NBA player Jimmy Butler launched his luxury coffee brand, BigFace, in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo Credit: Getty Images

Our notions of celebrity in the U.S. have expanded over the decades. Being a Hollywood icon is no longer the only gateway to stardom, as evidenced by the growing pool of “influencers” from many walks of life. From YouTube trendsetters to musicians powerful enough to tip various political scales, the minimum basic requirements are a smartphone, a bit of charisma and an audience. Many household names have entered the coffee space, which, by our reckoning, is quite a mysterious landscape to them. Most celebrity-branded coffees we tasted were so underwhelming that the handful that rose above a score of 87 seemed like small miracles.

At Coffee Review, our goal is to help you find wonderful coffees to drink, coffees we can recommend wholeheartedly. As such, our reports lean heavily into praise wherever it is warranted. Instead of writing negative reviews, we tend to skip over coffees that don’t perform well on the cupping table. But when a growing subcategory of the retail coffee market is getting by on the fumes of marketing dollars and adjacency to famous people alone, it’s time to blow the whistle: With very few exceptions, celebrity-branded coffees are more hype than haute.

The Star-Studded (Ahem) Lineup

We cupped 30 coffees currently available to consumers that have some overt relationship to a celebrity, broadly defined as a well-known public figure. Of those, eight scored 87 or higher, while the range for the remaining 22 was 78 to 86. (For us, anything below 80 is commodity-grade coffee, rather than specialty.) Two of the top three are roaster collaborations with chefs, and the remainder of the top eight range from an athlete-driven brand to an iconic fashion designer’s coffee to two actual bona fide Hollywood stars who drink the stuff and have lent their names to brands. But how much do any of these high-profile folks really know about coffee? And how involved with these brands are they, anyway?

The Relationship Between Quality and Transparency

It might stand to reason that transparency and quality are often correlated; in this context, it proves to be true. The majority of the celebrity-blessed coffees we cupped were as generic as can be — not in terms of the packaging and branding but the beans inside the catchy (often kitschy) bags, boxes and canisters. For people who love coffee, the story of its origin is part of the pleasure, and if a brand doesn’t highlight the story of the coffee beyond its country of origin, then there’s likely “no there there,” to quote Gertrude Stein. Also, most of these brands are ghost-roasted, i.e., “white-label” roasted by an unnamed company for the brand. Those coffees whose roasters are named on the packaging tended to score higher, which makes sense, as their brands are also on the line. The higher-scoring coffees, by and large, also had backstories on roasters’ websites, from specific origin information to, in some cases, details about the farmers who grew the coffees. And the relationship between the roaster and the celebrity, in these cases, is also more transparent.

Eight Celebrity-Branded Coffees We Can (More or Less) Recommend

Clear winners at the top of our list are two coffees (transparently) roasted by Equator Coffees. And their respective attached celebrities are chefs: Thomas Keller, arguably one of the most highly regarded chefs in the world, and Brandon Jew, who’s part of the cadre of younger U.S. chefs making waves.

Chef Brandon Jew visits Equator Coffees to choose the coffee for Double Happiness, a single origin coffee from Ethiopia. Courtesy of Equator Coffees

Double Happiness by Chef Brandon Jew (93) is an Equator-roasted coffee in the company’s Chef’s Collection. Double Happiness is a symbol that represents joy and unity, and proceeds from sales of this coffee benefit Cut Fruit Collective, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization whose work supports Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. It’s a classic washed Ethiopia with notes of bright stone fruit, balanced acidity and rich cocoa nib notes. This was Equator’s first chef collaboration that featured a single-origin coffee rather than a blend.

Perhaps the most highly regarded chef in the U.S., Thomas Keller partnered with Equator Coffees to create the “Sense of Urgency Blend” to celebrate The French Laundry’s 30th anniversary. Courtesy of Equator Coffee

There are five Thomas Keller-Equator coffee collaborations, and the one we review here is the Sense of Urgency Blend (92), named for the sign that hangs under a clock at The French Laundry, Keller’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant. Keller says, “I ask my team to come to work with this sense each day, and it goes beyond just making sure we are prepared and ready to serve. It’s about speed, but it also means investing in what we do with a sense of importance.” The coffee is a blend of Sumatra (Koperasi Ketiara Cooperative), Colombia (La Rosa Women’s Group) and Kenya (smallholding farmers), roasted to medium-dark to highlight the blend’s sweet earthiness and floral nature.

Ted Stachura, Equator’s Director of Coffee, says Equator’s relationship with Keller goes back to the late 90s and that this coffee is designed to celebrate The French Laundry’s 30^th anniversary. One dollar from each bag of this blend sold will go to OLE Health, which has been providing high-quality health care in and around Napa since 1972.

Bigface Coffee is NBA player Jimmy Butler’s luxury coffee brand. Photo courtesy of Kim Westerman

Also in at 92 is BigFace’s Burundi Heza Station, whose presentation is about as blingy as can be in the world of coffee. BigFace is pro basketball player Jimmy Butler’s lifestyle brand, whose genesis dates back to the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when Butler made coffee in his hotel room and charged fellow players $20 a cup. Akin to the heavy bottles of reinforced glass that house certain $350 cult California Cabs, this mere 8 ounces of coffee is similarly overpackaged in a large, thick, shiny silver box with a raised typeface for the logo (a sort of smiley face cup of coffee) and brand name in all caps, and a label with tasting notes and a QR code for “full analysis,” which just means information about the producer, farm, processing — and, oddly, geographical coordinates. Inside the reusable box is a thick, translucent bag of coffee with the coffee details repeated. While the brand has collaborated with various roasters, it’s not clear who roasts its core products.

This is a nice, spice-toned coffee with notes of nutmeg and baking chocolate, but given that other roasters sell the same coffee for $20 to $26 for 10 ounces — and this one retails at $40 for 8 ounces — it’s probably safe to say that you’re paying a lot for this packaging and virtual proximity to Butler. Make of it what you will. It certainly is a twist on the concept of “startup.”

