A morning cuppa joe is a deeply personal thing. “How do they take their coffee?” is one of the first things to know about a new lover. Luckily, our favorite Caribou coffee flavor might be the comforting brew that finally delivers to coffee-lovers of all creeds. In Tasting Table’s ranking of the absolute best Caribou at-home coffee flavors, the ultra-cozy Fireside blend came out on top.
Caribou offers blends from super-dark Obsidian to lighter roasts like Daybreak to suit a wide range of palettes and preferences. Even though Caribou’s Fireside blend is technically a dark roast, we think it offers a smokiness that coffee-lovers of any creed could cozy up to. The Caribou website describes this blend as “the cozy one, a dark roast featuring milky-smooth acidity, melted chocolate body and burnt caramel sweetness.” Indeed, this dimensionality came through in the brew. As we mentioned in our review, Fireside blend features a highly aromatic, deep, rich fragrance upon opening the bag, beginning the sensory experience at the nose rather than the tongue. In the cup, this full-bodied blend brings balanced, lingering tasting notes of dark chocolate, toasted sugar, and smoke.
This is a great option for black coffee drinkers. Fireside blend is full-bodied yet less woodsy and overall less intensely robust than Caribou’s mahogany blend. It doesn’t need a heavily-sugared coffee creamer to taste good, features lots of multilayered, impressive flavor on its own, and isn’t so robust that it needs milk to be tamed to accessibility.
Caribou’s Fireside blend brings all the cozy, sweet-smoky depth we’ve been craving
With Fireside blend, it’s all about the sweet-yet-intense caramel and chocolate notes supported by rich nuttiness — and online, coffee-lovers are raving. One Reddit thread on r/CaribouCoffee posited the question “What’s the best bean?” and a top comment (which comes from an apparent employee) wrote, “I love Fireside brewed hot with a hint of sugar … I was a barista at Caribou for years. I spent a lot of time tasting each roast.”
It’s worth mentioning that Caribou’s offerings clock in at a higher price point than a tub of Maxwell House. A 12-ounce bag of Fireside blend runs for $8.99 at Target ($.75 per ounce), compared to Maxwell House’s $.43 per ounce. For eco-conscious coffee-lovers (an unassailably cool demographic to be part of, by the way), Caribou’s at-home coffee is 100% Rainforest Alliance certified, promoting sustainable agricultural practices in the coffee industry, and also helping protect against labor exploitation for roasters and growers.
Rather than coming from a single-origin, this blend uses a mixture of beans from Colombia, Guatemala, and Ethiopia. The small-batch roasted, hand-packed blend is also made from 100% specialty-grade Arabica coffee (and a lot goes into receiving a “specialty grade,” for the record). If you use a drip coffee machine, a tub of Folgers might get the job done. But, for craft brewing methods like pour-overs and French press, Fireside’s aroma and taste showcase all the coziness connoisseurs could want from their home brew.
