Review: Kuma Coffee Ethiopia Suke Quto (Seattle, Washington)

I had last tried beans from Kuma Coffee back in 2015, not long after I had started this blog. I remember liking their coffee for its fruity, bright notes, but I also remember struggling a bit in my first tasting because I was picking up on a papery taste from the unbleached filter I was […]

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: Roseline Coffee First Flowers Spring Blend (Portland, Oregon)

Roseline Coffee is one of my favorite roasters to order from when I’m in the mood for something special. I follow them on Instagram and when I saw this coffee pop up on my feed, I knew I had to try it. It’s one of the prettiest bags of coffee I’ve seen in a while, […]

Review: Black Diesel Coffee Guatemala Huehuetenango (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

This is the second bag of coffee I received from Black Diesel Coffee. Black Diesel is a craft coffee company dedicated to quality, community, and coffee education. I haven’t had a chance to visit their shop in person yet (not surprising, since I live in Texas and the global pandemic is still going on!) but […]

Review: Black Diesel Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

I’ve enjoyed drinking coffee for decades, but I still remember the one coffee that changed everything, the one that awakened my senses and introduced me to a world I never knew existed. The coffee was a natural-processed Ethiopian, and I remember marveling at its sweetness, the blueberry aroma, and how much I enjoyed drinking it […]

Review: Simple Beans Guatemala Jovenes (La Jolla, California)

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 […]

Review: Simple Beans FUCK COVID-19 Social Distancing Blend (La Jolla, California)

Did the name of this blend catch your attention? It sure caught mine!! I haven’t been super motivated to write new coffee reviews lately; my energy level these days is lower than usual (from stress) and I sort of unofficially decided not to create more work for myself by accepting new beans for review. So […]

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: Drum Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Banko Gotiti FTO (Missoula, Montana)

I first heard about Drum Coffee via my friend Brandon, a fantastically talented percussionist who happened to stop in at one of their locations while on a road trip. My first reaction to the roaster’s name was, ha, nice pun (since I figured they use a drum roaster to roast their coffee beans). But on […]

Review: Kona Roasted Coffee 100% Hilo (Kona, Hawaii)

Hilo is located on the northeastern end of the big island of Hawaii, and this area experiences one of the highest levels of rainfall of anywhere in the world (around 300 days a year), which makes growing coffee a challenge. The resulting crop is small and rare; this will never be a coffee that will […]