How did you end up as a coffee-roaster? I worked at Starbucks for a few years, then discovered the larger world of independent specialty coffee when I moved to southwest Virginia and started working at a newly opened local shop. There, I met Haden Polseno-Hensley, the co-owner of Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, a small, young roasting company that was providing some of the beans we used. Haden
Costa Rica 2016: Innovation and Success in a Changing Market
It has been more than a decade since Coffee Review explored Costa Rica coffees in depth, though we cup many individual samples each year from this small, coffee-celebrated Central American country. In the last year alone, we reviewed 26 Costa Rica coffees at ratings of 91 to 96, including one, Temple Coffee’s Costa Rica Alberto Guardia Venecia Honey (94), which landed at the #17 spot on our 2015
Learning from Sumatras
I’ve been cupping coffee professionally for less than a year. Ken Davids first hired me at Coffee Review last August, given that my background in food and wine writing, as well as in academia, seemed a good enough calling card to dip into the world of coffee. But, of course, in order to properly do this work, I would need to be trained in cupping, the rigorous sensory evaluation of coffee. While
April Tasting Report Posts April 7
This month's tasting report looks at how six national coffee brands fare in a cupping of their online whole-bean offerings. First, we look at several small companies that have grown large and national, while still trying to preserve the special standing they established early on among consumers. Then we examine two much larger companies that grew up riding the previous “wave” of specialty coffee
Roasters: Send Us your “Macro-Lot” Samples
We review many superb “micro-lots” at Coffee Review, small lots of special, extremely refined green coffees. For next month, however, we are reviewing what we are calling “macro-lot” coffees, coffees produced from large lots of green coffee, coffees that are likely to be sold over weeks or months, and represent the sort of staple offerings that anchor a roaster’s regular business, week in and week
