Last summer, we looked at Coffee Review readership by state for the second quarter of 2013. We calculated per capita readership, that is, readers normalized for each state's population, to get an idea where people are most interested in coffee (at least as measured by Coffee Review readership.) We've just re-crunched the data for the full year of 2013. Here are the top ten states for
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.
Where Coffee is Hot: By U.S. City
Last summer, we took a mid-year look at Coffee Review readership by U.S. city and state. We normalized readership figures to account for population differences and produce a more accurate picture of each locale's interest in coffee, at least as measured by Coffee Review readers per capita. We normalized for Internet access and literacy too, but frankly, it didn't change the results much at
Seattle Edges San Francisco… In Coffee Anyway
First of all, for anyone who doesn't follow NFL football, the Seattle Seahawks play the San Francisco 49'ers this weekend in the NFC Championship Game. The winner will be one of two teams that go to the Superbowl. With that as background, for an upcoming piece on online coffee trends, we started crunching the numbers on Coffee Review traffic in 2013. Not surprisingly, New York, Los Angeles,
2014 Coffee Review Cupping Calendar
At the beginning of each month, we publish a new feature article with reviews. The planned cupping calendar for 2014 is shown below: January - Top 30 Coffees of 2013 February - Real Blend: Blends Produced from Three or More Origins March - Specialty Coffees of Brazil April - Specialty Coffees of Colombia May - Coffees of Central Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo June -
Arabica Anxiety and Robustas
I’m here in El Salvador for “Let’s Talk Coffee,” a yearly meeting of mostly small-holding coffee producers, roasters, importer and exporters, and development agencies. It’s sponsored by Sustainable Harvest, a long-time pioneering American importer of cooperative and small-producer coffees. I came here in part to deliver a presentation on Robusta coffees. It was part of a string of
The Top 30 Coffees of 2013
View list of Top 30 Coffees of 2013 Coffee Review introduced 100-point reviews to the specialty coffee industry in 1997. Over the years since then we’ve cupped tens of thousands of samples and produced reviews for nearly 3,500 coffees. We are often asked, “What is the best coffee?” To which we give the obvious answer: “There is no single ‘best’ coffee.” Of course, visitors to our website
Rejoice at Low Coffee Prices? What about Fair Trade?
On Monday, the LA Times ran an article titled Coffee drinkers rejoice: Price of beans hits four-year low. Now, we're glad that favorable weather conditions are helping increase coffee production. And, you certainly can't blame consumers (or the LA Times) for welcoming lower prices. However, keep in mind that lower green coffee prices can adversely affect the financial well-being of
Preview of October Article and Reviews
In the new world of high-end specialty coffee, botanical variety of the tree has become one of the main ways to differentiate and describe small lots of fine coffee. Grape variety has long been a differentiator in wine, of course, and increasingly dominates description and selling of certain fruits and vegetables. But botanical variety of coffee tree also has become an increasingly intensely
Agtron Numbers: A Sweet Spot?
An Agtron machine reflects light on a sample of coffee in order to objectively and accurately assign a number to the beans' roast color. The smaller the number, the darker the roast. If you're interested in some additional background, refer to a blog we posted in 2010: http://bit.ly/1b7fLNR. The reason that I started thinking about Agtron readings is that it seemed like a lot of recent
A Morning Cup by Jason Sarley
Many readers ask us about the best way to brew coffee, and the short answer is: whatever way is best for you and your tastes is the surest way. Although there are some worthwhile guidelines that can help even a first-time brewer prepare a good cup of coffee, I follow three fundamental rules: How-Hot, How-Much, and How-Long. Which can be elaborated to: What is your water temperature? What is your
Coffee Review Readership in Taiwan Surpasses Australia
Earlier this year, we speculated that Coffee Review readership in Taiwan could exceed that of Australia if traffic growth rates continued. Well, it has happened, at least for September. Visits from Taiwan leapfrogged those from Australia, making Taiwan our fourth largest source of visitors, after only the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. If Coffee Review readership is any
Guatemala Cupping: Sneak Peek
Sneak peek from the lab... According to Kenneth: "We have cupped about twenty Guatemalas with about ten more to go. We've encountered a very wide and impressive range of cup profiles, particularly in the way they reflect the cup tendencies of various botanical varieties of Arabica, from deep, meaty Pacamaras to intense, high-toned, perfumy Geshas. Highest rating so far is 95; lowest is 85. The
Is Coffee Bad For Your Health?: “Better is More”
This week, the highly respected Mayo Clinic published findings that suggest excess coffee consumption, defined as more than four cups per day every day, increases the likelihood of early death in people under the age of 55. The study concluded, in part: "On the basis of these findings, it seems appropriate to suggest that younger people avoid heavy coffee consumption (ie, averaging >4 cups per
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Currently the predominant style in high-end, artisan roasting is certainly light roasting or medium-light roasting, which allows the roaster to highlight the character of the bean rather than the roast. However, there is no question that many coffee lovers still prefer the bittersweet bite of dark roasts, even if the subtle varietal characteristics have been muted by darker roasting. In the
Sneak Peek: Honduras Cupping
Our August issue, featuring specialty coffees from Honduras, should post tomorrow, Sunday, August 4. The cupping is complete. Nine coffees scored 90 points or higher. We'll include all of them in the article. If you can't wait until tomorrow to read about Honduran coffees, there are 4 dozen Honduran coffee reviews on the site as well as numerous articles that reference Honduras.
Washington Loves Coffee, But Not As Much As …
Based on reader feedback regarding last week's "Who Cares About Coffee Anyway" blog post, it was clear that we needed to dig deeper than a top 10 list of coffee cities (based on per capita Coffee Review readership). Numerous readers asked where their hometown ranked. We decided that we needed to expand the list, perhaps to a top 100. But it occurred to us that readers not residing in the top
Who Cares About Coffee Anyway?
Well, Coffee Review certainly does. Given that you're reading this post, you probably care. The roughly one million people who visit CoffeeReview.com each year care, at least enough to visit. But what we're really trying to get at is which cities are most interested in coffee... most passionate about coffee, if you will? To answer that question, we looked at Coffee Review visitors by city
What’s the Deal with Decaf?
We haven't published an article about decaffeinated coffee since July 2010. At the time, the samples we cupped "tested my optimism," to quote Kenneth Davids. Only one of the 50 decafs we cupped earned a score of 90 points, namely Decaf South America Blend by Cafe Valverde. However, it appears that decaf drinkers in 2013 have reason to be more optimistic. Over the past three years, we have
How Does One Rate Milk!?
We’re currently testing new capsule espresso systems for July's featured article. There are three: the Starbucks Verismo, the Keurig Rivo (with coffee capsules produced by Lavazza), and a dark horse, the Singolo, with machine and capsules produced in Italy and imported by a Canadian company with distribution in the United States. We are benchmarking these three systems against the dominating diva
What’s the Best Hawaiian Coffee?
Perhaps as we approach the All-American holiday of Independence Day, it's appropriate to consider what the "best" American coffee is. And, given that Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows commercial quantities of coffee, it might naturally lead to the question "What's the best Hawaiian coffee?" That is a question raised in a recent reader search on CoffeeReview.com. First of all, as
