Chocolate lovers, you’re gonna want to check this out! I will sometimes get asked by friends for help with finding a new coffee. For those people that really enjoy chocolaty, nutty, sweet black coffees, I usually think that grabbing a medium-roasted Guatemalan, Brazilian, or Mexican coffee is a good place to start (just check the […]
Espresso
Review: Drum Coffee Luigi Blend Traditional Italian Espresso Blend (Missoula, Montana)
When I started getting into specialty coffee, one “rule” I heard a lot was that you do not need an “espresso” blend to make espresso. This is true. I’ve had some amazing espresso shots pulled from single-origin coffees, and I’ve had terrific drip coffee made from beans marketed for espresso. However, not all beans are […]
Review: Intelligentsia Coffee Black Cat Analog Espresso (Chicago, Illinois)
The first time I tried Intelligentsia’s Black Cat Analog Espresso was in a coffee shop. I was in Northern California for work back in 2015 and had a beautifully pulled shot at Vero’s Coffee Bar in San Jose. I enjoyed it so much, I use the photo of it that I took as an example […]
Review: Taylors of Harrogate Tim Peaks Coffee (Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England)
People from all walks of life are fond of their caffeinated beverages, but I feel like the most creatively inclined people I know have a disproportionate level of interest in the quality of their coffee and tea. Perhaps it’s an occupational hazard (work that’s rife with attention to detail!), perhaps musicians and artists are just […]
Review: Sub Pop Black Vinyl Blend (Seattle, Washington)
On my way home from Vancouver, my Last Port of Call was the SeaTac airport. It seems I Keep Coming Back to the Sub Pop store that’s in the airport (I’ve browsed their wares on at least two other occasions), but with a nearly 4-hour layover, it was the perfect way for me to spend […]
Review: 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters Old School Espresso (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Of the seven bags of coffee I purchased during my time in Vancouver, I’d say this bag from 49th Parallel was the only one specifically marketed as espresso (the Matchstick Catalogue No. 39 was described as being fine for both espresso and coffee), so I was pretty excited to see what it would be like […]
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 […]
Review: 2% Jazz Coffee Espresso Blend (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
When I started this blog back in 2015, my intent was for it to simply be my coffee diary. I never expected anyone else to be interested in what I had to say, so it was flattering when I started getting traffic to this site from people other than my friends and family, and it […]
Review: ManLao River Coffee Munroe Butterfly Espresso (Kunming, Yunnan, China)
This is the second bag I had the pleasure of trying from ManLao River Coffee; for more details about them and about the coffee industry in China, check out my previous post. ManLao River’s description of their Munroe Butterly Espresso sums up their goal with this espresso blend better than I could, so I’ll just […]
Review: Intelligentsia Coffee Honey Badger Espresso (Chicago, Illinois)
During my short visit to Chicago in February, I popped into Intelligentsia Coffee’s Monadnock location and picked up this bag of their Honey Badger Espresso. They had lots of really fresh beans that day, but I was curious to see if I would like this better than their Black Cat Classic. Whole bean: Fresh, fruity, […]