Opening the Box & Setting the Stage

Good morning, coffee lovers. Russell Volz here from Lake City Coffee. Today we’re cracking open a box of Black Rifle Coffee Company and putting it through the wringer. I ordered this a couple weeks ago just to give it a fair shot. We’re going to talk about their product, their business model, their marketing, and yeah… we’re going to cover a fair bit of their nonsense too. Let’s get into it.

I grabbed two of their medium roasts: Freedom Roast and Gunship (whatever the hell that means). We’re pitting them against our own Lake City medium roast using three brewing methods I actually use every day — slow pour-over, French press, and AeroPress. No fancy lab equipment, just real-world brewing so we can see what’s actually in the cup.

No Roast Date = Stale Coffee

First thing I noticed when I opened their bag? No roast date. That’s a problem. Coffee starts going stale the second it’s roasted. If you’re buying beans that are more than a few days old, you’re already drinking yesterday’s news.

We do it differently. Every bag we ship is triple heat-sealed with an oxygen absorber inside. Any prepper worth their salt will tell you oxygen is the enemy of freshness. These guys skip that and go with the industry-standard one-way valve like everybody else. It looks fancy, but it doesn’t actually protect the coffee the way a proper airtight seal does.

Tasting the Difference

I brewed both coffees side by side this morning using a French press. Their Freedom Roast wasn’t terrible, but it was flat. Mostly roaster notes with almost zero complexity. No chocolate, no citrus, no nuttiness — just “roasted.” If this was wine, I’d call it Boone’s Farm. Not disgusting, just… disappointing for the price.

Our medium roast? Chocolate, cinnamon, white pepper, and that smooth finish that makes you sit back and say “damn, that’s good coffee.” That’s the whole reason we started Lake City Coffee in the first place.

Why We Keep It Simple

We roast one bean from one region — Tarrazú, Costa Rica — and we do it three ways. That’s it. We taste-tested dozens of beans from the same area until we landed on the one that delivers the best flavor for the money. Black Rifle? They’re not even in the same conversation.

The Real Problem with Black Rifle Coffee Company

Here’s the part that actually pisses me off. Black Rifle Coffee Company is not a conservative coffee company. The people running it wouldn’t know a conservative principle if it bit them in the ass. They’re happy to use the imagery and the marketing to sell to a certain audience, but the actual product and the way they run the business feels like every other big corporate coffee outfit wearing a tactical vest.

If you want big muscular guys, half-naked women in ads, and marketing that drops the F-bomb every other sentence, go right ahead. But if you actually want fresh coffee from people who still give a damn about the person drinking it, check us out instead.