We Tried Death Wish Coffee's Blue & Buried Blend. It Was Life Affirming

If you can't imagine facing the day without a cup of coffee (or two, or three) to get you going and keep moving, then you are far from alone. According to a study released by the National Coffee Association, as many as seven in 10 adult Americans drink coffee. An estimated 62% of the adult population in the U.S. drinks coffee every day. While coffee is a delicious beverage that goes great with breakfast, boasts health benefits, and is a part of our cultural fabric and can be an interpersonal touchstone, there's really one reason most of us drink the stuff: caffeine.

So, if you find a coffee that's extra caffeinated, that's a good reason to consider trying it. If it turns out that said coffee is also delicious, then that's yet another reason to stick with it. 

Blue and Buried blend from Death Wish Coffee is certainly potent. As for the taste? We've get more into that in a moment, but we think this coffee will make you glad to be alive — and very much awake!

As you can fairly expect to find in a bag of ground coffee, the primary ingredient you'll find here is ... coffee. Well, a blend of ground arabica and robusta coffee beans to get down to the granular details. Arabica coffee beans are known for a softer, milder, and less bitter flavor compared to robusta. Many people consider coffee made with arabica beans alone to be the superior option, while others argue that arabica-only coffee only lacks some essential bitterness and acidity. Also, arabica beans are lower in caffeine than robusta ones, which pack a bigger caffeine punch and have more of that bitter flavor that many coffee drinkers crave. This coffee being all about the caffeine, it's little surprise that robusta beans are present.

Anyway, aside from the blend of coffee beans in Death Wish Coffee's Blue and Buried blend, you'll also find "natural flavors" that, while not disclosed on the packaging, we can surmise come from blueberries and vanilla given that this is what's printed on the front of the bag. There is also Vietnamese cinnamon added to the blend, which you can detect in the lingering aftertaste of your sip.

There are a lot of different ways to Death Wish, if you will. You could, for example, watch the 1974 Charles Bronson-led film of the same name centered on the darkest days of New York City street life. Or you could opt for the 2018 remake starring Bruce Willis. In those films, the cost of crime proves to be high, but you're probably wondering about the cost of coffee.

There are lots of different ways to procure this blend at various price points. You can spend a whopping $89.99 on a five-bag order of the stuff, which nets you 60 ounces of coffee. Or you can get a two-bag order (24 ounces) for $36.99. A single 12-ounce bag of Blue and Buried costs a rather pricey $19.99. But we think that any old coffee you snag off the grocery store shelf won't be the same, so it may well be worth the extra dollars.

As for other Blue and Buried options, you can also get this coffee in individually portioned cups (you probably know them as "K-Cups") and for that, you'll pay $17.99 for a 10-cup box, $34.99 for a 20-count box, and $47.99 for a 30-count order. That's about $1.60 per cup of coffee with the 30-count order.

Death Wish Coffee first released Blue and Buried as a summer limited release, as per a June 2022 press release. Clearly, the customer response was huge, because the company has already brought this blend back just one season later. This time around, it's still a limited release. This means that, once the Blue and Buried that is currently available sells out, there will be no more of the stuff available until the people of Death Wish Coffee decide to make another batch.

That said, we have reason to believe Death Wish Coffee is already planning to make this a part of its regular lineup, not unlike the saga of the McDonald's McRib sandwich. If you're shopping around for some Blue and Buried coffee, the Death Wish Coffee site is a good place to start. You may also be able to find it at other online retailers or in some local stores. Don't wait too long, however, because this coffee is bound to sell out. For a while, anyway.

In one way — arguably the most important way — this limited-release coffee from Death Wish Coffee is just like all the other coffees the company offers: the caffeine. In just one ounce of properly brewed Death Wish Coffee (the company recommends you use two and a half tablespoons of ground coffee per six ounces of water) you'll find 59 milligrams of caffeine. So, in a six-ounce cup of coffee, you'll find up to 350 milligrams of caffeine. For comparison, a standard eight-ounce cup of coffee from other brands has about 95 milligrams of caffeine per cup (via Healthline). So yeah, this brand is strong across all its flavors.

Death Wish Coffee offers medium, dark, and espresso roast coffees, the super strong Valhalla Java Odinforce Blend, a sweet Pumpkin Chai Coffee blend, and a few canned cold brews. However,  Blue and Buried is the brand's only fruit and spice-flavored coffee at present. Its flavor profile is not just unique to the company but is unlike most other coffees you've tried, likely because it's made entirely with high-quality organic ingredients.

Coffee, teas, and spices are exempt from the FDA's nutrition labeling requirements because they don't contain all that many nutrients, per Registrar Corp. So we can't tell you the exact specs here, but we can say that, per data sourced from Verywell Fit, an average cup of brewed coffee has 2.4 calories, no fat, fiber, or sugar, an insignificant 4.8 milligrams of sodium. It also usually contains trace amounts of potassium and magnesium. 

Let's again focus on the caffeine, because yes, you really can have too much caffeine. According to the FDA, 400 milligrams of caffeine per day is a generally acceptable safe limit for adults. Above that threshold, side effects like headache, insomnia, anxiousness, and nausea can occur. At three times that level, when caffeine is consumed in quick succession, there's a real danger of serious complications like seizures.

In moderation, there are many recognized benefits to a regular coffee habit, from a decreased risk of dementia, improved gut health, decreased inflammation, and lowered risk of developing type 2 diabetes (via Nutrition Review). That's not to mention the more immediate benefits of feeling more alert and focused, not to mention the fact that it's hard to beat the taste of a great cup of coffee. That's all the more true when it's paired with a bagel, muffin, donut, or another favorite morning treat.

Oh my yes, did we ever enjoy this coffee! The extra caffeine boost was purely icing on the cake, though we must say we do feel pretty alert now! But it was really all about the taste and the scent that came wafting from the coffee pot. The aroma you get as the mug rises toward your face and the first flavor sensations create the same olfactory sensation as stepping into a donut shop. That's because there is a notable sweetness to this coffee that comes through in the scent and taste, but it's not cloying or overbearing. Instead, it's well-balanced by classic rich and toasty coffee, as well as a mild bitterness and low acidity. 

You know how the sweet aroma of the donuts is balanced by the scent of brewing coffee at a Dunkin'? That's what you get when sipping here: balance. 

All those flavors are most pronounced in the long aftertaste of this blend. When enjoyed black, this coffee brings sweet notes that are lightly punctuated by blueberry and cinnamon and have a very mild and pleasant bitterness. Add milk (or your preferred plant-based alternative) and the sweetness increases while the bitterness nearly disappears. As for adding any sweeteners, we think that's gilding the lily and best avoided with this tasty coffee.