Nerd Fuel: Donut Shop – Caramel Apple Pie

Happy Thanksgiving! It is my sincere hope that all of my readers have an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday with their friends and family. I hope your day is filled with savory foods, tasty treats, video games, and nerdy novels. Sadly, I will have to spend the evening at work. In fact, I’ll be up past midnight making sure that Black Friday shoppers are behaving themselves. I wouldn’t be able to do it without a little help from my good friend Coffee.

For this Nerd Fuel review, I decided to stick with something seasonal. As many of you know, I’m a sucker for any of the Donut Shop branded coffees. So, when I saw the Caramel Apple Pie variety hit the store shelves this season, I knew I had to give it a try. Plus, it sounded perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I’ll be up front and state that this is a pretty strange cup of coffee. For starters, the aroma it produces during the brew process is much stronger than expected. That being said, I couldn’t smell the coffee at all, only a very powerful “green apple” aroma. Once you smell this coffee brewing, you can probably guess what it’s going to taste like. This coffee is completely overpowered by whatever flavoring syrup they’ve used. And yes, it’s very artificial. In fact, the flavoring in this coffee almost completely masks the taste of the coffee itself to the point that I am unable to determine whether this is a light roast or a medium roast. It’s really that strong.

Now, despite being overpowering and artificial, it’s not completely terrible. The flavor of the coffee is a bit shocking at first. But, it’s also surprisingly complex. The apple flavor is front and center. But it does finish with notes of caramel, graham, and even a touch of cinnamon. Personally, I think I’d prefer it if the apple flavoring was toned down a notch or two so that the other flavors could be allowed to come to the surface. But then again, apple is not one of favorite flavors anyway.

For me, this is not going to be something that I drink with any regularity whatsoever. But, I can certainly see how it might have its place as a decent desert coffee. There’s undoubtedly people who would go absolutely nuts for this. However, I am not one of those people.

Score: 2 out of 4

Would buy again?:  No. Very artificial tasting with an overpowering flavor. Not the worst cup of coffee I’ve ever had, but leagues away from the best. Some people will enjoy this, but if you want an “apple pie” coffee, I think you’d have a better bet using a flavored creamer to achieve a better result.