,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=391","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":4},"title":"Review: Red Bird Espresso (Bozeman, Montana)","date":"May 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a tasting that\u00a0I've been wanting to do for quite a while. This is the espresso blend I mentioned previously that has a reputation for tasting like Snickers (peanut, chocolate, and caramel). I have ordered these beans several times previously and enjoyed them, but this will be my first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AeroPress"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/IMG_0970-e1431289979244.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6670,"url":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/?p=6670","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":5},"title":"Review: Cherry Coffee Co. Hang Around Espresso Blend (Fort Worth, Texas)","date":"April 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I attended the inaugural Dallas Coffee Festival earlier this month and had a good time exploring the booths of many local roasters, about half of which I'd not yet heard of. Novel Coffee Roasters is a Dallas-area roaster I've enjoyed many times, and I was intrigued to see they were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blends"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/coffeecantata.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0179-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5QIia-Q4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3449,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions\/3449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeecantata.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}