With the sale of the very exclusive Hawaii Ka’u coffee in 5 Starbucks Reserve stores, I managed to get a taste of the Chemex brew at a bombastic price of S$19.00, making it one of the most expensive cup of coffee I had ever consumed to date.

This cup of black coffee was like no other brewed Starbucks Reserve beans that I had tried. At first encounter, the hot coffee was quite unfriendly to the taste buds, with a little unpleasant kind of metallic aftertaste amidst all that bitterness. Surprisingly, the coffee actually tasted better as it cooled down, and unlike most of the other Starbucks Reserve beans that I had tried before, the best part about the Hawaii Ka’u coffee was that it tasted great even at room temperature. But the best way to enjoy this beans without experiencing that initial “bad taste”, for me, was to request for the coffee serve iced or chilled, so that the taste notes of milk chocolate and almond would be more prominent.

But because this shipment of beans is so limited, I bet it would be off the menu in no time, despite the hefty price to pay.