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 […]
South America
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 […]
Review: 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Colombia El Madrigal (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
The one Canadian roaster I was familiar with (just from my time browsing coffee forums) was 49th Parallel, so I knew that I needed to definitely make finding their coffee a priority. I had hoped that Revolver Coffee would be carrying some (with no car on this trip, it would have been nice to have […]
Review: Matchstick Catalogue No. 39 (Vancouver, Canada)
This bag from Matchstick was the third and final bag I purchased from my trip to Revolver Coffee in Vancouver. On the shelf, it was listed as espresso, but the bag indicates that it can be prepared as both espresso and as filter coffee. I was so overwhelmed by the huge amount of coffee I […]