{"id":6370,"date":"2025-01-07T11:06:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T11:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/?p=6370"},"modified":"2025-01-07T11:06:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T11:06:58","slug":"coffee-review-stumptown-hair-bender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/?p=6370","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Review: Stumptown – Hair Bender"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The quest for the perfect cup of coffee inspires me to begin a NEW feature on my blog, the Art of Motorcycling. Along with the new year, 2025, I am thrilled to announce that I will begin rolling out coffee reviews over the course of the year. Why coffee? Well, apart from being the best way I start my day, coffee is a force I use to start with before any riding session. Also, I travel throughout the Lowcountry on my Moto Morini visiting all types of coffee shops. Thankfully the Charleston area is a great location to find your perfect cup. To begin my coffee reviews, I picked up a bag of “Stumptown” from Publix to see if it brings that same kick it did when I lived in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living in Los Angeles is one of the great cities for…. coffee LOL. Yes it is! Aside from the different roasters and coffee shops, I even visited a Starbucks Reserve store in Century City and well, its Starbucks with a bowtie on LOL. But, I remember Stumptown coffee roasters as an important part of morning routine during my time in LA. Stumptown coffee was by far my favorite and their shops were always close by. So, finding a bag of whole beans from Stumptown at my local Publix here on James Island, I knew I found my first coffee review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To keep the playing field even, I will always brew each cup the same way. I will always buy whole bean coffee and grind it at home. Then use my pour over system to execute the review. Scoring fields are as follows: Taste, Aroma, Caffeine, and Overall. Within each field, the award is either 1 R or 5 R’s. 1 being awful and 5 being the perfect. Ok, let’s see how Stumptown grades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TASTE: R R<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It has been over 5 years since I had a cup of Stumptown. The roast I found locally was their Hair Bender. In a way I was left wanting more. Maybe I am older and demand more from my coffee now that I am in the mid-40’s, but the taste didn’t really hit. The notes were well balanced as I tasted a smokey blend with a bright finish. I honestly prefer this blend from Stumptown as cold coffee because the character of the coffee was stronger. In the end, I liked it, but I don’t feel the same pop I did when I was in LA, having a cup of Stumptown at a Stumptown coffee shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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AROMA: R <\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While I love the smell of coffee, especially before the first sip, nothing really hit for me as far as Aroma goes. Yes, coffee, all coffee, has a strong aroma and Stumptown did. Yet I didn’t take in any strong notes that particularly heightened my coffee experience. Honestly, the Stumptown aroma felt flat. This is not to say didn’t provide clues to the Hair Bender roast. A weak note of a smoky vibe made its way to my nose, and I was thankful for finding something available with this coffee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CAFFEINE: R R R R R<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What Stumptown Hair Bender lacks in Taste and Aroma, it makes up for it with a strong caffeine kick. This is by far one of the strongest coffees I have had in some time. And what is wonderful about the caffeine within Hair Bender is that is progresses smoothly and is very refined. After my second cup I had energy for a few hours after and felt great. No crashing or feeling to wrapped up in a caffeine high. I can understand why this roast is call Hair Bender LOL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OVERALL: R R<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While I will admit that caffeine is important part of the coffee experience, it’s not the only part. Weak scores in the Taste and Aroma fields only hurt this roast from Stumptown. A score of just 2 R’s makes me wonder if the Stumptown I loved in LA was just my own memory recalling a brief but intense romance with Los Angeles while I lived there? Could these beans be lying to me? I don’t know. But for the price ($12 plus taxes) of bag of Hair Bender and the disappointing experience, I probably would past of this bag of beans next time I am at Publix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolf<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The quest for the perfect cup of coffee inspires me to begin a NEW feature on my blog, the Art of Motorcycling. Along with the new year, 2025, I am… Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6370"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6375,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions\/6375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lowbitlogic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}