I had my first experience with Ritual Coffee Roasters while visiting Cognoscenti Coffee in the Los Angeles area, and I was really impressed with the quality of the beans and the flavor that I received in that cup (chocolate, plum, spice). However, I have yet to order online directly from Ritual because 1) their coffee […]
Author: Margaret
Review: Stumptown Coffee Roasters Sleigh Ride (Portland, Oregon)
I almost never buy “holiday blends,” but this bag was a nice surprise at a Whole Foods location in Phoenix during the Christmas holidays. Impressively, it was only 4 days off roast when I bought it! That’s exceptionally fresh coffee for retail, especially considering that the nearest Stumptown roasting facility is in Los Angeles. I […]
Review: Blue Bottle Perfectly Ground for Pour Over (Oakland, California)
When I bought Blue Bottle’s Kenya Embu Gikirima in whole bean format, I placed an order at the same time for the same coffee in Perfectly Ground, ground for pourover. Perfectly Ground is the name for Blue Bottle’s new line of coffee which has been ground and then directly sealed in individual oxygen-free bags so […]
Review: Blue Bottle Kenya Embu Gikirima (Oakland, California)
Technically, I purchased this coffee at the end of 2016 and wrote up notes on it very soon after purchase, but I wanted to save the review to start the new year off with a bang, and Blue Bottle seemed like a good roaster to start this blog off on the right foot in 2017! […]
The best of 2016
It’s that time again! I had fun recalling the last 12 months of coffee adventures, though I realized that my coffee consumption was down from this time last year. In 2015, I was generally aiming to write two bean reviews a week, but I found that schedule to be unsustainable; in 2016, I was pretty […]
Review: Flight Coffee Kenya Rutuma (Wellington, New Zealand)
Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to the North Island of New Zealand. What a heartbreakingly beautiful country (and I know I didn’t even come close to seeing even 10% of its beauty!). About half of my trip was spent in the capital city of Wellington. Wellington is an incredible city – it reminded […]
Review: Batdorf and Bronson Kenya AA Gatumbi (Atlanta, Georgia)
This is the second of two bags I picked up from the Batdorf and Bronson cafe in Atlanta (the first was their excellent Dancing Goats Blend). I’m always intrigued by Kenyan coffees as no two of them have ever been quite the same, so I was curious what awaited me in this bag. Whole bean: […]
Review: Batdorf and Bronson Dancing Goats Blend (Atlanta, Georgia)
Before I started this blog, I had asked my Facebook friends to recommend some coffees to try out, and one of those coffees mentioned was this one – Batdorf and Bronson’s Dancing Goats Blend (thanks, Sara!). It took me close to two years to get around to trying it, but better late than never! Batdorf […]
Taste test: black teas
Coffee will always be my favorite pick-me-up, but I was inspired by my recent trip to the UK to learn more about tea. I’ve had a long history with coffee, but my experience with tea has been pretty minimal. I drank stuff like Chinese restaurant tea, oolong tea, and jasmine tea growing up, but it […]
Review: Chromatic Coffee Voyager Blend (San Jose, California)
Most of the time, when I buy coffee, I buy coffee that I haven’t tried before, so that I have stuff to write about for this blog. However, every now and then I’ll buy an old favorite, just to have an opportunity to simply enjoy the coffee without over-analyzing it. It’s sort of like when […]