Intelligentsia Direct Trade Black Cat Classic Espresso Roast Light Roast Whole Bean Coffee -12oz

Essential beans for your breville. Straight double espresso shots are creamy and complex.

Great coffee and company. The price is competitive and taste is great

I came across Black Cat Classic Espresso several years ago by chance at a niche grocery store in a desperate stupor and need for my espresso fix. I am an addict, have a built in coffee center AND a counter top automatic espresso machine. I had never strayed from two other Italian brand espresso beans. But after that day in the niche grocery store I never went back to those Italian brand espresso beans OR ANY OTHER! I have been 100% loyal to Intelligensia and their espresso beans AND their cups! Spectacular and consistent quality! Delivered fast and reliable! You will not be disappointed!

One of the best I’ve ever purchased. I have to say that I believe this is one of the best I’ve ever had.

Great beans for my everyday espresso from my Italian dual boiler machine…for the last ten years or more! Their seasonal and speciality roasts are very good too but too pricey for daily shots.

Great blend. Consistent in flavor across batches. Perfect for my daily espressos and americanos.

After much searching and experimenting, Black Cat became my go-to espresso. I sip it and enjoy it everyday.

This is a strong coffee with a bold taste —great morning coffee that wakes you up.

I can see where the negative reviews come from. People don’t understand espresso. Espresso is not about dark or light roast. It’s about skills, patience and right equipment. Yes, light roasts are tricky when pulling espresso shots. I’m using DF64 flat burr grinder and grind pretty fine, finer than the dark roasts. Then, I do longer pulls to keep the sourness to minimum. I found Black Cat by accident but it became my favorite! The smell and fruity-molassy taste keep me looking forward to my mornings. Also, tried it for pour over and it was great too. My advice is to put time and efforts into dialing and you will be rewarded.

This is a light to medium roast. Dry, not espresso roast AT ALL. Should be relabeled “blonde” or “medium” roast.

The packaging is lovely and promises something wonderful. I anticipated a dark roast since the name is black cat espresso. Instead it's a very light roast, super acidic taste, and super dry bean. It compares unfavorably to gas station coffee that's been sitting around all day.

The flavor is great, but it is way too light for an espresso. I think it would be a great light roast coffee. I also noticed when I grind the beans, they don’t grind finely at all. They are super dry and stay in large chunks.

This is not an espresso roast. It is overpriced, sad, dry, and light. I definitely would not recommend or purchase again. Flavor is terrible and also very floral, (it actually gave me a terrible headache). Not what I would ever expect or want from an espresso. I don’t want to see through my espresso, (as an experienced barista). Yuck. What a waste of money.

Beans were dry and faded, and the taste was off... I realized the bag I received was expired!! Do better with quality control!!

I can be picky about my espresso but this was great! No complaints from me or my family!

Been using this for weeks now on our Breville Espresso machine. This tastes sooooo good. Glad to be able to get quality coffee at Target!

Honestly...this is not even close to a dark roast. I'm not against a lighter roast, but I'd like to be aware of it before I buy it. Calling it dark and "espresso" is super misleading. The smell of the beans are the first hint it's not a dark roast. The flavor produces a profile similar to other light roast espressos - heavily acidic/sour indicitive of under-extraction. It's really difficult to make a super drinkable light roast espresso at home unless the beans are fresh/well roasted, and your machine(and grinder!) is in the upper end of most people's needs. I have a mid level machine (~$500) that has been modded to brew a really, really solid home espresso, and it struggles to produce anything that isn't just aggressively bright. I pull a 1:3 ratio or slightly longer, and I can make it at least tolerable. I'm questioning the ability of other reviewers to actually brew a legit lighter roast espresso on a home machine. Maybe they have professional equipment and just failed to note that in their review - which is definitely important, but if you were that serious, you would know the pitfalls of a lighter roast well enough to note them in the review. If you have to drink this roast after you've purchased it, one thing I've noticed that helps produce a slightly better cup is to use a paper filter at the base of the basket. This works in 2 ways; it increases flow rate so it allows you to ultimately grind finer, and it will trap some of the rough edges of the flavor profile. For whatever reason, my ~$100 basic machine seems to do slightly better with this setup...and I mean slightly. I suspect it might have to do with the slightly longer pre-infusion. If you're adding milk or cream to this, sure it's probably fine because it will cut that acidity. I do think it makes an *okay* Americano or a slightly longer lungo, if you're into that.

I stepped out of my comfort zone of Sprout’s organic beans ($12/lb) to try this “high-end” roaster ($17/lb). Just look at how dried out and under roasted the beans are (left) compared to the way fresh beans should appear (right). Poor quality and even worse taste. Never again.

I bought this to use in my espresso machine at home, since i wanted to branch out and try something besides starbucks blonde. However, the espresso shots i got from this machine were pathetic looking - light and watery with hardly any crema on top and hardly any coffee flavor at all when added to a latte. I tried grinding the beans finer, then coarser, and it seems to make very little difference.

This is the same coffee they use on the Virgin Cruise line. I had 1-2 flat whites with oat milk a day. I make them at home I use this with my aeropress and oat milk. Just as good.