The Roastery - Folgers Black Silk

Folgers Black Silk:

Total Score: 30/44 points = 6.8/10 This is a 6.8 coffee.

Packaging: 13 points

Grounds: 6 points

Brew: 2 points

Color: 3 Points

Flavor: 1 points

Reseal: 3 points

Shelf space: 2 points

Let’s get something straight. If you thought The Roastery was going to be some blog about over analyzing bullshit craft coffees that no one’s ever heard of just to be fancy and unique you have it all wrong. Coffee has been ruined by people who use it to establish their identities and status by claiming knowledge of a basic bean grown in the ground. Paying $5 a cup for something that they think is god's gift to earth because some person in marketing did his job right.

Here’s the thing. Coffee isn't about that. I'm not here to be some artisan snob and tell you about the notes of cocoa on my palate. This blog is about one thing and one thing only. The experience of it. Coffee is the thing you drink the morning after a long night out, or across the table from your loved ones after a big dinner. It’s what you drink early mornings at the lake or camping and It’s what you start every day with. It’s the home of first dates and catching up with old friends. You drink it when it tastes like sock juice or when it's as thick as mud… and not because you need to, but because you love to. Whether it’s the satisfaction when it hits your lips or 20 minutes later when you catch a loaded buzz.

I feel like I need to make it abundantly clear that coffee is essential to daily lives for us because we cherish the functionality of what it does for us, and the people we get to share it with. We drink it because it works and it's around at all the right times. Not because the blend is from South America or it comes with a fancy label. It's not for being over analyzed and monetized to become some hippies hobby. Shut up. Drink it. And enjoy the stuff. You'll never have anything else you love as much. Except maybe beer.

With that said. Let’s begin. Welcome back to The Roastery. Give it up for Folgers Black Silk.

*coffee can reach a maximum point possibility of 44 points*

Phase 1: Packaging

Size: (3 pt.)

Folgers Black Silk is Your absolute - keep it in the cabinet because it’s coming out every morning - coffee. You gotta go for volume on a coffee like this. You can’t be buying coffee every time you’re at the grocery store. You have to know you have enough at home. You might even keep two in stock. Folgers is a perfect coffee for high volume. Any bigger you're looking for value packaging, but we don't all have Costco or Sam's Club. Amazing value for the price. The shape is short and a perfect circle. It will probably fit on any shelf without an issue. This size gets a 3/3 from me.

Texture: (3 pt.)

So the packaging is fully plastic (nice for durability of literally any threat), but this can be a problem if you have clammy hands weak or weak grip strength. Good thing they tweaked the packaging shape around the midsection to have what I could only describe as perfect love handles. You can grab this coffee at 4:30am with your half asleep stupor in the pitch black no problem. The Worst case scenario is that you drop it, but again… plastic. No sweat. You’re pretty comfortable holding this coffee in your hands, but the plastic really does give it a cheap feel and wont perform well in wet conditions. ⅔ for the feel.

The freshness seal: (3 pt.)

This coffee is locked and loaded TIGHT with a firm seal of the plastic lid (aroma seal) and a vacuum sealed top underneath. 3/3.

Weight: How dense the packaging is. (3 pt.)

For the size of this container it's shockingly light although it's filled to the top. I will say they left some breathing room for the beans and I felt like compared to the smaller packaging last week, the black silk was shockingly light. Overall not dissatisfied. ⅔

The ease of openness: (3 pt.)

Your 2 year old could open this coffee, but probably not to perfection. The aroma seal is serious business and upon opening… Grounds were eager to leave the container. ⅔ for a small mess.

And of course… the design: (3 pt.)

It’s no mistake that whether you are a coffee drinker or not, Folgers is a nationally known brand and very recognizable coffee. Walking the coffee isle any person could point out the Folgers bright red cans. The black silk follows suit in the company's branding, but isn’t crazy differentiated from the rest of the Folgers. If you’re not looking for a dark roast, you may not even realize it's an option. Going to be a hard sell to a guy already in his rhythm of coffee buying. Best bet it that they actually grab black silk by accident. For that the label is going to get a ⅓ for relying too hard on brand recognition and failing to differentiate.

Phase 2: Grounds

I don’t know if the grounds really matter, but let's pretend they do. AND IF THEY DO... they should be tested on these 3 attributes:

Smell: Is it nice? (3 pt.)

The smell of the black silk isn't anything to gloat about.. But you can tell its coffee.. ⅔ for smell.

Texture / Size: Is it coarse? Or fine? I prefer fine. (3 pt.)

This Folgers is a bit course for my liking. ⅓ for the texture and size of the grounds.

Scoopability: How much coffee stays heaped in my version of the “tablespoon” (3 pt.)

Simply amazing. You can turn 1 Tbs into 3 by the amount that stays on the spoon with a big scoop. Very impressed. 3/3 for the scoops.

Phase 3: The Brew (3 pt.)

This is your pretty run of the mill scent from a coffee pot. It’s what your grandpa drank. It’s what your dad drinks. And now you're smelling it. Nothing special. But it aint bad. ⅔.

Phase 4: Color (3 pt.)

Golden rule of coffee color = Pantone #2322c

For a “dark roast” the color came out about as perfect as you could expect. A light milk chocolate brown that turns black in the cup. Phenomenal. 3/3.

Phase 5: Flavor

Now this was a tough one. Although this coffee FUNCTIONS as the daily driver… It holds up as your go to truck stop or cheap diner brew. Is that bad? Of course not. It’s $6 for 240 cups of coffee. One of the best values on the market.

The black silk is going to get ⅕ points in this category and we will expect to see it excel in places that coffee should excel. Everywhere. Because we drink it regardless and enjoy it because it's coffee. But in order to pull the flavor out of this thing… You would have to up the ratio of coffee to water. But this is why we set a standard folks.

Phase 6: The Reseal (3 pt.)

The reseal on any Folgers is a lights out 10/10 every time. They had that down from the very beginning. The airtight plastic seal is an unbeatable method for keeping coffee fresh for a long period of time. Not to mention the safety it provides during travel, extreme weather conditions (water and dust), other potential threats. You could bury this coffee in the ground. Come back 10 years later. Brew it. And then write this blog with the same results. 3/3… maybe even 4.

Phase 7 (Last and possibly least) : Shelf Space (3 pt.)

Shelf space is a tough break for the Folgers Black Silk sadly. We did give it a nice ranking for the size but that's going to hurt here on the shelf space. Pretty wide, and not going to fit on your smaller top shelves in cabinets. This is a bottom shelf, counter space, or pantry level coffee and it requires rentable square footage. However not outrageous. ⅔.

Thanks for reading another heck of a review. Remember to submit your coffee requests to me and I will put it on the list!

The Roastery hall of fame:

Packaging: Black and Tan (Roys)

Grounds: No clear winner

Brew: Black and Tan (Roys)

Color: Folgers Black Silk

Flavor: Black and Tan (Roys)

Reseal: Folgers Black Silk

Shelf space: Black and Tan (Roys)