Aromo Bounce

Aromo Coffee (now rebranded as Pure Gusto) are a company that primarily focus on producing coffee in 'pods' for those fancy coffee machines. There seems to be quite a range of different shaped pods for various machines, and by the looks of it they have the whole range covered.

I'll be honest – I don't understand the point of those machines in a domestic setting. They seem to be an expensive way of restricting yourself to only drinking coffee that comes in the right packaging, and it's not like making coffee with my trusty Aeropress is particularly complex or messy.

Still, as comments on last week's post proved not everybody shares my scepticism.

For us luddites, however, Aromo do produce some of their coffee in ground form – although not the full range.

This is Bounce, a strength 5 blend of Brazilian Daterra Bourbon and Sumatran Mahandeling beans. Before I get to the coffee itself, I feel obliged to talk about the packaging.

Packaging performs two basic tasks – it contains the product, and it attracts the consumer. While this bag certainly contained the coffee very effectively, what the hell were Aromo thinking when they came up with this artwork? How does "crazy pouty woman" possibly say to any potential customer "this is going to be a rich, fulfilling coffee"?

The entire range appears to feature a variety of overacting models in different poses, but at least the rest of them look happy – the branding for Bounce makes me wonder what the hell I'm letting myself in for.

Ok, rant over.

The grounds themselves have a nice rich aroma – dark toasted grain, a warm, almost apricot like fruitiness and an undercurrent of dark bitter chocolate. Brewed, the fruit is lost, but there's still the warm toasted notes coming through nicely.

In the mouth, it's a very tasty, well balanced coffee – rich and fruity, countered perfectly by a satisfying but short-lived bitter finish. The chocolate aroma doesn't really put in an appearance in the flavour, but it's a minor niggle.

I'll be honest – the branding is such a turn-off, a part of me wanted the coffee to be terrible too, but it's not. It's really very nice, and easily deserves 3.5 stars. And for those of you living in the future, with your pod machine things, it's great to see a company producing a range of coffees in a useable form.

But I'm going to fine Aromo half a star for that packaging – not something I want snarling out of the cupboard at me!

Many thanks to Aromo Coffee for the sample coffee.

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This review was originally published 7th May, 2013. It was last updated 1st June, 2023.