A Legit Women-Farmed 91 From Sofia Vergara

Colombian actor Sofia Vergara launched her brand of women-farmed coffees, Dios Mio, in 2024. Photo credit: Dios Mio Coffee

Colombian-American actress and CoverGirl model Sofia Vergara sought to find smallholding women farmers in her homeland, and they are profiled on the Dios Mio website, Vergara’s online coffee outpost. While the three coffees — light, medium and dark — have no obvious differentiation beyond roast, we do know that they’re all women-farmed and roasted in Miami Shores, Florida. The medium-roast version is crisply chocolaty, sweetly nutty, and quite respectable in terms of balance and aromatics. At $14.99 for 12 ounces, it’s also a great value. (The company sells a lot of ground coffee; don’t buy that, as it will likely arrive stale given that oxygen in the whole-bean bag we tested was at 13.9 percent. It should be at zero percent, or close to it.)

Two Solid 90s

Kyle McLachlan, of Twin Peaks and Sex and the City fame, is known as a wine and coffee lover, and his partnership with Walla Walla Roastery, called Brown Bear Melange (aka Kyle’s Blend) is just $14 for a full pound of coffee (which makes one consider how much the farmers were paid), and it’s a surprisingly rich, chocolaty dark roast with little bitter downside. Its sweet smokiness is an old-school pleasure that also works well in cappuccino format. Pro-tip: Brew an extra-strong batch, say a 12:1 water-to-coffee ratio, chill it down, and add ice and whole milk for a stout summer afternoon pick-me-up. There are photos of the actor with the roasters, which makes it seem like he really does drink this coffee. It’s better branding than the aspirational bling effect, for sure.

Actor Kyle McLachlan is well-known for his love of coffee, and he collaborated with Walla Walla Roastery to create Brown Bear Melange AKA “Kyle’s Blend.” Photo credit: Walla Walla Roastery

On the flipside of McLachlan’s neo-noir screen image is Mr. Polo himself, Ralph Lauren, the legendary classic American designer whose eponymous brand is perhaps most notable for the invention of the polo shirt, which was, is and always will be synonymous with “preppy” fashion. His empire entered the coffee space when it opened its first café in New York in 2014, and the branding — from bags to swag — is on point: austere, regal, with a font treatment that evokes the 1950s East Coast sailing culture. The coffee, too, delivers exactly that vibe. While we don’t know what’s in the bag (besides coffees from Central and South America), we know it was roasted by La Colombe, and that alone — naming the roaster — further legitimizes the concept. Ralph’s Roast tastes like excellent diner coffee — briskly sweet, nut-toned, gently earthy, and just dandy black or doctored up. It’s a versatile cup that pleases a wide range of palates in its un-fancy but familiar profile.

Iconic American fashion designer Ralph Lauren has his own line of coffees. Photo credit: Ralph’s Coffee

A Middlin’ Trio: Celebrity Brands That Could Have Done Better With Their Resources

It’s not as if scores in the range of 83 to 88 are bad; if these coffees were an English paper, they’d earn Bs. It’s just that with the kinds of resources that folks like Robert Downey, Jr. and Emma Chamberlain have, forgive me for wanting a bit more effort in the quality department.

Downey Jr.’s brand, Happy, which he co-founded with Craig Dubitsky of Method cleaning products, seems like a vague concept. The website lists the young, smiling team members (first names only) who make Happy happen. It’s true that the company also “partners with” the National Alliance on Mental Illness, but nowhere have I found what that actually means. (Emails to the brand were not returned.) What really bugs me is the packaging. I don’t mind the idea of pitching coffee as part of a happy life, but the big plastic bins these coffees are packaged in don’t really seem in line with Happy’s stated sustainability efforts. Are they plant-based? I don’t think so. The Magnificent Medium Roast (88) — said to be, like all the brand’s coffees, roasted by “the world’s largest vertically integrated coffee roaster” — is briskly sweet, gently nutty and wood framed. Just fine, but not likely to evoke paroxysms of joy.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Craig Dubitsky’s Happy Coffee is available at Target stores and Sprouts markets. Photo credit: Happy Coffee

Emma Chamberlain is a YouTube phenom clearly devoted to her coffee and its accessories. The coffee itself is …. meh. One of the whole-bean coffees in her line, Social Dog (87), is a dark-roast blend of coffee from Peru and Nicaragua pitched as a medium roast. It’s a gently drying, sweetly nutty cup, but there’s not much else to it beyond the absence of defects. And while Chamberlain’s name and face are all over the branding, it’s not at all clear who does the actual work of the business. She does have the recipes down if you’re into such things as “cinnamon bun lattes.”

Emma Chamberlain is a YouTube influencer with an affinity for coffee. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

We also cupped three Central Perk Coffees, the Friends-themed coffee shop and brand from celeb chef Tom Colicchio. I sure like the guy’s food, but he’s gone far afield with his foray into coffee. The How You Doin’ Blend, which ostensibly has a nice proletariat appeal, scored highest out of the three at 83, i.e., the low end of specialty where cup quality is concerned. Sourced from Colombia and Brazil, it’s like a Brazil-heavy blend, as it is exceedingly nut-toned to the point of monotony, with wood notes that lean more wood pulp than fresh forest.

Chef Tom Coliccio’s coffee shop and online brand are called Central Perk in homage to the television show “Friends.” Photo credit: Central Perk Coffee

Nice Try, But Definitely No Cigar

Two celebrity brands stand out for their lack of care regarding coffee quality, Hanx and Rudy.

We don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Tom Hanks, but his coffee brand, Hanx, is a sad state of sensory affairs. The good news is that, like Paul Newman’s line of products, 100 percent of proceeds go to support worthy causes, in this case, nonprofits serving U.S. military veterans and their families. The bad news is that the coffee isn’t really drinkable. We could only get our hands on the Hanx First Class Joe, whose ground format didn’t help its blind-cupping chances. At a score of 79, we detected defects that prevented us from classifying this one as specialty coffee.

HANK is actor Tom Hanks’ coffee brand that donates 100 percent of profits to organizations supporting veterans and their families. Photo credit: HANX

Rudy’s Coffee, which is Rudy Giuliani’s brand, launched just after he was indicted in Arizona on conspiracy charges to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. We rated both the Morning Coffee and the Bold Coffee at 78, as they were flat, acrid, burnt and bitter. Forgive our cynicism, but this seems clearly like a money grab, and with Giuliani’s mug (pun intended) taking up three-quarters of the large, two-pound bag space, we think it’s a coffee only a mother (meaning his mother) could love. (Sprudge reported just last month that the roaster responsible for the Rudy’s lineup is also bankrupt.)

