Purity Coffee Review: Healthy Organic Coffee Beans

Purity Coffee is unique, which makes it an exciting coffee to review. Purity is the first coffee roaster to put health as the top priority. That means sourcing the finest certified organic coffee and roasting it to best preserve its healthy components – the antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and other beneficial nutrients.

Home Grounds couldn’t help but wonder: does roasting for health, as opposed to flavour, still yield great coffee? That’s what this Purity Coffee review will explore, along with everything else you can expect from the brand.

Summary: Purity Coffee Beans

• A small selection of 100% Arabica specialty coffees optimized to offer health benefits.
  
• All Purity coffee is Organic, Bird Friendly, and Rainforest Alliance certified.
  
• Available as whole beans, in coffee pods, or in single-serve coffee bags

These beans make the best cup of home brew coffee. Smooth and full-bodied flavour with a non-jittery boost of energy.

– Customer

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The Full Purity Coffee Review

Purity Coffee has a cute origin story. Once upon a time, co-founder Amber Salisbury was suffering from unexplained fatigue, and she found, like so many of us, that coffee was an effective treatment. Her husband Andrew dug into the peer-reviewed literature to find scientific justification for her results and was surprised to learn about coffee’s well-established health benefits.

Purity Coffee Review

• Coffee Quality and the Environment
• Coffee Selection
• Brewing Methods

4

Everyone’s favourite bean juice isn’t just delicious; it’s full of beneficial compounds that boost energy and focus, ward off common diseases, and promote mental well-being (1).

The Salisburys wondered if anyone had ever roasted coffee to maintain these compounds instead of just developing a specific flavour. It turns out no one had. So in 2017, they founded Purity Coffee and became the first.

In this Purity Coffee review, we’ll dig into how that experiment has fared. Is it good coffee? Is it healthier than the rest? What’s the best way to brew Purity Coffee? Keep reading for all this and more.

Coffee Quality and the Environment – 4.5/5

Purity Coffee firmly believes that producing the healthiest coffee starts at the farm, and fortunately, this is where producing the most delicious coffee also starts. Unlike more popular companies like Green Mountain, Purity sources only specialty grade 100% Arabica coffee, well-known in the coffee world as the best coffee beans thanks to sweet and complex flavours.

All Purity coffee is Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and Bird Friendly certified. These certifications ensure that the coffee beans themselves are high quality and that the environment and people at origin are treated with respect. The Bird Friendly certification is exceptionally rigorous, with requirements for foliage cover and biodiversity (2).

So my fears that Purity prioritizing health over flavour would lead to sub-par coffee were unfounded. Lucky for Purity and me, healthy coffee, great-tasting coffee, and sustainable coffee are all produced in the same conditions.

Health Benefits

Purity Coffee is just organic specialty-grade coffee. It is not coffee with special health-boosting supplements; it doesn’t need to be because black coffee is already healthy. This is well-established in scientific literature, and as a former scientist myself, it is refreshing to see how much of this literature is referenced on Purity’s website.

Coffee is rich in antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and other beneficial nutrients that ward off many common illnesses like cancer and heart disease, according to Professor Peter M. Kistler, MD (3).

Unless you are particularly sensitive to caffeine or prone to acid reflux, there is growing evidence to suggest that a few cups of coffee a day will help you live longer.

So given that all coffee is good for you, how does Purity Coffee claim to be healthier than average?

And optimizing the blend and roasting curve seems to be working. Independent testing has confirmed that Purity Coffee is, on average, 65% higher in antioxidants than other organic coffee brands and is free of mold, mycotoxins, pesticides, and other potentially harmful substances.

Coffee Selection – 3.5/5

Purity Coffee offers four coffees–each available as whole coffee beans, in a K-Cup style pod, or in single-serve coffee sachets. The selection is small but relatively comprehensive, so most coffee lovers will find a flavour profile they enjoy. Notably, they offer neither ground nor flavoured beans.

Whole Bean Coffee

The original Purity Coffee, still the best seller, is the Flow Medium Roast. This organic coffee is a blend of 100% Arabica coffee beans from Nicaragua, Honduras, and Colombia. The beans are certified Bird Friendly by the Smithsonian, one of the most rigorous coffee certifications, and Rainforest Alliance certified.

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Flow has a beautiful taste profile of dark chocolate, toasted nuts, and a hint of apple acidity. This is an easy-drinking and crowd-pleasing brew with precisely the flavours you expect from a cup of coffee.

The Ease Dark Roast was explicitly developed for digestive system support and microbiota balance. The source of green coffee beans and the dark roast means that it is low in acidity, but the roast is kept from going too dark, which can lead to the formation of carcinogenic compounds. You’ll consider this closer to a medium-dark if you’re used to the oily, nearly black French and Italian roasts. It has a bold flavour with dark chocolate, roast walnut, and brown sugar sweetness.

