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 […]
South America
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: 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: 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: Devoción Coffee Honey House Blend (Brooklyn, New York)

Early on in my specialty coffee journey, I learned about the “rule of 15s”: for best flavor, use ground coffee within 15 minutes, roasted whole bean coffee within 15 days, and green coffee within 15 months. If this rule of thumb holds true across the industry, that means many coffee roasters could be working with […]
Review: Tweed Coffee Two-Step Decaf, Sugarcane Process (Dallas, Texas)

Most of the time when I’m doing coffee tastings, I have to evaluate the coffee first thing in the morning because caffeine lingers so long in my system, I can’t sleep properly if I consume caffeine later in the day. It can be a little hard to properly enjoy the coffee if I’m bleary-eyed from […]
Review: Roseline Coffee Oro Seasonal Blend (Portland, Oregon)

Every now and then, I come across a coffee that I feel like virtually everyone will like, that will please a wide variety of palates and make folks happy to drink every morning. This is one of those coffees! On their website, Roseline has this description for this blend: When coffee has been processed and […]
Review: Sudden Coffee Intelligentsia Colombia Tres Santos (4-pack, instant coffee)

Instant coffee is not a new concept; it’s been around for decades. However, over the past few years, there’s been an increased interest amongst craft coffee roasters in making convenient yet high-quality coffee options available to customers. When I’m at home, I always grind and brew fresh, but when I’m traveling, sometimes I would like […]
Review: Square Mile Coffee Roasters Ecuador Vitaliano Merino (London, England)

Square Mile Coffee Roasters really blew me away when I tried their Ethiopia Mormora and Red Brick Espresso last year, so I was very much looking forward to having another chance to pick up some of their beans. Due to my tight schedule on my last visit, I opted to order online and have the […]
Review: Taylors of Harrogate Ecuador New Wave (Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England)

I chose to purchase this coffee at the same time that I ordered Taylors of Harrogate’s Tim Peaks Coffee. As I noted in my other review, Taylors of Harrogate sells their coffee in smaller bags than standard in the US (their bags are 120 grams in size, which is a bit over 4 ounces), so […]