Coffee News
Coffee Review regularly publishes coffee tasting reports and 100-point wine-style coffee reviews as well as news and updates of interest to coffee lovers and our readers. News, updates, and blog posts below appear in reverse chronological order.
Three New Capsule Espresso Systems
Convenience-first single-serve coffee brewing devices are on a roll in North America, fueled by the success of the Keurig and its K-cup capsules. In Europe, where espresso rules, the Nespresso espresso system has had similar blockbuster success. Both systems use rigid capsules rather than tea-bag-like paper pods that characterized earlier (and less commercially successful) single-serve […]
How Does One Rate Milk!?
We’re currently testing new capsule espresso systems for July’s featured article. There are three: the Starbucks Verismo, the Keurig Rivo (with coffee capsules produced by Lavazza), and a dark horse, the Singolo, with machine and capsules produced in Italy and imported by a Canadian company with distribution in the United States. We are benchmarking these […]
What’s the Best Hawaiian Coffee?
Perhaps as we approach the All-American holiday of Independence Day, it’s appropriate to consider what the “best” American coffee is. And, given that Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows commercial quantities of coffee, it might naturally lead to the question “What’s the best Hawaiian coffee?” That is a question raised in a recent […]
Single-Serve Coffee and Espresso Reviews
Machines that utilize a pod, capsule, or K-Cup packed with ground coffee to brew a single serving of coffee (or espresso) are very popular. According to the latest data from the National Coffee Association, thirteen percent of the U.S. population drank coffee made in a single-cup brewer. We first evaluated coffees brewed on single-serve machines […]
Low Acid Coffees
We track the search terms that readers use to find CoffeeReview.com. Recently I noticed quite a few readers looking for information about low acid coffees. One reader was even trying to find out what acid was added to coffee. Well, to answer the question, acid is generally not ADDED to coffee. It occurs naturally and […]
Hype Meets the Cup: St. Helena Sandy Bay Estate
Some interesting green coffees have come into the lab recently. These were green samples, but you can probably find roasters who offer them via an Internet search. Those who have some history probably are aware that St. Helena, a tiny island located in the middle of the South Atlantic roughly between Brazil and Africa, is […]
A Brief, Early History of 100-Point Coffee Reviews
I was curious who received the first 90-point coffee review, which lead me to re-read the first Coffee Review article from 1997. Wow! “I have been convinced that the time has come to start assigning numerical rankings to cuppings as my counterparts have been doing for some time with wines, beers and cigars. These rankings […]
What Does a 96-Point Coffee Taste Like?
What does a 96-point coffee taste like? Well, you can find out for yourself. Three coffees in 2013 have received ratings of 96 points… and at least two of them are still available from the roasters. Our blind assessments of these remarkable coffees appear below. La Esmeralda Mario Carnaval 2012 Panama by George Howell Coffee/Terroir […]
Top-Rated Espressos from the First Half of 2013
As we approach the mid-way point of 2013, we decided to take a look back at the top espressos from the first half of the year. Six espressos earned 94 points, the highest score for an espresso so far in 2013. Three of these coffees are from U.S. roasters: Thirty-Thirty Coffee Co. by Momma Bear […]
Are Espressos A Bargain?
Coffee Review evaluates and rates coffees that are intended for both espresso and non-espresso brewing. We are agnostic on brewing method from the point of view of rating a coffee. So, it’s reassuring to see that the average posted score for espressos (92.10) by American roasters in the first half of 2013 is nearly identical […]
Some 2013 Best Value Coffees Still Available
Highly rated coffees that are also affordable sell quickly. We did a little checking around for you…. Some of this year’s best value 90+ rated coffees are still available: Johnson Brothers – Ulos Batak Sumatra Peaberry – 95 points – $14.99/12 ounces – http://bit.ly/18D4gMC Lexington Coffee – Sumatra Mandheling Wahana – 94 points – $13.50/12 […]
The High Price of Coffee in Taiwan
Yesterday, we noted that the average price of a 90+ point coffee from U.S. roasters in 2013 is $22.13 per pound. Count your blessings if you’re a consumer in the United States. In 2013, we’ve reviewed 23 coffees rated 90+ from Taiwan. The average score was nearly identical to the U.S. average: 92.0 vs. 92.1 […]
What You’ll Pay for a 90-Point Coffee
At Coffee Review, we cup coffees on a blind basis. To be completely objective, we hide the identity of the roasters and coffees until after scores are determined and tasting notes are completed. When we cup, we don’t know the price of the coffee either. It’s irrelevant from a cupping point of view. However, it’s […]
Promising Sumatras
Due to Kenneth David’s rugged travel schedule over the past several weeks, the June issue of Coffee Review, which features coffees from Sumatra, is behind schedule. We expect to post the article and reviews within the week. Sorry for the delay. Reports from the Coffee Review lab on the samples we’ve received are very positive. […]
Lighter and Brighter: Single-Origin Espressos
Coffees from a single farm or cooperative roasted for espresso preparation – aka “single-origin” or simply “SO” espressos – are now a familiar presence on high-end coffee menus and counters in North America, and in many East Asian countries as well. But it was not so long ago that the argument ran that a single […]
Not Your Same Old Panama Coffees
It’s a tribute to how much the specialty coffee world has changed over the last ten years that the style of coffee traditionally associated with Panama – clean, soft, balanced, gently fruit- and floral-toned – hardly showed up among the coffees nominated by roasters for this month’s article. True, Panama coffees of any kind very […]
Benchmarking the New Starbucks and Peet’s Medium Roasts
When Starbucks, bowing to changing tastes in coffee, debuted two “Blonde” medium-roasted blends a couple of weeks ago, reaction among the blogging and tweeting cadres of coffee observers was predictable. One of our readers wrote that she didn’t want to bias us before we tested the new Starbucks blends, but for her they tasted like […]
The Complexity of Coffee: Aroma Profiling Isn’t Just for Wine
Proper Aroma/Flavor profiling is all too often neglected in Coffee. Coffee Aromas/Flavors are essential to understanding and appreciating coffee. As in wine, coffee gets its aromas or flavors from the soil and the climatic environment in which the coffee plant grows. The coffee variety (genetic) and the method in which the green coffee was processed […]
The Aeropress Coffee Maker
About five years ago or so Alan Adler, the inventor of the Aerobie Flying Disk, created the Aeropress because he wanted a cup of coffee was full and rich, similar to the results from a French press but with cleaner, less acidy attributes. After some experiments and prototyping, Alder solicited feedback about his creation from […]
The Presso Non-Electric Home Espresso Machine
If you frequent any one of the high end specialty coffee shops around the country these days you have observed the popular revival of manual, hands-on brewing. The movement has spawned books and blogs and even contests world-wide, but I think that the most beneficial thing to come out of it all is the consumer […]
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