why is peet's coffee so dark?

because

charcoal

About oil on the outside of beans--it is unstable IMHO and will go rancid. I think that causes that unbearable smell and flavor.

And then I think there are people who like that flavor.

It all makes the world go round:) aloha Thunder smithfarms.com Farmers of 100% Kona Coffee & other Great Stuff

Cannot help but wonder if your "bad" Peets coffee was a result of its being old. Where did you buy it? How (and for how long) did you store it? We have used and have very much liked Peets Blend 101 for several years and have had no problems with our burr grinders using it.

-Gene

Peet's style is to roast their beans on the darker side. As beans are roasted to higher temperatures, the oils in the beans will come to the surface. This does not mean the coffee is rancid. The coffee you purchased may have been old or kept under undesirable conditions.

Peets takes credit for creating the dark roast craze which was carried over to Starbucks. It is all about your preference and their coffe is very good..

The problem with dark roast is that is can turn poor quality beans into good. But if you have a high quality beans such as Kona or Costa Rica Tarrazu, it still tastes good dark but with a medium roast you enjoy the full flavor of the gourmet coffee. My favorites are at

What many roasters have been doing is dark roasting low qualiyt (including robusta beans) and calling it high quality gourmet coffee. Most consumers don't know the difference.

Comet

Actually, the conclusion is that many customers LIKE the difference.

I only like darker-roasted beans. "Traditional" roasted beans make icky tasting coffee, to me!

("icky" -- that's a technical term!_

I discovered on an American flight from Chicago to Cleveland that the burnt bean flavor masks the flavor of the gunk growing in the water tanks of the aircraft. American didn't serve Starbucks, but the guy sitting next to me was in the coffee service business. The coffee wasn't quite as icky as usual. He attributed it to the fact that they had just cleaned the water tanks a couple of weeks previous. He went on to explain that the pressurized cabin messes up your sense of taste and smell. At United you don't have that problem because the burnt bean taste of the Starbucks overpowers just about every defect possible in coffee.

CB