The latest controversy to stir up the world of fine coffee is a debate over the legitimacy of creating unique-tasting green coffees by adding natural fruit to the fermentation tank during processing. What’s left of the fruit itself is long gone by the time we experience these coffees, but if the process is successful, complex fruit and sweet sensations may linger in the bean and in the cup,
Journal
Coffee Review publishes regularly scheduled monthly coffee tasting reports according to our editorial calendar as well 100-point wine-style coffee reviews throughout the month. Our Journal page is where we share news, updates, and general blog posts to keep readers and industry professionals up to date about Coffee Review and other topics of interest to coffee lovers.
Shop for the Top 30 Coffees of 2024
Our mission is to help coffee lovers find and enjoy superior quality coffee. We’re pleased to help facilitate your holiday shopping and gift-giving by providing convenient links to roasters’ websites where some of the Top 30 coffees of 2024 may be available for purchase. As of the morning of Friday, December 20, 2024, the following Top 30 coffees were still available for purchase on roasters’
2024 Reader Survey: Who Reads Coffee Review?
When you’re reading Coffee Review, you may find yourself wondering who else is in the virtual room with you. Who else is reading a report about the fine points of a processing method or origin, and what are they thinking? And what coffees are they drinking? These questions are very important to us at Coffee Review, of course. Not only do we want satisfied readers who keep coming back to read us
Single-Origin Espressos: Anaerobics Crash the Party
What is a single-origin espresso? Very generally defined, it’s an espresso produced from a single crop of coffee grown and processed in a single country, region, cooperative or farm. In other words, it is not a blend of coffees grown in different places or at different times. Single-origin (S.O.) espressos allow an espresso drinker to explore the wider world of coffee in the same mindful,
2024: Coffee Review’s Year in Preview
Every year in December, Coffee Review’s editorial team hustles to choose the topics for the following year’s editorial calendar. This, our January report, shares some thoughts on the topics we chose and how we chose them. See our full 2024 Editorial Calendar. In November, as Coffee Review compiles its annual Top 30 Coffees list, we carefully consider the factors that made the coffees we tasted
2023 Holiday Gift Guide: Coffee Makers Made by Coffee Makers
An array of coffee brewers and grinders designed by working coffee professionals. Photo courtesy of Howard Bryman. For all the many beautiful and clever pieces of equipment that exist for brewing coffee, it's remarkable just how few of them are designed by "coffee people" — people whose primary occupation is within the coffee industry. Houseware companies and other manufacturers
Shop for the Top 30 Coffees of 2023
Resolve to Drink Better Coffee in 2024 If you're looking to drink better coffee in 2024, we’re pleased to help facilitate your shopping by providing links to roasters’ websites where some of the Top 30 coffees of 2023 may be available for purchase. As of the morning of Monday, January 1st, 2024, the Top 30 coffees below were available for purchase on roasters’ websites: No. 2 | Review | Shop
Top 30 Coffees of 2023: The Countdown Begins Friday, November 17
View the Top 30 Coffees of 2023 List Now > Since 2013, Coffee Review has published an annual list of the year’s Top 30 Coffees, ranking the most exciting coffees from the thousands we cupped over the course of the year. Each year, we rank the 30 most exciting coffees based on quality (represented by overall Coffee Review rating); value (affordability relative to other similar quality
Plant-Based Milks for the At-Home Barista: Flavor, Frothing and More
When’s the last time you walked into a coffee shop and didn’t see at least one non-dairy milk option? While oat, almond and soy milks are commonly found on café menus, there’s also a surge of other non-dairy milks — from macadamia nut to flax seed — in countless formulations designed for coffee, smoothies and other beverages. While we test hundreds of espressos each year, our standard method is to
2023 Preview: Coffee Trends, Controversies and Change
What is trending in the specialty coffee world for 2023? What will be 2023’s major controversies or issues? Which origin countries or regions should Coffee Review look in on? Every December brings a round of often intense debate and speculation as we at Coffee Review exchange emails and bang heads trying to come up with topics for the following year’s 10 tasting reports. For these reports, we