This coffee is certified Organic, Bird Friendly, and Rainforest Alliance. Unlike the medium roast, it is also Demeter Certified Biodynamic, which can be described as a more intense version of organic that includes soil health and other agricultural considerations.

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The Protect Light-Medium Roast is formulated to protect the liver specifically, though it conveys the same benefits as the other beans. As the lightest roast, it has the highest levels of antioxidants, which have been shown to reduce the risk of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Protect is the only single-origin coffee on offer, and the high-quality organic beans are sourced from Colombia. The beans are Rainforest Alliance and Bird Friendly certified, and they feature flavours of hazelnut, warm spices, and sweet fruit.

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Lastly, there is the well-named Calm Decaf, which are the decaffeinated version of the Flow medium roast. They are Swiss Water processed, widely considered the cleanest and most effective method of decaffeination. This chemical-free process removes 99.9% of caffeine while retaining most of the beneficial antioxidants.

Some of coffee’s health benefits stem from caffeine, but a decaf is an excellent option that still offers many advantages if you find you are sensitive to that stimulant. Plus, it’s pretty tasty, with dessert-like flavours of chocolate, vanilla, and a red apple.

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Other Coffee Formats

Along with whole bean coffee, Purity sells its entire line-up of coffee in coffee pod or sachet format. Interestingly, they don’t offer pre-ground coffee, so you’ll need to order one of these two options if you don’t own a grinder.

We’re generally not fans of K-Cups here at Home Grounds; they’re wasteful, and the coffee is usually stale. Purity Coffee has solved at least one of these two problems. Purity Coffee’s pods are made to order, so the coffee inside is as fresh as pre-ground beans. That’s a significant benefit in terms of quality. However, single-serve plastic cups still aren’t an environmentally friendly choice, even if you go through the steps to recycle the plastic (4).

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From an environmental standpoint, a better option for single servings is the coffee sachets, basically tea bags for coffee. Available with any roast, brewing is as simple as adding one to a cup along with some hot water and letting it steep until it’s as strong as you want. Like the coffee pods, the coffee in the coffee bags is ground to order for a rich flavour.

Brewing Methods – 4/5

As long as you have a burr grinder at home, Purity’s whole bean coffees are suitable for most brewing methods. I recommend a filter brewing method like a pour-over or an automatic drip coffee machine for the most complex flavour. For a slightly stronger brew, an AeroPress is another excellent option.

I wouldn’t recommend brewing any of these coffees with an espresso machine. They certainly aren’t bad this way, but none of the four produce the creamy mouthfeel and thick crema characteristic of traditional espresso. If you like a bold brew with a heavy body, consider a Moka pot or French press instead.

The Ease Dark Roast beans yield an ultra-smooth cold brew for cold coffee fans. If you’re buying this coffee to aid digestion, as intended, the cold brewing method makes it even lower in acid – perfect for a sensitive stomach. Remember that cold brew requires a coarse grind, so if you don’t have a grinder, you might be better off with another brand like Wandering Bear Coffee that sells ready-to-drink cold brew.

Don’t Buy Purity Coffee If…

• You prefer pre-ground coffee: Purity only offers coffee sachets and coffee pods for those without grinders. If you just want a bag of ground coffee for your brewer of choice, look for a brand that will grind to order, ideally to a specific size, as this is the next best thing to grinding it yourself. One great choice is Volcanica Coffee, which offers plenty of organic coffee options.
• You want more roast variety: Purity Coffee offers several roast levels, but they all fall around the middle of the roast spectrum to best preserve antioxidant levels in the coffee beans. If you prefer a very dark roast or a light roast, consider coffee beans from Lifeboost instead. Like Purity, they put health as a priority, and they offer a larger selection of blends and single origins at various roast levels.
• You want more caffeine: If the only health benefit you’re looking for is a bit more energy to jumpstart your day, consider Death Wish Coffee Company. Promoted as the world’s strongest coffee, it uses a blend of Robusta and Arabica coffee beans to deliver double the caffeine. Just don’t expect the same quality of flavour you get from specialty coffee like Purity.

The Verdict

When I set out to write this Purity Coffee review, I was worried that Purity Coffee was a health product first and a coffee second. But I came away reassured. By sourcing specialty grade organic coffee, they have nicely balanced health benefits with delicious flavour.

If you’re searching for an easy-drinking morning brew that might extend your life, Purity Coffee won’t disappoint. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a complex single-origin light roast or a bold and rich espresso roast, you may need to look elsewhere.

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