I received some samples from Sparkplug Coffee out of Toronto. As you open the box, you see the samples and one other item, a roll of Rockets, you know the candy you get at Halloween. This had me scratching my head as to what is the significance of this candy treat. I eventually found out they send some sort of thing be it candy or a fun little surprise, as well as a tip sheet with all their orders.

Where does the name come from?

The name Sparkplug Coffee evokes the delivery method – a vintage scooter or car zipping through traffic to bring coffee direct to your home.

The sparkplug is an essential part of a vehicle’s engine to start it up and keep it moving just like coffee gets our day off to a good start. Although most of our coffee is delivered by mail, if the weather is good and you live in Toronto, I may bring your coffee over on my vintage Vespa scooter or my mom’s early ’70s Raleigh bicycle.

The Beans

Globetrotter

Named for Kara’s dad, Merv, who loved coffee almost as much as wine. Merv was a Globetrotter and this coffee has a mix of organic dark roasted beans from all major coffee growing regions. The mix changes occasionally, depending on seasonal availability, while keeping the same strong, bold and delicious taste profile. A typical batch includes premium Arabica beans from Ethiopia in Africa, Brazil for South America, Indonesia representing Southeast Asia, and Honduras for Central America.

Our espresso blend, the Globetrotter is dark, smoky-sweet, complex, bold. Smooth and suave like Papa.

I actually tried this coffee three ways, I started off with an espresso shot. The espresso, pulled short with nice crema. Overall a good showing.

I then pulled another shot and blended this with some steamed milk. I thought it blended well. It made for a stronger latte. At the time I had this, I wish I would have had some oat milk in the house because I think this would work well with oat milk and give it just a little sweetness.

I also tried this one as a hand brew. It produced a bolder, stronger tasting coffee. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of the darker roasts but this was still a tasty coffee.

The next day we tried this same blend as a drip at work. I received mixed reviews on this one as half our coffee drinkers really enjoyed while the rest said it was good but would prefer something else.

 

Road Trip

Road Trip is a post-roast blend, meaning that each type of bean is roasted separately before we mix them together for your order. Some beans are roasted on the lighter side of medium, some on the darker side. Overall, we call Road Trip a City Roast (on the lighter side of medium) blend.

Blending organic beans from the African birthplace of coffee and direct trade beans from the jungles of South America results in a sweet and balanced coffee.

This is our lightest roast blend. A delicate coffee with hints of blueberry, jasmine & raisin.

This hand brew had some really terrific subtle sweet flavors and really knocked my socks off. As this one cooled down a bit the flavors really jumped out at you. I really enjoyed this coffee.

Again, I did the same thing with this one as the other, I brought it to work and made it as a drip to see what kind of comments we got with this one. This one was the office favorite, absolutely no bitterness and they really loved the sweetness of this one.

Last Words

Both bags of coffee made some pretty good coffee producing lots of terrific flavours. Myself personally, I really enjoyed the Road Trip beans the best.

I also love the names of their coffees, all have a vintage feel. So go to their website at sparkplugcoffee.com and order yourself some of their beans. There is something there for everyone’s tastes.
note: coffee was provided free of charge and the above review is objective feedback.

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