Rudy Giuliani launched his eponymous coffee brand shortly after being indicted in Arizona on conspiracy charges to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Photo credit: Rudy Coffee

Sigh … Celebrity-Branded Coffees Are Nothing to Write Home About 

It was an interesting exercise to meticulously blind-cup these 30 coffees, but we only found a few to truly recommend. Hopefully, future collabs backed by big bucks will hire coffee professionals to bring better products to market, as well as pay farmers higher prices.

The post Should Serious Coffee Lovers Care About Celebrity-Branded Coffees? appeared first on Coffee Review.

Summer is upon us, and that means one thing for many coffee lovers: cold coffee. It sounds like such a simple beverage, but the number of brew methods and packaging technologies currently on the market, many of them proprietary, make choosing a ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee confusing. We decided to cut a path through the complicated landscape of RTD products in hopes of getting some clarity.

According to a recent report by Allied Market Research, if the $33 billion RTD coffee market keeps pace with its predicted compound annual growth rate of 5 percent, the sector will be worth $53.5 billion by 2032. That’s a whole lot of convenience for the consumers who most demand it: younger people such as Millennial and Gen Z coffee drinkers. But do those same consumers also demand quality? And if so, is it possible to find both convenience and quality in one product? If not, is RTD coffee simply a caffeine-delivery system for those on the go? We at Coffee Review, of course, seek quality coffee above all else, however fast or slow the access.

Of the 44 RTD black coffees we tested for this report, ranging in brew method from classic long-steeped cold brew to hot-brewed and high-tech flash-chilled (often nitrogen-infused), only nine scored 90 or higher. This was a surprising finding given that the quality of small-lot green coffee worldwide seems to be rising each year, along with the quality of high-end retail-roasted specialty coffees, of which we cup hundreds each year. Shouldn’t these RTDs, collectively, have been more impressive by virtue of this alone? RTD coffees are, by their nature, convenient, but one thing we learned is that making a good one is not as simple as choosing a high-quality green coffee.

A Range of Contenders, Only a Handful of Standouts

While roughly 80 percent of the RTDs we tested scored below 90, a full 17 percent of these scored in the mid-to-low-80s on our consumer-facing 100-point scale. It’s difficult to know whether the green coffees used for these lower-scoring RTDs or their production methods were most at fault, but our sensory notes recorded many “off” flavors ranging from sour to overly savory (salty) and bitter to somewhat vegetal. Some of these samples used ostensibly good-quality green coffees, in which case, either the roast profile or the brewing method was likely their downfall, or possibly the specific methods used to transform them into RTD format. In other cases, the green coffee was unnamed, which might’ve been a contributing factor to low scores if the undisclosed coffees were poor in quality.

But let’s focus on the good stuff. Of the nine RTDs we review here, two scored 94; two scored 93; two scored 92; two scored 91 (including a decaf!); and one scored 90. What made these nine rise above the others?

We use slightly different evaluative categories for RTD coffees than we do for both cupping and espresso. We don’t score aroma, a key cupping category (because cold beverages don’t have volatile aromas), but we do test with milk, a key espresso category, as many consumers drink their cold coffees in with-milk preparations. (Our ratio of coffee to cold whole milk was 5:1.) The other categories are acidity, body, flavor and aftertaste. Some successful RTD coffees (usually light-roasted) center on vibrant acidity and are designed for people who will likely drink them black. Others (often darker-roasted) are explicitly focused on low-acid profiles and lend themselves to combining with milk. And some manage to strike a balance that works well both black and with milk.

Two Single-Origin Microlots at 94

The two top-scoring RTDs in this report are variations on the classic cold brew theme, meaning they are brewed cold (rather than brewed hot, then chilled). Both are from roasters in Taiwan, and both are presented in little flask-like whiskey bottles that invoke a single-serving specialness and care. (We tested all coffees blind but were delighted to discover the aesthetically pleasing packaging after scoring.)

Euphora Coffee’s Plumeria is as floral as its name implies, but instead of tropical flowers, we got heady, sultry wisteria notes alongside ginger, citrus zest and ripe stone fruit. While its acidity is high-toned and juicy, adding milk knocks this cold brew out of the park, as all the flavor notes coalesce and harmonize, somehow elevated by the fat carried in on the milk—a perfect 10 in our book. This coffee, a combination of microlots from Costa Rica (one washed and one honey-processed), was brewed simply by immersing the coffee in cold water (at an undisclosed temperature and length of steeping), then filtering.

GK Coffee’s Colombia El Paraiso Lychee Rose Cold Drip, which was brewed in the refrigerator by the slow-drip method over four to six hours at a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, starts with a highly pedigreed green coffee grown by Wilton Benitez and processed by the anaerobic thermal shock method (see review for more details about this elaborate multi-step process). Its savory-tart profile is anchored by notes of Asian pear, blood orange, pink peppercorn and pipe tobacco, with a lovely cocoa nib throughline. Adding milk amplifies this RTD’s complex richness.

GK Coffee’s Colombia El Paraiso Lychee Rose Cold Drip tied for the highest score in this month’s RTD report. Courtesy of GK Coffee.

Two Opposite Styles, Each at 93

A single-origin and a thoughtful blend, the former bright and juicy and the latter chocolaty and deep-toned, both land at a solid 93 for their balance and finesse. Four Barrel Coffee’s Halo Hartume Cold Coffee is a light-roast washed Ethiopia that’s brewed hot then chilled quickly without exposure to oxygen before being canned. It’s brightly fruity (think tart guava) and richly floral (lush magnolia) with ballast from baking chocolate, lemon thyme and cedar. It’s fresh, it’s juicy, and taken black, it offers an elemental experience of this origin in an RTD format.

Olympia Coffee’s Cold Brew is manufactured by Cool Crafted Beverage in a proprietary process that involves steeping a precise dose of coffee in mineral-enriched cool or room-temperature water, then canning. The green coffee used is Olympia’s medium-roast Morning Sun blend of coffees from Latin America, which has deep-toned notes of chocolate and hazelnut against a backdrop of vanilla-like florals and complex citrus, perhaps the closest thing we tasted to a “classic” cold brew, in that it is even-keeled and solid both black and with milk.