2023 Editorial Calendar Now Available
Early each month, we publish a tasting report with reviews. The editorial calendar for 2023 tasting reports is now available. The schedule is subject to change. We encourage professional roasters to submit coffees that meet the criteria for each report. The window during which we accept coffees for these review articles is usually the 1st day through the 10th day of the month prior to
Everything But the Beans: Coffee Gear Gifting Guide for the Holidays
If Black Friday passed you by, black coffee can save the day, as both fuel and theme for holiday gift shopping. Besides all of the splendid coffees reviewed here, the unprecedented boom in new coffee brewing tools and accessories entering the market over the past couple of years has made it easier than ever to bring more excitement to a well-crafted cup, be it your own or a loved
Shop for the Top 30 Coffees of 2022
Coffee Review‘s mission is to help consumers find superior quality coffees and, in the process, help recognize and reward the farmers and roasters who produce those superior quality coffees. Many of our readers seek out highly rated coffees for their own enjoyment or as thoughtful gifts for coffee lovers. Coffees that appear in Coffee Review’s Top 30 are particularly popular. They often sell
Top 30 Countdown Begins November 18
Since 2013, Coffee Review editors have published an annual list of the year’s Top 30 Coffees, ranking the most exciting coffees from the thousands we cupped over the course of the year. Each year, we rank the 30 most exciting coffees and espressos based on quality (represented by overall Coffee Review rating); value (affordability relative to other similar quality coffees); and other factors that
Fruit Bombs Are the Point: Natural-Processed Espressos Defy Convention
The Coffee Review lab has smelled like a candy store for the last few weeks — a Willy Wonka factory for grownups. Of the hundreds of coffees we cup every year, a growing percentage of them are natural-processed. In the wine world, the word “natural” doesn’t mean anything in particular, is more of a marketing term designed to imply minimal intervention in the winemaking process. In coffee,
Interview: Kenneth Davids Discusses His New Book, 21st Century Coffee: A Guide
“When my first book about coffee came out in the 1970s,” Coffee Review editor Kenneth Davids says, “people I met at parties used to wonder how I managed to find enough to write about coffee to fill a whole book on the subject.” Given the explosion of coffee innovation and change since then that Davids describes with affectionate yet thorough detail in his latest book, 21st Century
Shop the Top 30 Coffees of 2021
Coffee Review‘s mission is to help consumers identify and purchase superior quality coffees and, in the process, help drive demand and increase prices to reward farmers and roasters who invest time, passion, and capital in producing high quality coffee beans. Many of our readers seek out highly rated coffees for their own enjoyment or as thoughtful gifts for coffee lovers. Coffees that appear
Top 30 Countdown Begins November 26
Coffee Review's countdown of the Top 30 Coffees of 2021 begins on Friday, November 26 and ends with the announcement of the Top 5 coffees of 2021 on Wednesday, December 1. In the meantime, you can view the Top 30 coffees from past years using the links below. Since 2013, our editors have published an annual list of the year's Top 30 Coffees, ranking the most exciting coffees from the thousands
Coffee as a Force for Good: Roasters Who Give Back
Like everything bought and sold, coffee can be a vehicle for profit or a tool for changing the world. Sometimes, it is both. 2020 was, unequivocally, a difficult year for the coffee industry, globally speaking, as it was for many of us working in that industry. One response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic is to help others make it through the storm. Our report this month
The Year 2020 in Coffee: Challenges, Trends, Surprises & Knockouts
In 2020, COVID-19 devastated lives and businesses, challenging the global specialty coffee community to its core. On the producing side, the pandemic added still another daunting challenge to growers facing endemic low coffee prices and an ongoing battle with leaf rust disease in Latin America. On the consuming side, roasters saw the pandemic shutter their bread-and-butter café businesses while
