Well, this is a first for Qwowi Coffee.  I’m actually posting a review for a seasonal coffee, fully knowing that it’s probably completely sold out for the season.  If we’re all lucky, we might see Summer Safari Blend again next summer, or better yet, maybe we could persuade Green Mountain to add it as a year round staple.  For now, however; we’re going to have to wait it out.

Normally I try and get limited edition K-Cups reviewed as quickly as humanly possible. Of course, I don’t normally catch Lyme Disease either.  Apart from the aches and pains, fatigue, and a touch of Bell’s Palsy, the real bummer of my run in with a deer tick is that I lost all ability to credibly taste food for more than a month.  So rather than write a hole bunch of coffee reviews where all I do is compare whatever it is I happen to be drinking to a less-than-delicious chunk of wet cardboard (that’s pretty much what everything tasted like for a while), I thought it best to not review coffee for a while.  The good news is I’m mostly fine, and food tastes normal again, the bad news is I missed my best chance to tell you about Green Mountain’s Summer Safari Blend…or at least tell you about it in time for you to actually buy some.  Nevertheless, here’s the review.

The Description:

A spirited blend of South American and East African coffee. Destination Delicious.

The Aroma

Pleasant, not overpowering, but not mild either.  Subtle hints of caramel.  Overall very pleasing.

Drinking it Black

For lack of a more visually ornate description, I’ll just say that Fair Trade Summer Safari Blend is the very definition of a medium roast coffee.  It’s not nearly dark enough to turn light roast lovers away, but yet dark enough to fit the bill for a dark roast lover looking for a summer morning alternative.  In many ways, Safari Blend is the perfect compromise for households (such as my own), where the occupants (you and your husband for example), don’t always agree on their K-Cups.  Of course, the really nice part about compromising with this blend is that nobody really has to sacrifice.

I’m not sure if my friends at Green Mountain will approve of the comparison, but Summer Safari Blend might be the closest I’ve found to the house blend at a certain national donut doughnut chain; albeit with a bit more of an interesting flavor.

With Cream and Sugar

If anything, drinking Summer Safari Blend light and sweet is the cause for some confusion.  I quite simply don’t understand why such a well-balanced blend would only be offered for a few months over the summer.  It defies both logic and reason.  Drinking this blend with cream and sugar reminded me of when I worked on the 39th floor of One Financial Center in Boston some years back.  Everyday around 9 or so a group of us would take the elevators down to ground level, and make our way out of the building and distribute ourselves amongst the available coffee houses (Dunkin Donuts, Peete’s, and Starbucks).

Let’s just say there’s a place that’s better than the others, for a solid cup of medium roast coffee…especially when you don’t want to pay $5 for it.  Of course, the trade off was that every now and again I’d get a cup with a nasty, metallic taste, but what can you do.  My point is that Summer Safari Blend could be, and probably should be an everyday option for medium roast drinkers.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy this blend (even if I am more of a dark roast guy these days).  I really do think it’s a shame that it’s already off the shelves for the season (hopefully not for good).  What I could help but think about while drinking my samples was what a fantastic introduction Summer Safari Blend would be for people new to the Keurig Brewing system.  The flavor is familiar, but there’s just enough of a ripple to get people thinking about all of the other varieties available.  Call it a gentle nudge towards something new, without having to totally abandon the familiar.  This really could be a Keurig 101 coffee.  My only complaint is that availability is limited to the summer months.

Shameless Plug

QwowiCoffee and the K-Cup Challenge rely on donations to keep the site up and running.  Well, actually, not donations per se, more like kick backs.  Basically how it works is you read one of my reviews, decide that you might like to try some Green Mountain Coffee, like Summer Safari Blend, or even become a Cafe Express subscriber (which allows you to save $2 off each box of Green Mountain or Caribou Coffee you buy).  Heck, maybe you buy a Keurig Brewer, or some other totally unique product from Green Mountain.  The point is, whatever you buy, Green Mountain is kind enough to give me a little something back, which in turn helps me to pay for things like web hosting, and a whole bunch of other website-related stuff.  Heck, if you buy enough coffee, I may be able afford a sprinkler system, which really has little to do with site maintenance, but damned if my lawn doesn’t look more like a waste bunker than a fairway.  So anyway, shop at Green Mountain, you’ll not only get great coffee, but you’ll also help make one small part of the world (my back yard) that much greener.

While you’re here check out all of the reviews in our K-Cup Challenge.