Olympia Coffee’s Cold Brew scored 93 in this report. Courtesy of Olympia Coffee

A New Technology and a Precision-Tuned Classic Method, Both at 92

Of the 44 coffees we tested, 10 were manufactured by **Snapchill, a company that seems to be on a rapid growth trajectory, partnering with specialty coffee roasters to produce custom RTDs under co-branded labels. The roasted coffee is brewed hot using Curtis Omega large-batch brewers, then filtered with a standard coffee filter. The coffee is then pushed through a secondary micron filter that is intended to remove any remaining nonsoluble particles, which prevents over-extraction in the can. Snapchill’s game-changing technique is to instantly chill the coffee to 38 degrees Fahrenheit without the use of ice and immediately canning to prevent oxidation.

The best exemplar of this style we found is George Howell’s Montecarlos Snapchill Coffee, a single-origin El Salvador that’s cocoa- and caramel-toned, supported by bittersweet walnut, crisp citrus and sweet herbs. It has a particularly nice malic (apple-like) acidity.

Snapchill works with roasters to create customer RTD coffees. Courtesy of Snapchill.

Kyle Bosshardt, director of business development for Snapchill, describes the company’s way of working with roasters: “Our process is very flexible, so we can work with any bean, origin, blend and roast profile. We ask roasters to provide us with information about the coffee they are sending, including flavor and roast profile, and if they have a target TDS [total dissolved solids]. It’s a collaboration to find the temperature at which we ‘Snapchill’ the coffee to arrive at the desired flavor profile, which is the artistry we love to steward for roasters.”

One mystery we couldn’t untangle is the lack of clarity across the board in the Snapchill RTDs we tested. Most of the lighter-roasted products we tested that were produced by brewing methods other than Snapchill were translucent, but all of the Snapchill-processed coffees, regardless of roast level, were opaque, even cloudy, and all contained some tangible amount of undissolved solids. It’s impossible to say how this influenced the flavor, specifically, but it definitely made the texture velvety, at best, and somewhat sludgy in the case of several examples that are not included in this report.

Like so many coffee drinkers who look for quality in a convenient format, I stumbled onto Wandering Bear Extra-Strong Cold Brew in a health food market in rural North Carolina, when I knew I didn’t want to do battle each morning with my parents’ elaborate coffee maker (that has more bells and whistles than I can count)—and it was really hot and humid—a perfect formula for opening up the possibility of discovering convenience and quality in an RTD coffee, which is exactly what I found in Wandering Bear.

I brought it into the lab for my colleagues to test blind, and we all agreed that it was exactly the kind of coffee that could soothe a weary traveler’s soul—and make her morning. This “extra-strong,” i.e., high-dose blend of  certified USDA Organic washed-process coffees from Peru, Mexico and Nicaragua, is produced by a proprietary cold-brew method and flash-pasteurized for shelf stability prior to opening. It was a win on the road for me, and it can fill that niche for anyone looking for a summer daily drinker who wants consistency and a whole 32-ounce carton instead of single-serve packaging.

Two Nitros at 91 (including a decaf!)

Dean’s Beans Nice Nitro Organic Black Cold Brew Coffee is especially good with milk—deep, balanced, pleasantly roast-rounded without tasting burnt. Notes of date, salted caramel, walnut, orange zest and gently smoky cedar make for a familiarly satisfying blend of coffees from Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Indonesia. The added nitrogen gives it a fluffy mouthfeel that we found somewhat addictive.

Dean’s Bean’s Nice Nitro is presented in fun, eye-catching packaging. Courtesy of Brigade Branding.

A surprise hit is the Quivr Nitro Decaf Cold Brew Coffee—yes, decaf—from this Boston-based company that nails the genre with its Select Water Process decaffeinated green coffee selected in partnership with Barrington Coffee Roasting Co., sourced from farmers in Southeast Asia and Central and South America. It displays notes of caramel, sweet herbs and citrus. We didn’t identify it as a decaf in our blind tasting, which is perhaps the biggest compliment we can give it.

Quivr’s Decaf Nitro Cold Brew scored 91 in our blind tasting. Courtesy of Quivr.

A Corporate Success at 90

It’s nice to see that Blue Bottle Coffee, once the darling of the third-wave coffee movement and now owned by Nestlé, is sticking to its branding aesthetics—but how’s the coffee? Based on the Bold Cold Brewed Coffee we scored at 90, Blue Bottle is still striving for quality as well. The cute little cans are nothing to go out of your way for, but they offer an excellent oasis in an airport or other outpost far-flung from your usual local go-to. The Bold Cold is chocolaty, nutty and straight-ahead.

Lots of Room for Personal Preference

For all our difficulty in finding high-quality coffee in the context of convenience, when we did, it was quite good, and just as wide-ranging in style and flavor profile as one would hope. As RTD coffee technologies evolve, and evolve they will, there are a great many kinks to iron out, such as how to avoid extremes of sourness, saltiness and sludginess, but these nine coffees prove that quality can be had across multiple production methods and green coffee choices. Oh, and did we mention, they’re really convenient?

Drop us a virtual line at kim@coffeereview.com and let us know your favorite styles and brands of RTD coffees.

*Note that some of these recommended RTD coffees are only available in their local markets.

**On June 18, 2024, Snapchill voluntarily recalled all of its unexpired products because its current manufacturing process could lead to the growth and production of the deadly botulinum toxin. In a press release announcing the recall, the company said, “The problem was identified when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified Snapchill that the low-acid canned foods process for manufacturing the recalled products was not filed with FDA, as is required by regulation.” No evidence of the growth of such bacteria has been found, and no illnesses have yet been reported.

The post Convenience vs. Quality in Ready-to-Drink Black Coffee appeared first on Coffee Review.

A view of the Pacific Ocean from Hala Tree’s coffee farm in Captain Cook, Hawai’i. Courtesy of Hala Tree.

When most of us think of Hawaiʻi, we think of perfect beaches, iconic sunsets and unparalleled relaxation. When coffee lovers think of Hawaiʻi, “Kona” is often the first word that comes to mind. But while the Hawaiian Islands are, indeed, a paradise, they’re also a place where coffee is a critical part of the economy — an economy that’s been hammered over the past few years by the Covid-19 pandemic and by devastating wildfires, not to mention agricultural pests and diseases specific to the coffee industry.

This month, we not only take a look at the islands’ coffees — roasted by locals — we also scope out what residents, most of whom can’t afford to buy Hawaiʻi-grown coffee for daily drinking — like to have in their morning cup.

Brandon von Damitz of Big Island Coffee Roasters surveying coffee trees at Silver Cloud Farm. Courtesy of Braden Tavelli.

