Review: Peet’s Gift Set – Jamaica Blue Mountain & Red Mocha Haraaz


We recently tried out Peet’s Holiday Gift Set containing an 8 oz package of Peet’s limited edition Jamaica Blue Mountain and limited edition Red Mocha Haraaz.  The gift package we tried can be found here.

The gift package was listed at $80, but we were able to use a 20% off promo code to get the price down to $64.  This was quite a pricey set of coffees and the gift set offered no discount over buying the two coffees individually.

Peet's Gift Set

When you are on the Limited Edition section of Peet’s website, Peet’s will list the roast dates and allow you to schedule your shipment for optimal freshness.  This was a relatively handy feature that seemed to guarantee freshness even for a small batch roast like these.

The packaging was somewhat unremarkable – just a cardboard box with both coffees in it. Of course, this set is really about the coffee. We took this video of the unboxing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPFAbWEzEE&feature=emb_logo

We first tried Peet’s Jamaica Blue Mountain.  We’ve written about Jamaica Blue Mountain before– and we found Peet’s Jamaica Blue Mountain to be quite a good version of it.  The roast was fairly dark and the beans were oily enough to leave residue on the hopper of the grinder.  The packaging doesn’t clue you in to particular notes but describes an “ornately layered sweetness”.

Peets Jamaica Blue Mountain

We brewed Peet’s Jamaica Blue Mountain in our Aeropress.  Our experience was that it was sweet, but not sickeningly so and quite rich.  The flavor notes were mainly chocolatey and nutty and it would be surprising to find anyone offended by the flavor.  The body was moderately thick and the mouthfeel exceptional. It also featured no detectable acidity or bitterness. Peet’s Jamaica Blue Mountain was a great tasting coffee that we’d highly recommend trying when it is available.  If it wasn’t so expensive and wasn’t a limited edition coffee, it would make a phenomenal everyday cup.

Next, we tried Peet’s Red Mocha Haraaz. Peet’s list the origin as Africa/Arabia but offers no further detail.  Generally, Red Mocha Haraaz is a Yemeni origin coffee but one would think Peet’s would list Yemen if that was the case.  Peet’s notes it to be a medium roast and we found that to be accurate.

Peets Red Mocha Haraaz

We brewed Peet’s Red Mocha Haraaz is our Aeropress.  The packaging lists flavor notes of “Cherry blossom, winey fruit, and a dry cocoa finish”.  Cherry blossom is probably not accurate; after all, what does a cherry blossom actually taste like? The reason Peet’s probably lists “cherry blossom” as a note is that the taste is somewhat of a floral cherry.  In combination with the cocoa finish, the flavor almost comes across like a chocolate covered cherry. This is a very sweet coffee.  While Peet’s Red Mocha Haraaz had great taste, our critique of it would be that it comes across a bit syrupy; one cup at a time is great, but anything more is a bit much.  It also doesn’t feature particularly well as an everyday cup.

Overall, Peet’s gift set was a fun opportunity to try two different limited edition coffees from Peet’s.  While it was a bit pricey, the price wasn’t overly outrageous given that it ended up being a pound total of two great coffees.  It would be hard to recommend it at full price, but with a discount its worth trying each.

Jay Arr

Jay Arr is passionate about everything coffee. What began as a simple interest in the history, production, and brewing of coffee led him to a job as a barista at a national coffee chain. That’s not where Jay’s story with coffee ends, however. Roasting and brewing day in and out, he continued to gather knowledge about all things coffee.

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