Caribou Coffee's Kenya Karibu

My introduction to coffee began in a Caribou Coffee on the north side of Chicago.  I spent so much time there studying for school and the bar exam that the baristas and store manager knew me by name and drink preference.  I made some great friends and met some very interesting folks, including a WWII / Israeli War of Independence veteran, during my study sessions and when I later moved out of the city, I felt like I was leaving a chapter in my life behind.  Sometimes on the weekend, I would have to wait and fight for a table but caribou really creates a relaxed and comfortable environment.

Caribou (CBOU) is the second largest retail coffee chain in the United States behind Starbucks.  It started in 1992 outside Minneapolis, MN by Kim and John Puckett.  In 1998, they sold a majority stake in the company to Crescent Capital.  Crescent Capital later became known as Arcadia Capital.  Under Arcadia, Caribou became a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq in 2005.  Arcadia sold its shares in Caribou in 2011.

After 2005, Caribou re-made its offerings of coffee beans.  Among these is a Kenyan coffee that is only offered during parts of the year.  The beans are packaged in a sealed bag with a one-way valve.  The bag is 16oz in size.  Now Kenyan beans are usually of very high quality and great taste.  The result is in a slightly higher price.  This is the case with Caribou's Karibu.


The beans are larger in size and Caribou takes the attractive step of light roasting these beans.  As a result, the flavor smacks you in the face as soon as the bag is opened.  The predominant aroma of this coffee is blackberry.


The coffee, when brewed, actually formed a nice little crema.  Something I have found hard to achieve with Starbucks beans.  The drink is very light in body, delicate and is tart.  The blackberry flavor is very strong.  I couldn't detect any other flavors in the coffee.  The taste was very good but as I moved through the bag, the taste of the coffee began to get weaker.  The one thing I enjoy about artisan roasters as opposed to larger retailers like Caribou and Starbucks is that many indicate the roasting date.  This is a similar issue that I described earlier with my Illy-fail.  I give Caribou props on its Kenya offering.  It is a great tasting coffee, much better than I expected from a large retailer.  I suspect that the beans had not been recently roasted based on the diminished taste and that leaves me curious as to how much better this coffee could have been had I been brewing it within a week or so of its roasting.  I like that this is a light roast.  The tarty fruit flavors are really preserved well and made my coffee a very pleasurable experience.