There are three main kinds of Hawaiian coffee roasters: coffee farmers who roast their own green coffees, roasters that sell only Hawaiian-grown coffees (mostly to an international market), and roasters that sell both Hawaiian coffees and coffees from other origins.

The Current Context of Coffee in Hawaiʻi

While Hawaiʻi contributes only 0.04 percent of the world’s coffee production, coffee is the second most profitable crop grown in the state, a close second to macadamia nuts (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai’i at Manoa).  Most of the coffee grown in the state is exported. During the 2022–23 harvest season, Hawaiʻi farmers produced 24.8 million pounds of coffee, down 9 percent from the previous year (USDA). One of the chief reasons production is down is the emergence of coffee leaf rust (CLR), a fungal disease that has devastated entire coffee industries elsewhere in the world. It first appeared on Maui in 2020, then several weeks later on Hawaiʻi Island, known as the Big Island, which produces the vast majority of the state’s coffee crop. (For reference, the Big Island has more than 1,400 coffee farms, while Maui has just over 300, Kauaʻi has three, and O’ahu and Molokai each have one.)

Coffee cherries ripening on Monarch Coffee Farm in Kona, Hawai’i. Courtesy of Monarch Farm.

Before CLR, coffee berry borer (CBB) was the biggest threat to the state’s coffee crop. CBB was found in Kona in 2010, O’ahu in 2014, Maui in 2016, and Kauaʻi and Lānaʻi in 2020 (College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawai’i at Manoa) . This beetle, endemic to Central Africa, was responsible for decimating almost all of Maui’s small crop that year. Management techniques are now in place to somewhat curb its potential for destruction, but it remains a force.

Lastly, there were several wildfires in 2023, and the unprecedented scale of the fire that destroyed the town of Lahaina, Maui, has affected the state’s economy overall, both in terms of its largest industry, tourism, and in terms of the loss of dozens of coffee-related businesses. Maui Grown Coffee, the island’s largest producer, has not yet resumed operations, and many coffee shops were destroyed or displaced.

One of Hawaiʻi’s strengths as a producing region is that its coffee prices are not, as they are in most origins, tied to the commodity coffee market. In the 1980s, Kona’s rising star and the marketing brilliance behind it allowed the region to sell its coffees for much higher prices than any other origin. Today, the average price of unroasted Kona coffee is $26.50 per pound, while the average price for Arabica coffee is $2.03 per pound. So, why aren’t Hawaiian coffee farmers paving their driveways with gold? Two simple answers: Yield is down, and costs are higher than anywhere else in the world where coffee is grown.

We review many Hawaiʻi-grown coffees each year, but this report looks at the state’s current coffee scene from a broader perspective, as we invited roasters based anywhere in Hawaiʻi to send us samples from any origin. We received 45 samples: 31 roasted on Hawaiʻi Island, seven on O’ahu, three from Maui, and four from Kauaʻi.

We review here the 14 top-scoring coffees, 11 Hawaiʻi-grown and three grown elsewhere.

Hawaiian Farmers Roasting Their Own Green Coffees

There’s a long local history of coffee farmers roasting up small batches of their coffees to sell at farmers markets and farm stands, but these are, by and large, not the best representation of these coffees. Farmers are not typically trained roasters. There are some notable exceptions to this rule, and we cupped six coffees from roasters who are also farmers, and who paid precise attention to both sides of the operation.

Laura Ross (left), roaster, and Karen Paterson, co-owner of Hula Daddy Kona Coffee. Courtesy of Hula Daddy.

The highest-scoring coffee in this report was Hula Daddy’s wildly impressive Laura’s Reserve SL34 (97), produced at the company’s farm in Holualoa (North Kona) and roasted by Laura Ross, who’s been with Hula Daddy for more than a decade. Co-owner Karen Paterson, who founded Hula Daddy with her husband, Lee, in 2002, says, “The major challenge of growing coffee in Hawaiʻi is labor costs. With benefits, our average hourly pay is over $25. A Central American grower pays workers less than $2 an hour performing the same work, and labor rates in African countries are around $20 a month.” Hula Daddy sells only retail-roasted coffee (as opposed to green coffee or wholesale), both onsite and online, all exclusively from the Patersons’ own 10-acre farm. Its primary customers are buying coffee for home use, and only 10 percent live in Hawaiʻi. The SL34 is an aromatically intoxicating Kona version of a variety of Arabica traditionally grown in Kenya and is exuberantly complex.

Kraig Lee of Kona Farm Direct raking coffees drying on a concrete patio. Courtesy of Kona Farm Direct.

Kraig and Leslie Lee of Kona Farm Direct have been growing traditional Kona coffee for more than 25 years. In the past eight years, they’ve begun experimenting with new varieties, including Geisha. Kraig Lee says, “No doubt, the unique Kona soil and environment can produce some of the best quality coffees in the world, but there are dozens of ways you can screw it up. If you don’t pay attention to the details, you can turn great coffee into average or worse. I am so fortunate that I have employees who pride themselves in taking care of the land, picking only ripe cherries, and properly processing and drying the beans.” Kona Farm Direct’s 100% Kona Classic (94) is a lively, balanced Typica, sweet-toned, chocolaty and rich.

Lorie Obra, co-founder of Rusty’s Hawaiian in Pahala Hawai’i. Courtesy of Rusty’s.

Rusty’s Hawaiian is another longtime family farm, based in the Ka‘ū growing region on the east side of Hawaiʻi Island south of Hilo. Founded by Rusty and Lorie Obra in the late 1990s, Rusty’s was on the cusp of making a name for Ka‘ū coffee, a region in the shadow of Kona. When Rusty died of cancer in 2006, Lorie committed to actualizing their dream, and Rusty’s, now a world-class roaster as well, put Ka‘ū on the map. Rusty’s Classic Ka‘ū Peaberry (94) is lush, decadently sweet, deep-toned and sensuous. Lorie’s daughter, Joan, and son-in-law, Ralph Gaston, moved from the mainland to Pahala (where Rusty’s is located) full-time in 2011, and the couple run the operation with Lorie, who’s still going strong in her seventies. Gaston says that there are many challenges involved in farming coffee in Hawaiʻi: “The increased cost of production, primarily due to the spread of coffee leaf rust, has been difficult to deal with. This means more for treatment of CLR, managing that with the treatment for coffee borer, increased costs for fertilizer, not to mention rising labor costs. It’s a lot of pressure on the cost of production.” A full 40 percent of Rusty’s online customers are based in Hawaiʻi, and the remaining 60 percent are from the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) and Alaska, with a small percentage in Canada, Japan, Germany and Korea.

