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 and are trying to find a way back to being small and cool again, to claim for themselves at least a little of the panache associated with the latest trend toward small-lot, medium-roasting companies. Watch this space on Thursday, April 7, for “When the Small Get Big (and the Big Try for Small),” our April Tasting Report on national coffee brands.
