Review: Carrabassett Coffee Company Backdraft

Sent to us from our Maine correspondent, we have been sipping Carrabassett Coffee Company’s Backdraft, so we decided to publish our notes.

Say the name Backdraft and many middle-aged Americans resort to quoting the Ron Howard movie from 1991. The name comes from an explosive situation in structure fires where a fire, almost starved of oxygen, suddenly revives when air rushes in. Per the Carrabassett Coffee Company website, Backdraft is their most popular coffee.

Carabassett Coffee Company is located in Kingfield, Maine, 110 miles north of Portland. Located just down the road from Sugarloaf Mountain ski resort, Carabassett Coffee Company is a small batch roaster. It’s the kind of coffee company we cheer for. They offer local pick up as well as mail order. We were gifted their dark roast called Backdraft and set immediately to consuming buckets of it. 

We have mentioned several times before that the most popular coffee in the office is a dark roast that has on attribute of smokiness. We were already experts in analyzing coffees similar to Backdraft. Per the Carrabassett website, Backdraft is an oily dark roast of alluring blends of Indonesia and American beans. One can only assume South American, though we couldn’t be too sure.

We eagerly brewed pots of Backdraft. The grounds produced an alluring aroma of brownie mix. When ready for sampling, the steaming mugs exuded a welcoming wafting of smoke and dark roast. What followed was an enjoyable cup followed by relaxing conversation. Backdraft was certainly smoky. It was clear how this could be Carrabassett Coffee Company’s most popular brew. 

We quickly brewed our way through the bag of Backdraft. The tasting notes were clean in the background of the smoky apex notes. The profile was inviting to the point we kept brewing it. There was a comment that one more tasting note would have put it over the top. It was compared to a delicious all-day coffee brew, the perfect roast for a rainy day in the fall when outdoor options are shut down. Of course every time someone went to put their hand on the coffee vessel, someone inevitably asked, “Check that door for heat?” Backdrafts can be dangerous things.

Carabassett Coffee Company prides itself on being environmentally friendly (the installed 92 solar panels to their roastery roof) as well as being certified organic. Poking around the Carrabassett Coffee Company website had us gaining more and more trust at just how clean the coffee is. When we were trying to find the words to our morning cups, we finally arrived at ‘clean’ to round off the description. Who knew a dark roast named Backdraft, a roast that harkens visions of explosive structure fires, would be referred to as clean.