The Coffee From Aldi I'll Never Buy Again. Here's Why

If you like coffee, it's a good time to be alive. There's a new crop of rising coffee chains ready to take over in 2026, and grocery store shelves abound with different brews and flavors.  Aldi's private label coffee, Barissimo, has plenty of excellent coffee products. Not all coffee is good coffee, though, and Barissimo's Midnight Blend dark roast misses the mark significantly.

In this era of expansive coffee choices, it becomes even more important to be aware of which products to skip. One grocery store shelf is likely to carry coffee from at least three continents. Grocery shoppers today can choose between grounds, K-Cups, and cold brew. You can choose light, medium, or dark roast. And if you're an Aldi shopper, all of these options are available at prices befitting the cheapest grocery store in America. Just, for the sake of your breakfast, heed my warning. Don't drink the Barissimo Midnight Blend dark roast.

Barissimo's midnight blend is not merely dark. It's the color of wet soil and tastes ashen. Have you ever burnt toast and thought you could cover the mistake with butter and jelly? Then you discover, to your taste buds' horror, that nothing is softening that overwhelming char? That's the taste this coffee gives with every sip. You can believe me on that — I despise food waste, so I brewed and drank the whole bag. It took two weeks, and one of my favorite parts of the day morphed into an endurance test.

There is no complexity or body here. Some coffee bags will advertise tasting notes on their packaging. Barissimo Midnight Blend would be disingenuous to do this. This coffee is more one-note than a Gregorian chant, and that note is ash.

If I can take a minute to establish my coffee bona fides: I drink between three and five cups a day, I like my coffee black, and on the rare occasions I consume Starbucks, I opt for dark roast. My best friend is the kitchen lead at a coffee shop, and his recommendations to me always include adjectives like "smoky," "nutty," or "full-bodied." It pains me to write negative words about a dark roast, especially one from my favorite grocery store. When the Aldi 2026 Valentine's Day Finds dropped, I immediately bought a Cupid's Brew coffee collection for both my wife and I. Barissimo's midnight blend, on the other hand? Never again.

Speaking of that Valentine's coffee collection — to everything, there is a season. The Byrds knew this, the Bible knew this, and Aldi makes it easy to remember this, with a whole aisle dedicated to rotating items. The coffee is easily one of the best parts of Aldi's commitment to seasonality. We've talked about seasonal Aldi items that should be permanent before, and of course, Barissimo flavored coffee made the list. When the pumpkin spice or chocolate coconut coffee is stocked? Those are good days, and not just because it's almost Halloween or it's time to go to the beach, respectively. The best of Barissimo's flavored brews don't let the flavor or the roast overwhelm the actual coffee taste. For example, the bourbon pecan tastes like a well-roasted cup of joe. There's no cloying sweetness and no gut punch of alcohol flavor. The vanilla and caramel of the bourbon and nuttiness of the pecan accentuate the coffee. 

Strangely enough, all of the flavored coffees I enjoy from Barissimo are light or medium roasts. If you're not into flavored coffee, the Colombian medium roast from Barissimo is pretty good. It doesn't make my taste buds dance like some of the flavored coffee, but it's a reliable roast for the right price.