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Kenneth Davids

Coffee Tasting Report: November 2019

Anaerobic Fermentation and Other Palate-Bending Processing Experiments

I recall that, in high school, teachers graded essays based on various conventional writing categories — grammar and diction, clarity, organization, etc. But most also gave credit for originality. Often, some friend’s paper would show weaknesses in regard to comma placement, word choice, and clear organization but attract a high grade for originality. Perhaps you could say that some of the

November 9, 2019
Tasting Report | Reviews

At Long Last, a 98-Point Coffee

For years, we have deflected criticisms that, on one hand, Coffee Review ratings are too high (though they are in line with wine reviews) and, on the other hand, that we never go past 97, even with coffees that propose a combination of flawless perfection with startling distinctiveness. I recall a conversation with George Howell, who years ago challenged me when we lavished great praise on one of

October 22, 2019
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Coffee’s Economic Paradox: $40 Charged in Paris, $3 Paid in Kenya

The Coffee Paradox, by Benoit Daviron and Stefano Ponte (Zed Books, 2005) analyzes at length the disturbing trend that, just as coffee has grown fashionable and retail prices for coffee have increased in regions where coffee is consumed, like North America, Europe and East Asia, the basic prices paid to growers for their green coffees have decreased, rather radically. In 1997 the composite price

September 20, 2019
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Tasting Report: The Coffees of Papua New Guinea

El Salvador Coffees 2019: Pacamaras, Bourbons and Change

When we focus a report on a single origin, in this case El Salvador, we try to time the report so that we are testing mainly freshly arrived coffees, coffees that represent the best of the year’s new crop. This year, however, we were a bit too early with our report timing. Many of the coffees we cupped early in July lacked vivacity and aromatic range, suggesting perhaps that they were last year’s

August 17, 2019
Tasting Report | Reviews

Women of Ketiara Cooperative harvesting coffee

Sumatra: Earth, Chocolate and Change

The pleasures of a fine traditional Sumatra are not quite conventional coffee pleasures. The characteristic layering of chocolate, pungent fruit and earth notes in an exceptional wet-hulled Sumatra may mildly turn off coffee drinkers who enjoy more orthodox coffee pleasures: juicier, sweeter fruit, say, or more citrus and flowers, or a suave balance with no savory earth suggestions at all. But

April 9, 2019
Tasting Report | Reviews

Top 30 Coffees of 2018

We are pleased to present the Top 30 Coffees of 2018, Coffee Review’s sixth annual ranking of the most exciting coffees we tested over the course of the past year. Coffee Review’s goal is to celebrate coffee roasters, farmers and mill-owners who make an extra effort to produce coffees that are not only superb in quality but also distinctive in character. In particular, we aim to honor the

January 1, 2019
Tasting Report | Reviews

The New (and Old) Instant Coffees: Convenience Aspires to Quality

It sounds easy enough. Brew the coffee, take out the water, keep the stuff that’s left, package it, and let the consumer put the water back in later. Coffee … instantly. But judging from the 24 soluble coffees we tested for our September tasting report, it isn’t quite as easy as it sounds.  It has always been difficult to judge whether the generally dreadful quality of instant coffee sold in

September 9, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

Natural-Process Espressos: Fruit and Chocolate Exalted

I recently led a tasting of fine coffees at a consumer event. Only one of these coffees was natural-processed, i.e., had been prepared at the mill by drying the coffee seeds or beans inside the whole fruit. The other samples were all washed coffees, processed by drying the beans after the fruit skin and flesh had been removed. The washed method is the traditional norm for fine coffee in most

August 14, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

Cold-Brewed Black Coffees: Quality in a Can?