Kona’s Heavenly Hawaiian is one of several Hawaiian farmer-roasters working with non-traditional varieties of Arabica. The Kona Geisha Champagne (94) submitted for this report has elegant notes of nectarine, star jasmine and cocoa nib, a profile very similar to the traditional Geishas of Panama.

Brewing a pour-over at Monarch Coffee Farm in Kona, Hawai’i. Courtesy of Monarch Coffee.

Monarch Coffee’s “Hapa” (meaning “half”) (93) is a post-roast mélange of light-, medium- and dark-roasted Kona Typica, a comfortingly familiar Kona profile that’s crisply chocolaty and sweetly nutty. Abby Munoz, director of operations and daughter of co-founders Greg and Susy Stille, describes Monarch’s relationship with its customers as collaborative: “The values our customers hold dear — quality, sustainability, ethical sourcing, community involvement and enriching experiences — guide their purchasing decisions and loyalty to our brand. … This connection goes beyond a transactional relationship; it’s a shared journey towards a more sustainable and community-focused way of living.” She also speaks to the challenges of selling Kona coffees exclusively, saying, “Compared to other major coffee-producing countries, Kona’s output is minuscule, and restricted growing regions with strict geographical regulations that limit production area means limited supply, which leads to higher production costs. Logistics and sustainability are also big challenges for us. Due to the island’s remote location, shipping costs are a major hurdle.” Munoz also mentions CLR, volcanic eruptions, the effects of climate change, high labor costs and labor shortages as additional challenges for small farms in Hawaii.

Jean Orlowski of Hala Tree Coffee conducting a farm tour. Courtesy of Hala Tree.

Hala Tree’s SL28 Honey (93) is another variety associated with Kenya that, produced in the context of Kona terroir, is floral, citrusy, cohesive and confident. Hala Tree co-owner Danielle Orlowski says, “Having high production costs pushes us to make sure we produce one of the best coffees in the world. This is accomplished by paying attention to details, from farming to processing. Being in control of the process from tree to cup is what ensures our quality.”

Kona-born Mark Takizawa has a five-acre farm, Kona Hills Coffee (not to be confused with the large-scale 1,900-acre farm by the same name), where he’s done everything himself since 1987. His 100% Kona Extra Fancy (92) is a classic profile with notes of baking chocolate, date and hazelnut.

Hawaiian Roasters That Sell Only Hawaiian Coffees

Miles Mayne, of Silver Cloud farm, checking on coffee drying on raised beds. Courtesy of Braden Tavelli.

Big Island Coffee Roasters sent in a collaborative coffee in partnership with farmer Miles Mayne. This Ka‘ū Giant Maragogipe (95) is the result of co-founder Brandon von Damitz and Mayne’s many yeast experiments over three harvest seasons. The version they landed on uses K1-v1116 yeast from Lalvin, with anaerobic fermentation for 72 hours. This uniquely composed, big-beaned Maragogipe cup is driven by notes of stone fruit, hop-like florals, resiny amber and distinct tangerine. Co-founder Kelleigh Stewart acknowledges the challenges of working exclusively with Hawaiʻi-grown coffees, but also speaks to the opportunities it affords: “When people ask, ‘Why is Hawaiʻi coffee so expensive?’ this initiates a dialogue for deeper engagement and understanding of the supply chain. There’s so much more supply chain transparency and ethics with Hawaiʻi coffees. And the chain is much shorter because there’s little room for middle people. And a much greater percentage of the purchase price goes directly to the farmer. … So, while dealing with an ‘expensive’ product poses challenges, it’s easy for us to be proud of our farmer relationships, knowing we’re fostering an ethical, transparent supply chain. I often turn the question around and ask people, ‘Why is the rest of the world’s coffee so cheap and undervalued?’”

Pacific Coffee Research (PCR) has an interesting backstory. A women-owned business founded as Hawaiʻi’s first education and coffee training center, PCR offers analysis of green and roasted coffees, Q-grader courses, barista training, equipment procurement and maintenance, and much more. And now, PCR has its own line of retail-roasted coffees developed in partnership with local farmers with an emphasis on women producers. The 100% Ka‘ū Navarro (93) submitted for this report, a blend of Pacamara and Catuaí, is from Delvin and Nette Navarro’s Ka‘ū farm. Centered around fruit and floral notes, this blend is complicated by a compelling sweet herbaceousness. Co-owner Madeleine Longoria Garcia also notes the limited supply of Hawaiian-grown coffee, the impacts of CLR and the 2023 wildfires as significant challenges of working exclusively with Hawaiʻi-grown coffees.

The Pacific Coffee Research team. Courtesy of PCR.

But in addition, she argues, “The price model used in Hawaiʻi should be replicated globally. In order to have financially sustainable businesses, growers need to be able to sell their products based on their real costs and required profit margins versus having their products’ worth being dictated based on where the C-market happens to land on any given day. Our global industry talks about this all the time, as we don’t have a financially sustainable industry, and no one is really doing very much to change that. The current model gives buyers too much power when it comes to price and strips growers of negotiation power because everyone is looking at the C-market.”

Hawaiian Roasters That Sell Both Local and Global Coffees

Little-known fact: It’s illegal for roasters in Hawaiʻi to import green coffees from Africa. This outdated law hearkens back to concerns about agricultural contamination, but it’s still on the books, and it’s why you’ll see coffees from Central and South America and Indonesia at local island coffee shops — but not African coffees.

Teodoro Garrido, founder of Mama Cata Farm in Boquete, Panama. Courtesy of Klatch Coffee.

