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
Journal
Coffee Review publishes regularly scheduled monthly coffee tasting reports according to our editorial calendar as well 100-point wine-style coffee reviews throughout the month. Our Journal page is where we share news, updates, and general blog posts to keep readers and industry professionals up to date about Coffee Review and other topics of interest to coffee lovers.
Top Coffees by Category – 2018
In 2015, we began the practice of recognizing top coffees by category to focus attention on fine coffees that may not have earned a place on our Top 30 Coffees list. The coffees below may not have attracted the highest scores of the year but they merit recognition for their excellence nonetheless. For more information, visit our expanded rankings post from 2015. We tip our hat to our 2018 top
Best Value Coffees of 2018
Some readers seek coffees with highest scores regardless of price. Others look for great value, that is highly rated coffees that are also affordable relative to other similar quality coffees. The coffees below were singled out on our 2018 list of Top Coffees by Category as the best values in 2018. As of November 29, 2018, all of these fine coffees are available for sale on the roasters'
Shop the Top 30
Coffee Review's mission is to help consumers identify and purchase superior quality coffees and, in the process, help drive demand and increase prices to reward farmers and roasters who invest time, passion, and capital in producing high quality coffee beans. Many of our readers seek out highly rated coffees for their own enjoyment or as thoughtful gifts for coffee lovers. Coffees that appear
Top 30 Kicks Off November 23
On Friday, November 23, Coffee Review began revealing its list of the Top 30. As we have done for the past five years, our editors rank the most exciting coffees from the thousands we cupped over the course of the past year. We will select and rank these 30 exciting coffees and espressos based on quality (represented by overall rating), value (reflected by most affordable price per pound), and
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
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,
Top Value Coffees of 2017
Some readers seek coffees with the highest scores. Others look for great value. What if you want both? The coffees below were singled out on our 2017 list of Top Coffees by Category as the best value in 2017. As December 15, 2017, all six of these fine coffees are available for sale on the roasters' websites. Best Values - Espressos No. 13 Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Flight Seasonal
Shop the 2017 Top 30
Coffee Review's mission is to help consumers identify and purchase superior quality coffees and, in the process, help drive demand and increase prices to reward farmers and roasters who invest time, passion, and capital in producing high quality coffee beans. Many of our readers seek out highly rated coffees for their own enjoyment or as thoughtful gifts for coffee lovers. Coffees that appear
Top Coffees by Category – 2017
In the past, our Top 30 Coffees lists tended to favor high-scoring coffees produced from botanical varieties of Arabica with striking sensory properties such as Geshas, coffees from the distinctive traditional Ethiopian varieties, Kenyan coffees, and so on. In 2015, we began the practice of recognizing coffees by category to focus attention on fine coffees from other parts of the world and/or
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
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
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
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
Reader Survey Complete
In late December 2016 and early January 2017, nearly 600 Coffee Review readers completed a survey about their coffee preferences and habits. One lucky survey participant, Skip K, was randomly chosen as the winner of our January 15 drawing for $250. Congratulations, Skip! We are compiling and analyzing the survey results and will share them later in the month.
Category Rankings – 2016
In the past, our Top 30 Coffees lists tended to favor high-scoring coffees produced from botanical varieties of Arabica with striking sensory properties such as Geshas, coffees from the distinctive traditional Ethiopian varieties, Kenyan coffees, and so on. Last year, we began the practice of recognizing coffees by category to focus attention on fine coffees from other parts of the world and/or
Q&A With Tony Greatorex of Red Rooster Coffee Roaster
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
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
June Tasting Report: Coffees from Australia
Australia is one of the most vibrant of the consuming world’s coffee cultures. I recall visiting Sydney some years ago and being astounded by the size of the crowd of consumer visitors and the quality of the espressos being served in the booths of roasters and cafés at a local coffee festival. But despite the vitality of the Australian coffee tradition Coffee Review has never reviewed an
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
