Review: Sanguine by Found Familiar Coffee
Found Familiar is third wave roasting style coffees in bags with geeky art. Their Sanguine Vampire Blend is inspired by, well, vampires.
As a former professional coffee taster my first, and most important note, is that if you like your coffee you are doing it right. Also, as a former taster, I decided that in 2025 I’m going to do a cupping of each new coffee I taste, because I don’t want to lose the skill.
This will also help me maintain my sense of taste for wine, beer, food, etc.
Sanguine Vampire Blend tasting notes
This coffee was cupped at home, using a Baratza grinder, my kettle, a cup and one of my spoons from back in the day. It was tasted across a few temps. Additionally I’ve enjoyed espresso and cortados with Sanguine from a Breville Barista Touch and pour overs using a Chemex with paper filters with cream and without.
On the break: Aroma of dark fruit, cherry or blackberries. Medium to strong roast.
First slurp: Light, medium body without acid. Notes closer to dark cherry, mild acid, cocoa.
Third slurp: Picks up roast better as cools. Stronger dark chocolate rather than cocoa. Bright cherry rather than dark?
Lightly drying after spitting — think like eating a walnut
Who should buy Sanguine?
This is a great coffee for espresso, macchiato and cortado drinkers. There’s complexity to it, and it does pair well with the heavy chocolate and berry desserts as Found Familiar mentions.
As a straight black cup of coffee it’s not as dark as I’d want — the vast majority of my 15 years of coffee experience were in second wave places (though I did stints in 3rd too).
If you enjoy a lot of cream the roast may not get through like you want, unless you mostly go for 3rd wave profiles. Those that don’t use a lot of cream will enjoy it, especially with a bit of sugar, which I’ve found brings out the fruit notes.
What makes Found Familiar different?
There are several geek-roasters. What I like about Found Familiar is their support of artists and one of my preferred mapmakers. I’ve also purchased the Run D&D t-shirt twice because like many middle aged people I grew.
Note: The coffee was purchased by myself and there was no expectation from the company that I would do a review.
#coffee #cupping #FoundFamiliar #productPreview