Well-known to the virtual pages of Coffee Review, Hilo-based Paradise Roasters used to have a roasting facility in Minnesota. Now that the company is fully Hawaiʻi-based, owner Miguel Meza specializes in rare microlots from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Panama and, of course, Hawaiʻi. For this report, we review the richly floral, fruit-saturated Panama Mokkita Natural Mama Cata Estate (96) with notes of wild strawberry, lavender and black sage. Meza says, “We did not start out as a roaster of Hawaiʻi-grown coffees, but rather as a specialty coffee roaster. Due to the extremely high cost of producing coffee in Hawaiʻi, 10 times that of most other countries, the market for Hawaiʻi-grown coffees is limited as a daily-drinking coffee for most consumers. Moreover, we like variety and want to offer the widest array of sensory experiences possible with coffee, some of which cannot (yet) be found within coffee just from Hawaiʻi.” He adds that, “Like every other producing origin, the majority of the coffees produced in Hawaiʻi are commercial quality, not specialty. As a very small producing region, the quantities of high-quality coffee from Hawaiʻi are quite limited. Many of our Hawaiʻi coffees we produce from the cherry stage to ensure quality and apply proprietary processing techniques on them to create a diversity of cup profiles.”

Maui-based Origin Coffee Roasters submitted a JN Farms Double Anaerobic Red Bourbon (94) produced in Ka‘ū, an aromatically wide-ranging cup with notes of spice-toned florals and sweetly tart fruits. Owner Heather Brisson-Lutz loves Hawaiʻi-grown coffees but finds that she needs to also provide coffees from other origins for her local customer base: “It is challenging to market coffees not grown in Hawaiʻi in our local markets, but we have found that many of the local residents enjoy these coffees because they offer different flavors, and their price points are friendlier for daily coffee drinkers. We want to keep our coffees accessible not only in price point but also in terms of flavor profiles, processing methods and varieties.”

Kailua, O’ahu-based ChadLou’s Coffee Roasters sells both Hawaiʻi-grown and international coffees. The Cruz Loma Anaerobic Washed Ecuador (93) we review here is equal parts sweet, tart and savory (think dark chocolate, macerated kiwi and tarragon). Its popular coffee shop caters to both visitors and locals, offering a large menu of specialty coffee options as well as artfully designed bags to take home.

Hanalei Coffee Roasters is a micro-roaster on Kauaʻi’s North Shore in the stunningly beautiful town of Hanalei. Its Sunrise Blend (92) of coffees from Maui and Honduras is a friendly, easygoing and affordable coffee with notes of golden raisin, cashew, orange zest and cane sugar. The roaster has a selection of 100 percent Hawaiian coffees in addition to its coffees from Central and South America.

Maui Oma Coffee Roasting Co.’s 100% Hawaii Three Island Blend (92) is a combination of coffees grown on Hawaiʻi Island, Maui and O’ahu. Cocoa-toned and richly nutty, it’s a good introduction to the coffees of the Hawaiian Islands for newcomers to the genre. Maui Oma is located in Kahului, Maui, and primarily works with Hawaiian coffees but also has a selection of coffees from Central and South America and Indonesia.

Supporting the Hawaiʻi Coffee Industry

Whatever your coffee jam might be, Hawaiian roasters offer the world in a cup. In addition to buying coffee directly from the roasters featured in this report, you can support Maui’s wildfire recovery efforts here:

MauiGrown Coffee – Go Fund Me

Maui Food Bank

People’s Fund of Maui

The post Hawaiʻi Coffee Roasters’ Unique Place in the Global Coffee Scene appeared first on Coffee Review.

Sorting cherries at Rwanda’s Gasharu Washing Station. Courtesy of Cafecita.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a construct to call out women producers, specifically, as many hands are involved in the production of any coffee, from seed to cup, as the saying goes. But highlighting the stories of women farmers is a window into the larger socio-political narrative and, as such, an avenue for change-making of various kinds.

This month, we asked roasters to submit coffees from women-owned farms, women’s cooperatives and microlots farmed by women in order to amplify the stories of their exceptional coffees and call attention to the various ways women are succeeding in the coffee industry, despite many obstacles.

We received 45 samples, which ranged in score from 80 to 96, and we review the 10 highest-scoring coffees here, from the wide-ranging origins of Hawai’i, Indonesia, Panama, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Mexico, Burundi, Rwanda and Taiwan. This global span itself demonstrates that there’s much exciting work being done by women in coffee the world over.

Three Top-Scoring Coffees

Coffees from the Big Island of Hawai’i, Sumatra and Panama earned the highest scores in our cupping, at 96, 95 and 94, respectively. Two are from women-owned farms, and one is from a collective.

Lorie Obra and her team at Rusty’s Hawaiian grew, processed and roasted the Grand Champion Red Bourbon Natural we rated 96 for its delicately fruit-forward, richly aromatic profile. From the Ka’u growing region lesser known than Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i, this Red Bourbon is tropical, juicy and plushly syrupy, and it’s beautifully representative of what the region, long in Kona’s shadow, is capable of.

Lorie Obra of Rusty’s Hawaiian, a pioneer in the coffee industry. Courtesy of Rusty’s.

Obra, who founded the business with her late husband, Rusty, says she faced many challenges after Rusty’s death in 2006, not the least of which was pursuing the dream of putting Ka’u — a sugar plantation town — on the map for coffee. Since then, her coffees have been featured on the world stage at both the World Barista Championships and the World Brewers Championships, and her innovative processing methods are highly regarded by producers, green buyers and roasters. At 71, Obra has no plans to retire. She’s in it for the long haul, including the current challenges of managing leaf rust and coffee berry borer, neither of which was a part of her work until recently.

Speckled Ax in Portland, Maine, sent in a Sumatra Lintong Kardon (95) that impressed us with its classic profile — richly earthy, sweetly spice-toned — elevated by distinct notes of  graphite, pink peppercorn and guava. Even more compelling is this coffee’s story. It was produced by a group of 200 widows in the Lintong region who’ve had to learn the coffee business as their husbands have passed away over the years. Supported by a husband-and-wife team who go by Kardon and Yulinda, these women farmers receive training in agriculture and coffee processing. This particular sample is one of the best Sumatras we’ve tasted all year.

GK Coffee in Yilan, Taiwan, sent us a washed Panama Finca Don Julian, another classic profile with its brightly sweet, floral-toned cup. We got notes of narcissus, pink grapefruit and bay leaf in this stone fruit-driven cup. Owner Heakyung Kang Burneskis bought the farm in 1998 with her husband on a whim. Both doctors, they found the farm while traveling in Panama and fell in love with its many trees. Burneskis says she feared that another buyer would come in and cut down all the trees, so they jumped at the chance to start a coffee farm. After her husband’s death, she has continued the legacy of producing world-class coffees, many of which have won Best of Panama awards over the past two decades. Roaster Gary Liao buys coffees from this farm whenever they are available and, as a long-term partner, supports Burneskis’ farm and, by extension, her work in conservation.

