Contact Coffee Co’s Shots Fired! Makes a Mean Espresso

[Ad- gifted products] I don’t know about you, but I don’t often sit down and think about the military. I guess this means, for the most part, that they’re doing their job just fine. I don’t really have a segue to link that to the coffee, beyond the fact that a couple of British chaps in the armed forces decided to dedicate time and effort into levelling up the sub-par instant coffee that they were getting while out there on operations. The result is Contact Coffee Co, who have sent us along a pouch of Shots Fired, a smooth, medium-roast coffee.

Made with a mixture of Brazilian and Ethiopian Djimma beans, Shots Fired certainly isn’t the first coffee to mix earthy African beans with low-altitude South-American chocolately notes, but they’ve done a great job here. Nothing feels too bizarre or out of place, with an overall smooth taste that makes for a really solid espresso. That said, despite their 2/5 strength grading, it does taste a little more potent than that.

I brewed mine up, espresso style, using an espresso machine and took it neat. I did noticed that it frothed up a little more than the pre-ground coffee that I normally use, which is certainly not something to complain about — it adds a little character to it. That said, on the official site listing it recommends a Moka Pot, which I don’t have to hand, so I’m not sure that I had Shots Fired! at its best, although its certainly up there as one of the better, more potent-seeming coffees that I’ve dabbled with over the years.

Something that’s out of the ordinary, that I really appreciated, was the packaging choice. Contact Coffee have used a pull-tag system that then opens a seam across the width of the coffee bag, revealing a push/pressure seam that can be popped shut and popped open easier. This does, admittedly, mean they’re using a small about of plastic, but it means that the bag doesn’t have one of those awful plastic stickers for resealing, and also doesn’t come with the plastic breather holes that a lot of coffees come with. It makes for better sealing, and being positioned on the side means its easier to access the grounds than the top splitting open. I’m not sure if that was a conscious design choice, but if it was then bravo!

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