Are you an avid coffee drinker? Do you carry a warning sign in the morning to not approached till you have had a cup-a-joe? Thanks fully I am not but I do enjoy a good cup of coffee. I have two in the morning at work but the coffee is so-so. At home on the weekend it depends. I can do without but if I do have brew coffee you can bet it will be better than the stuff we get at work.

I am always on the lookout for a new coffee to try. And I was thrilled to be offered a sample package of coffee from the Dominican Republic. Café Santo Domingo is the favorite coffee brand in that country and the company has recently made their coffee available in Canada, with coffee shops included.

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Bringing in a product from a small island into a new country like this is no small feat. So even if I had never heard of their coffee I had a pretty good idea it must be good. Café Santo Domingo is a family-run company embedded in the culture of the Dominican Republic for 75 years. Café Santo Domingo is grown, roasted, and packaged in the Dominican Republic so the packaging reflects the authentic Dominican roots.

If you have had this coffee while on holiday there, rest assured that the coffee is the same as the one served in the Dominican Republic. The Café Santo Domingo is made from Arabica beans and is considered a medium roast.

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Arabica coffee is actually indigenous to the mountains of the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Today that plant has nicely adapted in many part of the world, including a number of islands in the Caribbean. The roasting process changes the green coffee bean in color, taste, smell, and density. The less roasted a bean is, the more acidic the coffee. A medium roast means that the sugars have caramelized and acidity has been muted.

I tried both the ground and whole bean coffees offered by Café Santo Domingo over the course of a few weekends. Now if you are used to a really robust and somewhat bitter coffee, this may not be the best choice for you. But if you enjoy a well-rounded coffee that is also at the same time smooth and velvety, than you will be delighted with this brand. There is very little acid or bitterness in the taste. On the contrary one may tastes subtle notes of chocolate and caramel.

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I actually prefer a slightly more robust coffee so I upped the amount of coffee per cup of water and was satisfied with the results. I definitely preferred grinding my whole beans as I found I got more flavor out of the beans too. And I loved making ice cubes out of it for my Ultimate Coffee Smoothie.

The coffee comes in 2 forms: Molido is Spanish for “Ground”, or Tostado En Grano which is Spanish for “Whole Bean”. If you do not have a coffee shop near you, you can order on the Café Santo Domingo site, they ship to the US and Canada.