Soft and sweet? Or bland and flat? Balanced versus boring? Subtle versus inconsequential? Imagine similar sets of adjectives, and you have the delicate inner struggle that characterized this month's cupping of current-crop coffees from Panama. Panama is a rising star, an up-and-coming contender, among Central America coffee origins. All premium Panama coffees are produced on large family-owned
Tasting Reports – Americas
Coffee Review has published more than 250 monthly coffee tasting reports since February 1997. The tasting reports below -- focusing on coffees from Central America, South America, and Hawaii -- appear in reverse chronological order. You may refine your search by using the key word search feature that appears in the page header. The content in tasting reports and associated reviews was correct at the time of publication but may not remain accurate over time.
Central America Coffees
Again and again while writing the reviews of this splendid assortment of Central America coffees I found myself attempting to characterize the classic American cup, the cup that American supermarket blends aspire to, but never come close to fulfilling. It is a dry, bright, acidy cup, yet sweet and round, transparently free of earth or ferment, yet alive with high-toned, subtle nuance: nut and
Colombia Coffees
Colombia is the paradox of specialty coffee. Its 100% Colombia campaign, initiated decades ago and still rolling, is a model of successful coffee organization, institutional persistence, and savvy marketing. Colombia remains the world's only premium single origin able to compete successfully in the world of commercial roast-and-ground canned coffee. And the Colombia Federation of Coffee Growers is
Brazil and Brazils
Evaluating coffees apart from the people who grow them is sometimes difficult. It becomes particularly difficult when the people in question are as charming and lavishly hospitable as the Brazilian growers whom I visited last month. I ate very well, shared much generous laughter, and here and there cupped some very impressive coffees. I was moving in the learned wake of George Howell, whom some
Caribbean Coffees
However closely Caribbean coffees resemble one another in their full, rounded coastal flavor profiles, their individual stories are quite different. The Blue Mountain coffees of Jamaica are among the world's most expensive, sought after by price-is-no-object romantics, while resented by many coffee professionals for their high price. The Yauco coffees of Puerto Rico represent a successful revival
Costa Rican Coffees
Costa Rica is one of those classic coffee origins that is respected but generally not fawned over. Although Costa Rica produces a variety of coffees, those that reach American specialty coffee menus typically are high-grown "Strictly Hard Bean" (SHB) coffees from growing regions near the capital of San Jose in the west-central part of the country. At best SHB coffees are distinctive in a way that
Hawaiian Coffees
A blind cupping of Hawaiian coffees provokes two interesting issues: First, how good is Kona? Is it a rip-off at $ 16 a pound green and $25 to $35 per pound retail? Or is this most traditional of Hawaiian coffees simply a very fine origin that has the further good luck to be scarce and expensive? Second, how good are the "other island" coffees, the new "non-Kona" Hawaiis from Kauai and
Brazils
For coffee insiders and aficionados a cupping of Brazilian coffees raises interesting issues. Until recently, Brazil was known as the provider of two broad classes of coffee. One, an inexpensive arabica coffee that is raised at low altitudes, stripped from the trees in a single indiscriminate picking, and sun-dried on patios so vast that the motley heaps of drying coffee fruit and leaves are moved
