Headquartered in Monrovia, California, Trader Joe’s is a chain of markets with almost 600 locations across the United States. Unlike a typical chain supermarket, Trader Joe’s curates a selection of products that lean more heavily toward gourmet items and things not easily found elsewhere. Many of their products are private label, meaning Trader Joe’s strikes […]
South America
Review: Native Coffee Company Colombia Hachi – Kintsugi (Dallas, Texas)
Native Coffee Company‘s exceptional roasts been the best discovery I’ve made in coffee in years, and the fact that they have a showroom/cafe based here in Dallas (where I’m based) makes it even better! This roaster has a special line of beans called Hachi (focusing on innovative coffee processing techniques), and while most of the […]
Review: Native Coffee Company Colombia Lumen (Dallas, Texas)
After my utter delight tasting and reviewing Native’s Golden Hour, I was very much looking forward to trying more offerings from this roaster. As before, I took the company’s advice and waited 4 weeks from roast date to crack open the bag. It was WELL worth it. Whole bean: Guava and cheesecake! My goodness, what […]
Review: Cherry Coffee Co. Colombia La Roca (Fort Worth, Texas)
This is the second bag that I picked up from Cherry Coffee Co. during their recent appearance at the Dallas Coffee Festival. Unlike the Hang Around Blend I reviewed previously, which is a wonderful medium-roast blend intended for espresso, the Colombia La Roca is a limited-edition light-roasted single-origin bean. Whole bean: Gorgeous fruity aroma like […]
Review: Cherry Coffee Co. Hang Around Espresso Blend (Fort Worth, Texas)
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: Native Coffee Company Colombia 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 […]