Black Cat Espresso

These beans were delicious and fresh. I am extremely happy I tried these. It took a little to dial in at first as it was a little sour. I had to grind a little finer and pull a 1:2.5 ratio (18g in, 45g out) with a 30s bloom on my espresso and the flavor was magical! If you have the money, time, and patience to try this coffee, I strongly recommend it!

Great tasting coffee. Very fair price. Delivered quickly.

I am a huge fan of Intelligentsia and consider it one of the best coffee brands on the market. I regularly buy Black Cat Classic directly from Intelligentsia coffee shops in Los Angeles and have done so for years. One of the reasons I love this brand is their serious approach to roasting quality — especially their stance on not burning coffee, which is something many mass-market brands get wrong. Anyone who takes coffee seriously knows that roast date matters more than expiration date. Intelligentsia baristas themselves consistently emphasize that beans should ideally be consumed between 10 and 30 days after roasting for optimal flavor. I’ve personally seen Intelligentsia shops discard beans that exceed this window. Unfortunately, the bag I received from Amazon tells a very different story. The roast date on my Black Cat Classic is November 16, 2025 (photo attached). That makes these beans nearly three months old at the time of delivery. This is well beyond what Intelligentsia considers acceptable in their own retail locations. The result? My morning coffee tasted flat, watery, and lifeless — barely resembling what Black Cat Classic normally delivers. This is not the product experience Intelligentsia is known for, and it’s deeply disappointing to receive something that would never be sold in their own cafés. If this is the official Intelligentsia store on Amazon, selling coffee roasted over 30 days ago seriously damages the brand’s reputation. Anyone who is okay with stale beans can buy Starbucks or Dunkin’. People buy Intelligentsia precisely because they care about freshness and quality. I’m disappointed to leave a low rating because I truly love this brand — but selling beans this old is unacceptable for specialty coffee.

Pros: Very complex Rich Excellent for doubles and triples Cons: A bit expensive Merely adequate for singles Overall: I very much like Black Cat Espresso. I consider it the bar against which other espressos are measured. I like it more than Kicking Horse, Lavazza, and Stumptown. Its flavor profile is very complex. It has its fair share of caramel and chocolate, but it also has a spicy, savory nature to it, and very fruity notes that come out well in singles. This is not a large-scale, homogenized coffee. Different regions and roasts result in different flavors from each bag. Sometimes that spiciness becomes a sort of salty flavor, and the fruits can turn very flowery. It is an easy espresso to make. Even shots that aren't perfect come out tasting pretty good. It's also a forgiving blend in that the shots are not prone to channeling. Singles are good, because any good coffee becomes light and toasty in a single, as opposed to the rich, crema-bombs of doubles and triples. Still, this espresso is very much intended for doubles or triples. In drip coffee, it's alright. And by drip, I mean any immersion process, be it French press, Aeropress, drip, pour-over, etc. The flavors get blown out, with the spices overwhelming the chocolates and caramels and resulting in a coffee that's not terribly smooth. Of the immersion processes, Aeropress tasted the best, probably because it most closely approximates espresso. Black Cat is a bit expensive, but not terribly so. Especially when one considers the increases in coffee as of late, -even Starbucks Tribute was $14 per pound- the price isn't crippling, but it is definitely above many other brands. You can save a little money by buying in five-pound bulks on Intellgentsia's website, but it's not a good idea to keep coffee beans around for that long when you can just as easily get it fresh. All said, Black Cat is espresso that more often than not finds its way into my machine. UPDATE: Something that I forgot to mention in my initial review is that Black Cat is a very complex blend. That means that cheap stepped grinders WILL NOT grind the coffee correctly for espresso. Some higher-end stepped grinders will do the job, like the Rancilio Rocky, but you'll want a good, stepless grinder to fine-tune the grind. This is especially important if you have an espresso machine that's very picky about grind. Finally, this is not a terribly cremariffic espresso, which means to get a good amount of crema out of it, and thus really have a good canvas for latte art, you're going to have to prepare triples. UPDATE #2 ABOUT WEIGHT: It is very important to realize that the various sellers selling this are NOT SELLING THE SAME PRODUCT. The beans are the same, and most of the sellers are selling freshly-roasted beans. They are selling different weights, though. Need Caffeine is selling one-pound bags (16oz), whereas Trade Concepts and Abernook are selling 12oz bags for the same price. If different sellers than the above mentioned become available, e-mail the seller to ask the weight of the bag. It's the only way to ensure that you are getting a full pound. This is supposed to be the product page for the full-pound bag. That's why there is a separate product page for the 120z bag. I am very disappointed in Trade Concepts and Abernook.

This is our favorite coffee for our espresso machine! We’ve tried others more local, but truly haven’t found come that compares. Super smooth

I was turned on to this coffee in a trip to California. Love it! Smooth with a nice body.

reviews of coffee are clearly subjective as people like different flavors, but I read the label speaking of "dark chocolate, raw sugar and marshmallow" and I was like "sign me up!". I, however, was not able to taste these flavor notes in my espresso. There were hints of dark chocolate, but i tasted way more lemon and heavy sour flavors. I was able to moderate this someone by using the finest setting on my bean grinder, but it only brought me up to thinking this coffee was 'so-so'. I think the beans were of a high quality and arrived fresh, so I'm going to try other blends from Intelligentsia with either a medium/dark or dark roast as a comparison.

I'm honestly so shocked this espresso has a 3.9 rating. I think it has lot to do with the fact I'm guessing people aren't pulling the shots correctly and following the right process with espresso. This is by far the BEST espresso I've ever had outside of an actual coffee shop. I don't even go get coffee/lattes anymore I just make it at home. I always check the date obvs to make sure it's fresh, but the taste is great. It's very smooth, and smells like espresso you'd grab from your fav coffee place. And, the price is perfect for the quality. I use the Breville Barista Express machine, and this espresso has pulled the best shots. Thank you!

Actually a really nice coffee, perfect taste