I attended the inaugural Dallas Coffee Festival earlier this month and had a good time exploring the booths of many local roasters, about half of which I’d not yet heard of. Novel Coffee Roasters is a Dallas-area roaster I’ve enjoyed many times, and I was intrigued to see they were sharing their booth with a […]
Review: Heart Coffee Roasters Kenya Spikes PB (Portland, Oregon)

This is the last bag from my recent order from Heart. Right from the start, when I cut open the bag, the coffee smelled strong and fragrant. It bodes well, especially since I thought the last bag I reviewed from Heart was underwhelming! Whole beans: Buttery, rich, sweet fragrance. Definite notes of butterscotch and a […]
Review: Heart Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Habtamu Fikadu (Portland, Oregon)

Coffees from Ethiopia, and specifically from the Yirgacheffe region, have been a go-to for me for years, so I was interested to see what these beans via Heart had to offer. Whole beans: Subtle and sweet aroma of berries and gentle florals. On a scale of 1-10 in terms of how fragrant the beans were, […]
Review: Native Coffee Company Golden Hour (Dallas, Texas)

This coffee is incredible. It’s easily the best coffee I’ve had from a Dallas-area roaster, and it rivals some of the most enjoyable coffee I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world. Let’s dive in! From the Native Coffee Company‘s website: NATIVE is the exclusive roastery + showroom of Diego Bermudez (Co-Owner of NATIVE). Diego is […]
Review: Heart Coffee Roasters Ethiopia Mullugeta Muntasha (Portland, Oregon)

It’s been a while since I’ve had the motivation to review a coffee… life has been busy and to be quite honest, I’ve been drinking coffee mostly out of necessity rather than enjoyment. There’s a certain amount of mental energy I need to have available in order to analyze what I’m tasting, and I just […]
Review: West Berkshire Roastery Signature Gold Espresso Beans (Berkshire, England)

Despite the current trend in specialty coffee leaning toward fruity, juicy light roasts (which I love!), I think that a really good medium/medium-dark roast coffee is a thing of beauty, and it is something that goes under-appreciated these days. There’s something supremely comforting about a cup that has toasty, fragrant notes of chocolate, nuts, and […]
Review: 49th Parallel Ethiopia Halo Beriti (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

Vancouver is one of my favorite cities that I’ve ever visited, and while on a short trip to Seattle earlier this year, I made a somewhat spur-of-the-moment decision to hop on a bus and spend a day in Vancouver. While there, I made it a priority to find my way to a 49th Parallel Cafe […]
Review: Rare Bird Coffee Roasters Colombia La Hermosa (Falls Church, Virginia)

I visited the Rare Bird Coffee Roasters cafe in early January 2023. Normally, I prefer to drink black coffee, but if I see an unusual item on a cafe’s menu, I’ll try it out of curiosity. That morning, I tried their cardamom vanilla latte (very sweet, creamy, and dessert-like), and picked up a bag of […]
Review: Ceremony Coffee Roasters Synthesis Blend (Annapolis, Maryland)

I’ve had the pleasure of trying coffee from Ceremony Coffee Roasters before; in addition to their single-origins, they offer blends with nerdy names, and I had made a mental note that someday, I wanted to try their Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis blends. The packaging makes it appear that the Thesis is light, Antithesis is dark, […]
Review: Ceremony Coffee Roasters Antithesis Blend (Annapolis, Maryland)

I’ve had the pleasure of trying coffee from Ceremony Coffee Roasters before; in addition to their single-origins, they offer blends with nerdy names, and I had made a mental note that someday, I wanted to try their Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis blends. The packaging makes it appear that the Thesis is light, Antithesis is dark, […]