Bones Coffee Review: Not Your Average Coffee Brand

We love specialty coffee, but admittedly, the industry isn’t too colorful. Beyond trendy turbo shots and latte art, the most adventurous coffee drink we can lay claim to is Starbucks’ infamous Unicorn Frappuccino. Until now.

Bones Coffee is a small-batch coffee company that is out to change all that. Keep reading for Home Grounds’ in-depth Bones Coffee review of this Florda-based company with all the gothic vibes.

Summary: Bones Coffee

• Coffee brand best known for flavored coffee
  
• All coffee is Rainforest Alliance-certified
  
• Always 100% Arabica coffee beans

This is hands down some of the best coffee around.

– Brian, Bones Coffee customer

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The Full Bones Coffee Review

Having conducted many coffee bean reviews, the overwhelming array of options starts to blend together in our heads. No pun intended. But today, we’re discussing a small-batch, Florida-based coffee company whose aesthetic, product variety, and quirky character made us stop and take notice.

The Bones Coffee Company is a family-run coffee company that has as much flavor as it does character. Dedicated to quality coffee, sustainability, fair compensation for coffee farmers, and Rainforest Alliance certification, we can safely say this coffee should be savored guilt-free.

Bones Coffee Review

• Coffee Quality and Flavor
• Selection and Variety
• Brewing Methods
• Sustainability and Environmental Impact

3.9

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Based in Cape Coral, FL, Bones Coffee began its foray into the gourmet coffee world with signature flavors like Bones Strawberry Cheesecake Coffee and Maple Bacon (1). The public drank up every drop of their unique coffee flavor pairings, and they’ve been shipping their Arabica coffees around the world ever since.

Keep reading this Bones Coffee review to learn more about the coffees available, the brand’s dedication to sustainability, and the best brewing methods for these Arabica coffee beans.

Coffee Quality and Flavor – 4/5

The Bones Coffee Co. believes that coffee isn’t just a drink that wakes you up in the morning. They want it to be an event that gets you out of bed and jumpstarts your day (2). 

In keeping with this dedication to quality, every batch of Arabica coffee is hand-selected and examined to ensure that only the best coffee beans make it to your bag. Each week, they receive coffee bean samples from different coffee farms worldwide but choose only the best beans for each batch of flavored coffee and unflavored coffee. Anyone with a sensitive stomach will be pleased to know that except for their single origin coffees, all of Bones Coffee’s varieties are low-acid coffees. They are also vegan and free of sugar or artificial sweeteners. The single origins and blends are Kosher.

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Bones Coffee is incredibly smooth and flavorful. While we tend to prefer single origins and blends over flavored coffees, the Bones Coffee flavors surprised us with their depth and character.

Selection and Variety – 3/5

Bones Coffee is best known for its fun flavors of coffee. They have a vast selection of flavored coffees in decaf and caffeinated versions, so every coffee lover is sure to find something to their taste. 

The 41 flavors include classics like Chocolate Orange, Vanilla Caramel, Salted Caramel, Highland Grog, Egg Nog, and Toasted Marshmallow. But where Bones Coffee really stands out is the more interesting flavors like Ruff Weather (oatmeal cream pie), Frog’s Breath (chocolate mole), Mudslide Boogie, Electric Unicorn (fruity cereal), and French Toast. Don’t forget the famous Bones Coffee Smorey Time and Coconut Rum.

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The From Dusk Till Donuts is a personal favorite Bones Coffee flavor. Thanks to its medium-roast coffee and jelly donut flavoring, the cup profile is just what you’d expect a jelly donut to be – smooth, sweet, jammy, with an extra kick from just a hint of brightness.

Single Origin Coffees

Bones Coffee also offers a few single-origin coffees from well-known growing regions like Sumatra, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ethiopia. The Costa Rican single origin comes from the famed region of Tarrazu. Grown at an altitude of 3,800 to 5,000 feet above sea level, this single-origin coffee is a well-balanced medium roast with notes of brown sugar, raisins, and almonds. This medium roast blends Caturra and Catuai Arabica coffee beans together for a well-balanced and smooth flavor profile.

You can also create a custom sample pack of 5 four-ounce bags of flavored and unflavored coffees. The sample pack is a great value option that ensures you’ll never get flavor fatigue.

All of their coffee is available either pre-ground or as whole beans. Most is also available packaged in a K-Cup style pod. Bones Coffee K-Cups are called Bones Cups.

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Roast Level Variety

Your selections are limited if you’re looking for different roast levels. They offer just three dark roasts – Army of Dark Chocolate, Sumatra, and Dark Roast blend – and the rest are all medium roasts. Light roast lovers will have to look elsewhere. There is also a very limited selection of blends, with just a dark roast and a medium roast option.

