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 […]

Review: True Coffee Roasters Costa Rica Finca Calle Lajas (Madison, Wisconsin)

This is the second coffee I was sent by the nice folks at True Coffee Roasters. I enjoyed tasting their Ethiopia Guji, and part of the reason I opted to try it first is that Ethiopian coffee is one of my favorites – I’ve rarely met an Ethiopian coffee I didn’t like. Costa Rican coffee […]

Review: Rare Earth Coffee Bold Roast (Fresno, California)

This is the second of two coffees I received for testing from Rare Earth Coffee. The first, their House Roast, was roasted quite darkly in my opinion for a medium roast, so I had anticipated that this Bold Roast, which is labeled as a dark roast, would be significantly darker. However, I was in for […]

Review: Parlor Coffee Colombia Los Angeles (Brooklyn, New York)

A quick trip over Spring Break gave me a chance to pop by Fleet Coffee in Austin. I had been given a heads up by a friend that it was the sort of place that would have roasters I like, and he was right! Choosing coffees to take home was hard as they were all […]

Review: Sparrow Coffee Ethiopia Guji (Chicago, Illinois)

I can’t even remember now how Sparrow Coffee got on my radar, but they were the one Chicago-based roaster for whom I was willing to go out of my way in order to buy their beans. I even scheduled my Friday flight to arrive in enough time that I could get to their roastery before […]

Review: Prosum Roasters Colombia Paraiso Jose Ignacio Gomez (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

This is the second coffee I got over the holidays from Prosum Roasters; you can read more about their company mission and my visit to their roastery here. Whole bean: There was just the barest sheen of oil on these beans. Very evenly roasted. Once the hot water hit the beans, there was a wild […]

Review: PT’s Coffee Roasting Company Ethiopia Gedeo Natural (Topeka, Kansas)

Kansas might not be the state in the U. S. that first comes to mind when thinking about states with great coffee roasters, but I’ve been wanting to investigate coffee from PT’s for quite some time now, after seeing them mentioned on multiple “best of” lists over the past couple of years. It’s a new […]

Review: West Oak Coffee Milk and Honey Blend (Denton, Texas)

Every time I visit Denton, Texas, I marvel at how much it’s changed since I was doing graduate work at the University of North Texas in the early 2000s. Denton has always had a counterculture vibe, with people taking pride in their differences and individuality, but the city has grown in the last 15 years […]

Review: Flight Coffee Kenya Rutuma (Wellington, New Zealand)

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to the North Island of New Zealand. What a heartbreakingly beautiful country (and I know I didn’t even come close to seeing even 10% of its beauty!). About half of my trip was spent in the capital city of Wellington. Wellington is an incredible city – it reminded […]

Review: Birch Coffee Emma’s Espresso (Long Island City, New York)

The end of June saw me taking a very short trip (24 hours) to New York City for a concert (Stone Roses at Madison Square Garden). While there, I naturally had to pick up some coffee! I was limited to what I could find within walking distance of Midtown, but luckily for me, there were […]