MiddleState Coffee

Five of the eight active coffees are roasted medium-light and the other three are medium. Nothing is taken darker, and nothing is pushed to the lightest setting either. That is a two-rung catalog, which is about as narrow as a roast board gets while still offering a choice.

The rest of the shelf follows the same logic. Seven of the eight coffees are single origins and only one is a blend, so a buyer here is choosing a farm-level lot rather than a house recipe most of the time. Five countries are represented across those seven bags, with Ethiopia and Guatemala appearing twice each and Colombia, Kenya, and Peru once apiece, which covers East Africa and Latin America without stretching into anything else.

Pricing is close to flat. A 10-ounce bag runs $22 to $24.50 and the median sits at $23.50, so every coffee in the catalog costs within about two dollars of every other coffee in the catalog. No decaffeinated option is listed. This is a West Coast roastery, and the catalog reads like one built for filter brewing first.

Single Origins

Blends

Roast Profile & Flavor Range

The roast board occupies two rungs and no more. Five coffees sit at medium-light, three at medium, and the absence of anything darker means the roast is never the first thing a drinker tastes. Acidity averages near the top of the middle range on the five-point scale while body holds at dead center, a pairing that produces cups which come across as lively rather than heavy, even when they are brewed strong.

Processing splits five washed to two natural. There is no fermented or experimental lot on record, so the fruit in these coffees comes from the origin and the roast rather than from anything done in a sealed tank. Washed lots carry the citrus and floral notes. The two naturals are where the darker fruit shows up.

Prices hold between $22 and $24.50 at 10 ounces. Blends make up an eighth of the active list.

What MiddleState Coffee Coffees Tend to Taste Like

Stone fruit and dark cherry do most of the talking. Plum appears twice, cherry pie once, and chocolate covered cherry once more, with apricot alongside, which gives several of these coffees a sweet and slightly syrupy center even at a medium-light roast.

Citrus runs beside it and stays sharper. Grapefruit zest, lemon and lime, mandarin, and lemon taffy all appear, and the taffy note is a useful hint, since the acidity here reads as candied rather than sour. Flowers turn up too, with lilac named specifically and a general floral note elsewhere.

The base is thin but present. Almond extract and cacao nibs are the only two notes pointing at nut or cocoa, which puts this catalog firmly on the fruit side of the ledger. Expect a cup that smells like a bowl of plums.

Why Buy MiddleState Coffee

• A two-rung roast board: Everything active lands at medium-light or medium, which makes the catalog easy to predict from bag to bag.

• Singles over blends: Seven of eight coffees are single origins, so a buyer is mostly picking a place, not a recipe. CoffeeByMe favors that ratio for drinkers learning origin character.

• Prices within two dollars: The whole catalog sits between $22 and $24.50 at 10 ounces, which takes cost out of the comparison.

• Fruit does the leading: Plum, cherry, and citrus carry the notes, and the roast stays far enough back that a cup smells like the fruit bowl before it smells like a roastery.

Is MiddleState Coffee Right for You?

This suits a drinker who brews by hand and wants acidity to lead. With five of eight coffees at medium-light and an acidity average sitting near the top of the middle range, these are coffees that reward a paper filter and a careful pour, and they will taste thin to anyone who expects weight in the cup.

The misfit list is short. Dark roast drinkers have nothing to buy. Decaf drinkers have nothing to buy either. Anyone hunting fermented or experimental processing should look at a roaster with more of it, since only washed and natural lots appear across the entire single-origin shelf.

Frequently Asked Questions