Gold Star Coffee — Restaurant in Vaughan

Decent coffee, but no WOW factor.

I am giving my honest review with no compensation—this is just my personal experience as a coffee enthusiast, not a coffee reseller or barista.

I really wanted to love this coffee roaster’s products. A friend highly recommended this company and encouraged me to try their coffee. I called Gold Star and the customer service was very friendly and promised 100% satisfaction guarantee. They did not have much info about flavor notes on their website, but the rep encouraged me to give them a try anyhow. Since they are willing to stand by their claim to be the best coffee in the world, I decided to order a variety of coffees and see for myself.

Now as you can see, there was a lot of hype and build up for me prior to my actual experience of the coffee. For the record, I ordered 5 pounds of coffee from different origins. I ordered the following: Jamaican Blue Mountain, Jamaican estate reserve, Kenyan Peaberry, Honduran Macala, Honduran yellow honey prima micro lot, and received a free half pound of café 645.

The coffees arrived very quickly after ordering and were all roasted the day they were shipped, which was impressive. They all had a pleasing aroma, though they were roasted more than I had expected—city roast is on the darker end of “medium”, so you definitely taste and smell and see the evidence of a longer roasting period.

Now that I have tried all five of these coffees several times, I have decided to give my review: these are decent/good products but with no WOW factor for me. I’m honestly sad to say it, as I really wanted to love this roasters products, but I’ve found better fresh coffee beans elsewhere at a lower price point.

Here was my approach to brewing. I used my Hario V60 pour over at 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I used a ratio of 1g coffee to 17g filtered water. I used grind sizes 8 and 12 on my Baratza Encore. (Gold Star says to grind their coffee FINE, which suggests it is closer to an espresso grind size. I tried grinding fine for some brews and also brewed some batches with the recommended pour over grind size of 12, which is a bit coarser.) I also tried some other grind sizes and experimented with different water temperatures.

I agree these coffees are very fresh, and for the most part have a bright finish with very little acidity. However, there was not a lot of distinctive flavor note coming through on any of them. I think this may be due to the city roast, which for me personally is too dark. In my opinion, if I’m going to go to the trouble of ordering a single origin coffee, a lighter roast would provide more direct contact with the intrinsic flavors of the beans and less of the “roasted flavor” that tends to make coffee beans of any origin taste more similar to each other.

I have tried a lot of coffees in my lifetime, and these are good/decent coffees, but do not provide a WOW factor. For me, the best coffee in the world should really impress me, especially when I’m paying between $20-$30 a pound.

Overall, I would say they deserve their reputation as a reputable coffee seller who sells fresh coffee, but I have a discerning palate and was looking for something that would really impress me and sadly did not...

I spent more than a humanly amount of time surfing the web for coffee when I got my new high end coffee machine Ratio Six, which makes amazing coffee btw, so I wanted a GOOD coffee bean. My fav is 100% Hawaiian, not Kona coffee and some other coffee mixed in. I was extremely happy with my purchase from Gold star. I purchased a Costa Rican, a 100% Hawaiian and a Tanzania Peaberry whole bean coffees for the first time. Wow! Extremely fast shipping and quality packaging. Coffee comes with handwritten dates of when the coffee was roasted and it was within one or two weeks of receiving as well as a note of appreciation for purchase. I felt valued as a customer! I love that it is shipped in Canada. The prices are unbeatable, seriously, for this good of coffee. So very fairly priced! We use a burr grinder for grinding our coffee fresh on a daily basis. Omg does the coffee EVER TASTE AMAZING! The Hawaiian was mind blowing, the other two coffees were an extremely close second only because I prefer Hawaiian but still amazing! Our friends always want to come for coffee because it’s so darn good! Please don’t blame the coffee if you order and find it bitter. There is a very distinct process to make good coffee, starting with a GOOD coffee maker, burr grinder with the correct grind, proper filters to eliminate the bitter oils, proper measuring of beans per cup, brewing temp etc…. Our household will only order this coffee from now on as it is the best all around, service and quality product. I also love that it supports the Autism Foundation with donations from purchases as well! Well done Gold Star! 👏🏼Thank you! It really is the worlds best...

I started purchasing high-quality coffee from Canadian online sellers about two months. I received my first order from Gold star a few days ago. I purchased three bags, each of which was a full pound in weight (most sellers offer just 12 ounce bags). Shipping was free, and the freshly roasted coffee arrived in just two days. I am almost finished the first of the three bags: Yemen Mocha Harraz AA+. I have to say that this is the best-tasting coffee i have had since i began drinking good-quality coffee. I am developing the palate needed to fully appreciate good-quality coffee like this. I can say that i like this coffee very much. The aroma is fantastic, the coffee is smooth and displays nuanced notes as described. As my palate develops, i will enjoy these high quality coffee's even more. Gold Star's service is top-notch. Great value. And judging by this first bag, offers excellent coffee. I look forward to shopping for and sampling the large variety of high quality coffee offerings exclusively from Gold Star from now on. Highly...