As we sweat our way into summer 2018, enjoying coffee chilled on ice is peaking as the latest specialty coffee trend. Espresso, of course, has long appeared in various cold-blended café concoctions like frappés and smoothies, as well as in bottled ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages heavy on sweetener, milk and flavorings. But this latest cold coffee trend differs from those earlier products by

July 13, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

Origin Overview: Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, D.R. Congo

Origin Overviews is a series of reference articles on prominent coffee regions written by editor-in-chief Kenneth Davids. They are posted regularly in Coffee Review and will appear in print form in Kenneth Davids’ latest comprehensive book on coffee. This Origin Overview focuses on the regions clustered around the African Great Lakes region, and supports our June 2018 tasting report, “African

June 29, 2018
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Coffees from Brazil: Chocolate, Simplicity and Some Surprises

For more than 150 years, Brazil has produced more coffee than any other country in the world. Coffee prices worldwide fall and rise on the slightest whisper of good news or bad news about Brazil’s next coffee crop. Brazil also is among the world’s most technologically advanced coffee producers. Nevertheless, for buyers of high-end single-origin coffees, Brazil shrinks to something smaller than,

May 8, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

Value Coffees: Searching for the Exceptional at Everyday Prices

At Coffee Review, we often feel conflicting impulses and pressures in regard to coffee retail prices. On one hand, we feel strongly that high retail prices are essential to support producers as well as to honor our commitment to coffee as an extraordinary beverage. On the other, we want to be inclusive and recognize that many readers may not choose to pay a premium for brilliant microlot

March 9, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

The Top 30 Coffees of 2017

Top 30 Coffees of 2017

We are pleased to present our list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2017, Coffee Review’s fifth annual ranking of the most exciting coffees we reviewed over the course of the past year. Coffee Review’s goal, as always, is to celebrate coffee roasters, farmers and mill-owners who make an extra effort to produce coffees that are not only superb in quality but also distinctive in character. In particular,

January 1, 2018
Tasting Report | Reviews

Gesha Coffees 2017: Still Pricey, Still Amazing

I was at one of the Specialty Coffee Association’s Re:co Symposia a couple of years ago, where Jay Ruskey of Goodlands Organic, the pioneer of California coffee-growing, was displaying fresh branches of two varieties of coffee trees at his table outside the meeting rooms. Some of the branches were from the respected mainstream Caturra coffee variety, which is producing some very nice coffees on

September 8, 2017
Tasting Report | Reviews

Darker-Roasted Coffees: Confessions and Amends

Those readers sensitive to language and to shifting, overlapping tastes in the coffee world may have noticed the nuance in the title of this report: “darker-roasted” coffees rather than “dark-roasted.” When titling this report we wanted to avoid encouraging a polarization between those coffee drinkers who prefer at least a little (perhaps a lot) of the bittersweet pungency promoted by darker

August 10, 2017
Tasting Report | Reviews

Aged, Casked and Cured: Innovations in Green Coffee Conditioning

Green, unroasted coffee beans are porous and absorbent. As anyone in the industry knows from painful experience, green beans easily pick up odors from almost anything in their environment — paints stenciled on coffee bags, for example, concrete floors, petroleum residue in shipping containers, cardamom stored in the same warehouse. But where there is a problem there also may be an opportunity.

May 8, 2017
Tasting Report | Reviews

Reflecting on Two Decades of Coffee Review

Twenty years ago, Ron Walters, my colleague and co-founder of Coffee Review, arranged a meeting with me at a bar in a San Francisco hotel to discuss an idea he had for starting a publication that reviewed coffees with the same seriousness that other magazines reviewed wines. That was 1996. Some may recall that in 1996 there were no 100-point scoring systems for coffee anywhere, at any level of the

March 14, 2017
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Coffee, Yemen, and Trump’s Travel Ban

Coffee is, in its very nature, an international beverage, the product of a global community of producers, exporters, importers, roasters and coffee-loving consumers. Coffee is a continual, ongoing collaboration that brings together tens of thousands of individuals at international events, and that generates millions upon millions of emails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings among people of

February 8, 2017
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View Top 30 Coffees of 2016

Top 30 Coffees of 2016

We are pleased to present our list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2016, Coffee Review’s fourth annual ranking of the most exciting coffees we reviewed over the course of the past year. In 2016, we cupped thousands of samples and published nearly 400 coffee reviews. Approximately 90 of the reviewed coffees scored 94 points or higher. Obviously, all coffees earning scores of 94 points or more are

December 31, 2016
Tasting Report | Reviews

2015 Coffee Review cupping calendar

2017 Cupping Calendar

At the beginning of each month, we publish a new tasting report with reviews. The planned calendar for 2017 tasting reports is now available. The schedule is subject to change. Professional roasters are encouraged to nominate their own coffees. The window during which we accept coffees for these review articles is usually the fifth day through the twentieth day of the month prior to

December 22, 2016
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