We sampled the Army of Dark Chocolate Bones Cups to see how they fare in the dark roast department. Made from dark-roasted Brazilian Arabica coffee beans, this coffee is flavored with just a touch of dark chocolate. Like their other coffee varieties, this one’s smooth, rich, and indulgent.

Specialty Coffees: Bourbon Barrel-Aged Coffee and Swiss Water Decaf

This Bourbon Barrel-Aged coffee is a cut above the rest of Bones Coffee’s vast array of options. Before the Arabica coffee beans are roasted, they age in high-quality, charred oak bourbon barrels until they’ve absorbed all that bourbon goodness. Then, Bones Coffee roasts the coffee beans to bring out even more of the aged bourbon flavor and a hint of smoke. It’s the pleasure of a coffee liqueur in an alcohol-free package.

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As a quick note, if you typically order your coffee beans pre-ground, this variety is only sold as whole beans to preserve the flavor.

Almost all Bones Coffee flavors are also available in decaf options. In keeping with their dedication to flavor and quality, their decaf coffees are Swiss water-processed. This chemical-free treatment is widely considered to be the cleanest method of decaffeination (3).

The result is all the flavor with next to no caffeine. 

Brewing Methods – 4.5/5

Bones Coffee is available as whole beans, pre-ground coffee, and K-Cup formats, making it suitable for nearly any brewing method you prefer. Home Grounds suggests going with whole bean coffee whenever possible, and these Bones coffee flavorss are no exception (4). 

Grinding coffee yourself as soon as possible before brewing ensures the freshest and most flavorful cup. That said, the flavor of flavored coffee tends to stick around in your grinder. So pre-ground coffee might be the better option if you rarely enjoy a flavored brew.

For an espresso machine or Moka pot, you will need to grind Bones Coffee yourself to get a finer grind. Likewise, cold brew requires a coarser grind.

The Bones single-serve cups are compatible with both Keurig 1.0 and 2.0 brewers. So any Keurig machine or similar single-serve coffee machine will work. The only brewing method missing is Nespresso. Bones Coffee doesn’t offer Nespresso-compatible capsules for any of its flavored or unflavored coffees.

Sustainability and Environmental Impact – 4/5

Bones Coffee has an impressive sustainability record compared with many of its peers. It partnered with local ECHO farms to ensure its burlap sacks, coffee chaff, and bourbon barrels get a second chance at life (5).

Headquartered in North Fort Myers, FL, ECHO is an international organization that strives to combat hunger by empowering local farms through education and resources. By providing small scale farmers and their families with seeds, educational resources, and cutting-edge, agricultural techniques, ECHO seeks to give local communities and their families hope.

Bones Coffee beans are also Rainforest Alliance-certified. The Rainforest Alliance certification ensures that all coffee crops are cultivated through sustainable farming practices, fair compensation is provided to coffee farmers, and agricultural practices promote environmental sustainability.

Lastly, their single-serve Bones Cups are 100% recyclable, an important detail given the environmental crisis caused by K-Cups. Even when you need to use a single-serve option for your Keurig, you can do so without adding even more plastic cups to landfills.

Do Not Buy Bones Coffee If…

• You want more roast options: Lovers of light roast specialty coffee won’t find anything to choose from with Bones Coffee, and dark roast fans will find limited options. Instead, consider Lifeboost coffee beans, which offers a substantial selection for every kind of coffee lover. Grown at altitudes above 6,000 feet, Lifeboost Coffee is shade-grown under guava trees. While this higher elevation produces the best Arabica beans, shade-grown coffees also benefit from the increased nourishment from growing in a more biodiverse ecosystem.
• You’re not interested in flavored coffee: Bones Coffee is best known for their unique flavored coffee. If Highland Grog and the like isn’t for you, check out our Purity coffee review for a great alternative. Purity Coffee offers a small but focused selection of premium coffee roasted with your health in mind. It is one of few brands to be certified Bird Friendly by the Smithsonian, one of the most rigorous coffee certifications.

• You’re looking for single origin K-Cups: Bones Coffee Company offers a huge selection of flavored K-Cups, but few unflavored options and no single origins. If you prefer to drink coffee plain and simple, we suggest Green Mountain Coffee‘s K-Cups.

The Verdict

Bones Coffee is for you if you believe that colorful, flavorful, and ethically-sourced coffee is the spice of life. Whether you love the convenience of a single-serve K-Cup or enjoy the meditative experience of grinding your coffee each morning, Bones Coffee’s extensive palette of flavors has something for, well, every palate.

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