A prize winner in the 2004 Nicaragua Cup of Excellence competition, where it placed first out of hundreds of entries, attracting a score of 91-plus from an international jury and selling at Internet auction for a then record-breaking price of $12.50 per pound as a green (unroasted) coffee. Certified organically grown. Produced from trees of the caturra variety of arabica on the Los Delirios farm
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Prize-Winning Central American Coffees from the Cup of Excellence
Competitions aimed at finding and rewarding the best green coffees from a given country and crop have proven to be one of the great success stories in the recent history of coffee. The farmers whose coffees prevail in these juried competitions receive recognition and significantly higher prices, while aficionado consumers are rewarded with access to refined lots of exceptional coffees that
Kenya Gaaki Central
Kenya is one of the world's most admired coffee origins. Intelligentsia is a leading, award-winning Chicago-area roaster with a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of print roast dates on its attractive coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more information.
Ethiopia Yirgacheffe
Its tendency to high-toned, floral and citrus sweetness has made Yirgacheffe, from a lushly beautiful range of hills in southern Ethiopia, one of the world?s most admired coffees. Intelligentsia is a leading, award-winning Chicago-area roaster with a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of print roast dates on its attractive coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call
Readers’ Nominations
Coffee Review readers nominated close to four hundred coffees for potential review over the past year or so. Here are my reviews of nineteen of those nominated coffees. Many of them were quite exciting; all were interesting. When selecting coffees for review from among those nominated I tried to balance between offerings of large companies that attracted multiple nominations (Starbucks, Caribou
Trotter’s Blend
Served at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago. The chef's innovative new American cuisine and Zagat-Survey-topping service have made his restaurant justifiably famous. Intelligentsia is a leading, award-winning Chicago-area roaster with a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more
Spring Blend
Served at Spring, a Chicago-area restaurant that serves much-praised Asian-influenced new American cuisine designed by chef Shawn McClain. Intelligentsia is a leading, award-winning Chicago-area roaster with a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more information.
El Salvador Los Inmortales
Los Inmortales is an exceptionally high-grown coffee from the often underappreciated origin of El Salvador. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more info.
Kenya
Kenya, always one of the world's most distinctive and admired coffee origins, seems to be having a particularly good year. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more information.
Holiday Gift Coffees
Like wine, coffee makes a modest but immediately gratifying and reassuringly consumable gift for the holidays. However, those who drink coffee drink it daily, so a gift of coffee needs simultaneously to be familiar enough to please but special enough to warrant celebration. We came up with a variety of strategies for identifying what might be special enough for the holidays, ranging from
Guatemala Fraijanes El Cuervo
Fraijanes is a lesser-known but well-established and very productive Guatemalan growing region. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more info.
Beyond Antigua: The “Other” Guatemalas
Some adjectives become so firmly stuck to coffee country names that they almost lose their meaning. Antigua and Guatemala may be such a combination, so familiar together that coffee drinkers either don't know that there are coffee-growing regions in Guatemala other than Antigua, or don't even know Antigua is a region, not just a mysterious coffee word that must mean something positive or people
Honduras Ocatepeque
This coffee placed fourth in the 2003 Honduras green coffee competition. Intelligentsia purchased a quantity of this prize winner from the importer, Volcafe Specialty Coffee of California, and will offer it as a single origin. Other roasters also may offer it. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized
Honduras Intibuca
Shade-grown on the Dionicio Sanchez farm, imported by Volcafe Specialty Coffee, and scheduled to be roasted as a single origin by Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters and perhaps by others. I evaluated this coffee based both on my own sample roast and a pre-production roast from Intelligentsia. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a
El Salvador Santa Ana
One of several El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition winners purchased by Intelligentsia Coffee Roasters. From trees of the heirloom bourbon variety of Coffea arabica. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. This coffee is expected to
The El Salvador and Honduras Adventure
For those coffee adventurers who take more pleasure in defining the unknown than in confirming the known, the coffees of El Salvador and Honduras offer intriguing opportunity. These two origins are the last of the six Spanish-speaking Central American countries to establish clear identities in the world of specialty coffee, yet both produce plenty of coffee, and, if this month's cupping is any
Kenya Thiriku
Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call 888-945-9786 for more info.
Panama La Torcaza
La Torcaza is one of several coffee farms located around the base of Volcan Baru near the Costa Rica border that produce exceptional, distinctive coffees. Intelligentsia is a leading Chicago-area roaster with a Keith Haring-style logo, excellent coffee, and a commitment to quality epitomized by the practice of printing roast dates on coffee packaging. Visit www.intelligentsiacoffee.com or call
Current Crop Brazils
Brazil is coming up in the world of specialty coffee. It probably always was up in Europe, where Brazil's finest coffees, sweetly rounded and low in acidity, anchored the continent's leading blends. In the United States, however, Brazil was mainly known for producing vast volumes of cheap, mass-processed arabica coffees that found their nameless way into supermarket cans and bottles. Some
Fazenda Vista Alegre Natural Dry
Fazenda Vista Alegre specializes in traditional dry-processed coffee, meaning the beans have been dried inside the coffee fruit, rather than after the fruit residue has been removed, as in the wet process, or after the fruit skin has been removed, as in the pulped natural process. Peaberries result when a single, oval bean develops inside the coffee fruit rather than the usual pair of flat-sided