Airship Coffee at 5th Street — Restaurant in Bentonville

I've been in the coffee industry for about 5 years, and moved to the area with a job at a different coffee company a few months ago. It was disappointing enough that I quit in 3 weeks, and I've been shopping around for other spots to support ever since. This is ONLY a review of Airship's whole bean coffee - I haven't gotten to go to the location yet and I am looking forward to a post pandemic visit despite my lukewarm opinion on their product.

I got 2 bags of Airship coffee at the local walmart, pulling from the back so as to get something that wasn't 3 months off roast. Both bags were about 1.5 weeks from roast date, so they ought to be in their prime. I was excited to support a local roaster but on the whole the beans left a lot to be desired. That said, when I'm able to visit the shop I still plan to, a good experience at a cafe can make up a lot for a sub par product and I will happily revise this review if it's a good spot. For a boutique coffee, Airship was relatively cheap at the grocery store, which is nice. It's a step up from Gevalia without breaking the bank.

The packaging was attractive, combining brown paper aesthetics with foil insides for freshness. The bags don't have a lot of information- just some very vague tasting notes ("vanilla-brown sugar-caramel") and a big word finder puzzle of buzzwords on the back. It's cute but it takes up a lot of real estate that could have been given to information about the coffee. The sell by date is 6 (!) months past roast but I expect that's a walmart thing so I won't hold it against Airship. The roast date is printed on the part of the packaging that you tear off to open the bag, so to keep track of your freshness you need to write it down yourself.

I tried the Buffalo Blend and unfortunately it was not great. The beans appear to have been roasted with a short development time, as one would expect from a very high quality bean. But there is a high frequency of defects in the beans which leaves a lighter roast tasting hollow and flat (which this one does). I don't know enough to tell exactly what grade these are but they would be more enjoyable with more development to hide the problems with the green product. It has a sort of acrid smell that hits you as soon as you open the bag and does not improve when you grind and brew it. It would be nice to have any information at all on the origins of the blend, because my taste buds tell me that it is comprised of the roastery floor sweepings.

The Black Apple coffee, on the other hand, seems like a more appropriate use of product. The tasting notes are more specific but still cliche ("dark cherry-orange citrus-dark chocolate"), letting you know right away that this is a more developed roast. Usually "dark chocolate" is code for "we nuked this almost to second crack" but Black Apple is not overdeveloped. Any hint of citrus has been completely cooked out, though. Visually, you can see the beans have fewer defects than Buffalo Blend and the scent is more mildly sweet. Still rather flat but much better. Again, no information on sourcing beyond that it's a blend. I brewed it as autodrip because I am lazy and that is one of the methods suggested on the bag. The bag promises "incredible" drip and that is a stretch. It has a surprisingly hollow mouth feel and shallow flavor given how nice it looked and smelled. It's not bad by any means, but definitely not incredible. It tastes like competently roasted mid-range product, great for everyday budget drinking. I enjoyed it but it didn't make my eyes pop out.

On the whole, I recommend the Black Apple coffee from Airship but not the Buffalo Blend. Pull from the top shelf, anything more than a month past roast is already stale and you want to give yourself time to drink it before that happens. Walmart will leave it up 6 months. Black Apple seems like a nice step up from mass produced commodity coffee, I wouldn't put it on par with say, Onyx in terms of quality but the price difference makes it more viable for daily...

My partner and I pop in here a few times a week and it is consistently my favorite coffee place in Bentonville. The drinks are consistently good and the atmosphere is super low-key and friendly. The people who work there are so knowledgeable and friendly and are some of the kindest people in Bentonville. They always brighten our day when we stop in. This is a fantastic spot to relax, grab a drink with friends, or spend a day working. It is such a fantastic space and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The coffee here is very good. While they might not have some of the more wild drinks that some of the other places in town have, every drink that I have had here has been consistently good no matter who makes it. The lattes here are some of my favorites that I have and last summer that had an espresso soda water drink that absolutely changed my world.

The food here is also incredible and anything in the pastry case is good. However! If you can get a brisket burrito (sometimes they're out due to high demand) it will make your day. It's absolutely one of my favorite things to eat in town.

The space and overall aesthetic is great as it doesn't feel like a super modern whitewashed clean space, instead more like a great, comfortable, hangout spot. If the weather is nice they open up the garage doors that make up the front wall of the space and the shop is exposed to the outside. There is also great outdoor seating in the small yard out front. Dogs are welcomed here and there are usually quite a few milling about with their owners. There are plenty of outlets here for people to plug computers and phones into and ample table space for customers to use.

TLDR: Airship is a cool place to hangout with friends or work with some of the best coffee in town. The staff are incredibly nice. Dogs...

What up? What up? What up?

My people you are probably wondering, what is this Texan doing all the way in Arkansas. Well trying food so you don’t have to travel so far to try food!

So let’s get to it, my review:

At first glimpse airship coffee at fifth Street is a very cutesy and earthy cafe. The aesthetics are on point. The outside dining is on point. The inside is decorated with art you can purchase and they have merchandise in a corner. As for the logo of this company and the merchandise, I believe it’s very well done and cute. The service is good and the drinks mediocre. You can tell that they have spent more time perfecting some drinks, more than others. For example, their Matcha drink was underwhelming. I would rate it a two out of five. However, if you come to this place do get the London fog, it was really good and at par with other London Fogs I’ve tried in the past. As for the food, this is where the true disappointment comes in. You can tell that this place is more of a coffee shop then a food joint. I went ahead and tried the brisket burrito, but it was premade and warmed. Mine was cold in the center. (If y’all can find a solution to this that’d be great!)The meat was dry because it’s been in the refrigerator all night. It was not the best. I rated it a two out of 5. The Salas! I’m from Texas. I need more spice! It did not add more flavor to the burrito. A rule of thumb: If your salsa is not spicy, it should in theory add flavor to your food.

For a last minute pitstop to get a quick drink and a bite to eat I would recommend this place. Just don’t expect too much. And do not drive out of your way to get it.

Well, that is all folks!...