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Roasters: Send Us your “Macro-Lot” Samples

Kim Westerman | February 16, 2016

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 […]

Trolling the Supermarkets for Single-Origin Coffees

Kenneth Davids and Associate Editors | February 4, 2016

Every month Coffee Review publishes reviews of exceptional, often extraordinary single-origin coffees: green coffees produced in a single country, from a single crop, from a single farm or cooperative and, often, from a single variety of tree. These coffees are usually roasted and packaged by smaller roasting companies, however, so unless you happen to live […]

CoffeeCon in Los Angeles Saturday

Kenneth Davids | January 26, 2016

This coming Saturday, January 30, CoffeeCon, the consumer coffee festival/event, arrives in Los Angeles at The Magic Box@The Reef, 1933 South Broadway. The event is a genuine consumer-facing event that combines a casual, intimate feel with coffee-obsessive rigor. Most of the LA area’s leading roasters will be represented with tables or booths. There are hands-on […]

Top 30 Coffees of 2015

Kenneth Davids and Associate Editors | January 1, 2016

We are pleased to present our Top 30 Coffees of 2015, Coffee Review’s third annual ranking of the most noteworthy coffees among those we reviewed over the past twelve months. In 2015, we cupped thousands of samples and published more than 300 coffee reviews. Approximately ninety of the reviewed coffees scored 94 points or higher. […]

How Coffee Review Works

Kenneth Davids | December 31, 2015

Coffee Review is an online publication that reviews coffees and comments on them in formally written tasting reports and informal blogs. Kenneth Davids and Ron Walters founded Coffee Review in 1997. Today it hosts over one million unique visitors per year. All of Coffee Review’s past seventeen years of reviews, tasting reports and blogs are […]

The 100-Point Rating Paradox

Kenneth Davids | December 31, 2015

This is a revision of an article first published by Coffee Review editor Kenneth Davids in Roast Magazine in 2010. We offer it here as a considered overview from Ken on 100-point ratings systems for coffee and on the problematics and philosophy of coffee evaluation. In 1997, Coffee Review started reviewing coffees for consumers and […]

One Million Readers Strong

Ron Walters | December 21, 2015

When Coffee Review launched the world’s first-ever 100-point coffee ratings in February 1997, we posted them on the Internet, a novel idea at the time. We didn’t bother emailing a newsletter because, well, most of our potential readers didn’t have email addresses. To make sure a least a handful of people read those early tasting reports […]

Category Rankings

Ron Walters | December 2, 2015

Over the past couple years, Coffee Review’s annual “Top 30” ranking of the year’s most noteworthy coffees has attracted considerable attention.  As many readers have noted, our rankings tended to favor high-scoring coffees produced from botanical varieties of Arabica with striking sensory properties: coffees of the Gesha/Geisha variety, coffees from the distinctive traditional Ethiopian varieties, […]

Holiday Coffees 2015

Kenneth Davids and Associate Editors | December 1, 2015

Both from the practical goal of generating gift ideas for coffee aficionados and from the wonkier goal of understanding current trends in high-end coffee, this month’s sampling of thirty-five holiday coffees appears productive. The only criterion we imposed on the coffees we reviewed was availability: We asked that they be on sale throughout the holidays. […]

Best Value Coffees in Top 30

Ron Walters | November 30, 2015

Our list of the Top 30 coffees of the year recognizes the skill and hard work of the growers and roasters who produce these fine coffees.  However, as a consumer, it’s only an academic exercise unless you can actually buy and enjoy the coffees on the list.  And, the coffees on the list are often […]