We know the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle is a thoroughly conceived and unprecedentedly spectacular coffee space and facility. But what about the coffees it produces? For our June article we have changed direction rather radically, and in place of our originally planned survey of “Big Box” store coffees, we will publish the results of some blind testing of Starbucks reserve
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.
2015 World Barista Champ Crowned
The 2015 World Barista Champion is Sasa Sestic from Ona Coffee in Canberra, Australia. A total of 49 National Barista Champions competed in the 16th World Barista Championship, which took place over four days in Seattle this past weekend, as part of the Specialty Coffee Association of America annual coffee conference. The World Barista Championship is an annual event for national barista
What’s In a Name?
It would come as no surprise to industry professionals or even your average coffee lover that specialty coffees have become, well, more specialized over the years. Nowadays, coffees are segmented and differentiated by every conceivable measure: by country of origin, farm, varietal, crop year, processing method, micro-lot, altitude, roast, blend... you name it. That's a good thing. It's a sign
April Fools’ Coffee: 100-point O’Ima Lion Farms
Yesterday, in the spirit of April Fools' Day, we posted a 100-point review for O'Ima Lion Farms April No. 1 Natural by San Veritas Roasters. In case you missed it, the spoof appears below: Coffee Review has never awarded 100 points to a coffee. Since 1997, twelve coffees have earned a score of 97 points. Of the twelve, four are geishas, three were Kenyas, two were Ethiopias, two were
Ranking U.S. States by Readership
Yesterday, we shared some Coffee Review readership data by country in a piece called "Where is Coffee Hot in 2015: By Country." Perhaps not surprisingly, the United States is the country with the greatest Coffee Review readership and readership per capita. Today, we take a closer look at how readership and growth varies by U.S. state. Obviously, a big driver of traffic is the population of each
Where is Coffee Hot in 2015: By Country
In 2013, we shared some Coffee Review readership data in a piece titled "Who Cares about Coffee Anyway." It proved popular so we updated and expanded the information in a series of blog posts in early 2014 that looked at readership by city, state, and country. We've updated the data with a quick look at reader data in early 2015. As in the past, we looked at the data three ways: overall
Top 30 Coffees of 2014
We are pleased to present our Top 30 Coffees of 2014, Coffee Review’s second annual ranking of the most noteworthy coffees we reviewed over the past year. We selected and ranked these exceptional coffees and espressos based on quality (represented by overall rating), value (reflected by most affordable price per pound), and consideration of other factors that include distinctiveness of style,
Starbucks: Judging Reserve and Reserving Judgment
The recently debuted Starbuck's Reserve Roastery in Seattle is garnering a lot of attention. Starbucks describes their new venture as an "Immersive Combination of Cafe, Roastery, and Restaurant" that offers the"Rarest of Coffees from Around the Globe, Roasted to Perfection." Roast Magazine and Daily Coffee News have published a couple pieces about it: Inside Starbucks' New Reserve Line HQ,
Coffee in Cuba
MSN recently published an article that lists "The World's Best Cities for Coffee." The piece doesn't offer much explanation for its selection criteria other than a short introduction: "When traveling, coffee lovers need to know where to go to escape the substandard American-style brew most hotels serve. There are cities that define themselves by their coffee culture, and that should not go
How Does Starbucks Rate?
Today, MSN Money Market Watch features an article titled "10 things Starbucks won't tell you." It's an interesting piece that shares mostly negative information such as Starbuck's famous Pumpkin Spice Lattes (PSL) contains chemicals and artificial colorings but no actual pumpkin. And, the Double Chocolatey Chip Frappuccino has more than 500 calories. According to the article, the first thing
October Article: HarVee Award Winners
For our October article we will report on the results of a competition among roasters at the interesting Let’s Talk Coffee event coming up in Panama October 9-12. As a result, our October tasting article will be published on Monday, October 20. Let’s Talk Coffee is a long-running annual event sponsored by coffee exporter/importer Sustainable Harvest. It attracts several hundred coffee
HarVee Roaster Awards, Let’s Talk Coffee, Panama
I’ve been at the Let’s Talk Coffee annual event in Panama over the last few days, and this last Thursday night presented awards to roasters for best retail-roasted presentation of coffees sold (as green coffee) by Sustainable Harvest, a long-established specialty green coffee importer whose business model is built around building sustainability throughout the coffee supply chain. Coffee Review was
Cupping Calendar Changes
The article “Coffees of a Single Variety, from a Single Lot,” originally scheduled for publication in October, has been postponed to November, with cupping occurring in October. Submissions for this article (“Coffees of a Single Variety, from a Single Lot”) should reach Coffee Review between October 14 and October 23. Roasters may not submit more than two samples for this cupping. Samples for
Iselle Not Too Bad?
We heard from Kelleigh and Brandon at Big Island Coffee Roasters. It's great to hear that they didn't get hit too bad: First of all, thanks so much for your concern and support! All in all, we didn't get hit too bad, though we may not have power or steady internet connection until next week. Fortunately, we have a rusty, old generator to power the coffee roasters on! Thanks to our wind
Iselle Makes Landfall in Hawaii
We're tracking the progress of tropical storm Iselle, which is bringing 60 mph winds and heavy rains to the coffee growing areas in Hawaii. According to the Weather Channel, Iselle made landfall at 2:30 a.m. HST about five miles east of Pahala in the Ka'u growing district. There have already been reports of structural damage, trees downed, power outages, and some flooding. Roofs were reportedly
Welcome to Our New Site
Welcome to our new website. If you have visited CoffeeReview.com in the past, the new look and feel will be obvious. We've added new navigation and search functionality to make it easier to find the articles, reviews, and blogs that you are looking for. The website will be faster and more stable. For visitors using a mobile device, the site should be much easier to read and browse. We're
Hawaii Reviews Coming Soon
Our August tasting article, featuring coffees from Hawaii, should post on Wednesday, August 6. Not a lot of Konas – apparently the small Kona farmers who retail their coffees directly to consumers have more demand than they have coffee and so feel they have nothing to gain by risking a review. Nevertheless, we will report on a handful of very fine Konas with their quiet distinction well served by
Meet Our New Mascot – Lani
We're pleased to introduce Coffee Review's new mascot, Lani. Very sweet but, yes, we resisted suggestions to name her Sugar. Coffee has never tasted as good as it does after 4:30 am wake-up calls for potty training.
Home Roaster Competition 2014: A Long Way from Iron Skillets
Recently Henry Chang, a passionate home coffee roaster (when he’s not pursuing his successful career as an obstetrician/gynecologist), sponsored a contest for his home roaster Internet correspondents. He asked Coffee Review to act as judge. As busy as we were, we agreed, since both my co-cupper Jason Sarley and I are strong supporters of the home roasting community even though our reviewing work
U.K. Coffee Reviews
In 2013, we reviewed coffees from 12 countries, namely the United States, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, China, Netherlands, Guatemala, Italy, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, and Sweden. The United Kingdom was noticeably absent from the list. London (and the U.K. in general) has a thriving specialty coffee scene that rivals that of other well known U.S. coffee-crazy cities like Seattle