Heakyung Kang Burneskis of Panama’s Finca Don Julian with roaster Gary Liao of GK Coffee. Courtesy of GK Coffee.

We didn’t set out looking for any particular theme but find it interesting that our top-scoring coffees are each products of these women’s ability to expand their skills because of the shared circumstance of losing the men in their lives with whom they’d also partnered in work. These are the kinds of success stories we hold up as exemplars in the context of the many conversations going on about gender equity in coffee today.

A Guatemala, a Taiwan and an Ethiopia at 93

Our world tour of women-produced coffees continues with three coffees we rated at 93.

Barth Anderson of Barrington Coffee Roasting Company in Lee, Massachusetts, has been buying Paty Perez’ coffee since 2013, and this is the fourth year he’s offered this particular lot, from what Perez calls the “parte alta” or higher elevation of Finca Diamante in Agua Dulce, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. It makes for a boldly structured, richly chocolaty cup with undertones of tart, pomegranate-like fruit and dusky oregano.

Guatemala coffee farmer Paty Perez, who produced Barrington’s Diamante Perez, which we review this month.

On the other side of the globe, in Nantou County, Taiwan is YuChin Kao’s Kanon Estate, where Kao grows, among other varieties of Arabica, the SL34 natural that Caesar Tu of Kakalove Café (also Taiwan-based) submitted for this report. It’s a complex, richly sweet-savory coffee with notes of salted caramel, tamarind, hazelnut, freesia and green peppercorn, evocative of the SL34 cup as produced in the variety’s home territory of Kenya but with an umami undercurrent that might be due to a different terroir in Taiwan. The name of her estate, Kanon, combines the names of Kao’s two grandmothers. While Kao studied social work, she is now running the farm with support from her family. Her goal is to ultimately combine both interests and educate youth in the community about the coffee industry, as well as offer jobs to people with disabilities.

YuChin Kao of Kanon Estate. Courtesy of Kanon Estate.

Another roaster in Taiwan, Tom Chuang of Small Eyes Café, submitted an Ethiopia Gediyo Yirgacheffe Wegida Ama Commitment Burtukan Wako Natural G1 coffee that is striking for its floral depth and myrrh-like undertones along with bright nectarine notes. This coffee is the product of importer Linking Coffee’s relationship with Wubit Bekele, the founder of  Ephtah Specialty Coffee, whose “Ama Commitment” program is directing a percentage of proceeds to support women farmers. This particular Yirgacheffe was farmed by Burtukan Wako, who inherited her husband’s land when he died in 2003.

Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia coffee producer Burtukan Wako. Courtesy of Small Eyes Cafe.

Three More From Africa, and a Mexico

It’s not surprising that coffees from Africa fared well in this report, but it is especially heartening that the continent was so well-represented in terms of quality across many countries in our cupping. A Burundi, a Rwanda and another Ethiopia all made the top-scoring 10, along with a darker-roasted coffee from Mexico.

Equator Coffee’s Burundi Women of Turihamwe (92) is a berry-driven, spice-toned Burundi Bourbon (think mulberry, clove, ginger blossom) produced by a small investor group of seven women called Turihamwe Turashobora, founded in 2019 when the women pooled their resources to build a wet mill. It’s distributed by Burundi’s champion of women coffee farmers, Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, whose JNP Coffee has, for more than a decade, been devoted to the mission of empowering women coffee farmers, who still lack full property ownership rights or equal access to education. JNP Coffee has also purchased most of the coffee grown by members of the Burundi chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) and supported other organizations that teach women financial literacy and leadership skills.

Working at the Turihamwe wet mill in Ngozi, Burundi. Courtesy of JNP Coffee.

A common model of coffee farming in Africa and other producing countries is to combine the crops of smallholding farmers around a centralized washing station, and Wonderstate Coffee’s Ethiopia Idido Tiluse Honey Process (92) is just such a coffee. In this case, the woman at the helm is Tiluse Washing Station owner Hirut Gute, who collaborated with Snap Specialty Coffee for this microlot, which is deep-toned and sweetly citrusy, with notes of pomelo, cantaloupe and cocoa nib.

Hirut Gute turning coffees at the Tiluse Washing Station in Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia. Courtesy of Wonderstate.

Rwanda is widely admired in the coffee industry for its distinctive coffees from dedicated small producers organized around cooperative or private washing stations. Queen’s Crown Rwanda (91) was submitted by Los Angeles-based Cafecita, a women-owned roasting company whose business model is centered around sourcing only coffees from women-led farms and cooperatives. This microlot is produced by smallholding women farmers surrounding the Gasharu Washing Station.

And finally, we have San Diego-based Nostalgia Coffee’s Glory Days (92), which is a single-origin Mexico from Veracruz with notes of dark chocolate, dried cherry, cashew, gently scorched cedar, and gardenia, carefully roasted to medium-dark. Founder Taylor Fields sourced this coffee from Woman Power Zongolica Farm, a collective of 20 women producers. She adds that because her roastery is just 30 minutes from the border crossing into Mexico, it’s important to her to create deep ties with this close geographical neighbor, especially given that coffee from Mexico has been largely ignored in the specialty world until recently. The cherry on top is Nostalgia’s core mission, which as a gay woman-founded company is to support a systemic shift to a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and diverse coffee industry.

Supporting Women Coffee Producers

We learned a lot in the process of discovering excellent women-farmed coffees to recommend to you this month, and even more compelling than what we found in the cup are the stories behind each uniquely wonderful coffee — the labor, the creativity, the resilience and the skill that made them all possible.

The post Ten Coffees From Women Producers That Should Be On Your Radar appeared first on Coffee Review.

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 use three parts steamed whole cow’s milk to one part espresso to evaluate an espresso in cappuccino format. Of course, in that case, we’re vetting the coffee — how it performs in milk — and not the milk itself.

When we got curious about the many vegan milks we were seeing on grocery store shelves, we decided to see how they performed with espresso. But here, we’re testing the milks and not the coffees, so we simply chose three different espresso styles — classic Italian, light-roast single-origin, and natural-processed — to help us put these vegan milks through their paces. We tested 14 vegan milks that were readily available at our local Whole Foods and Safeway stores:

• Califia Farms Almond Barista Blend
• Califia Farms Unsweetened Almondmilk
• Malk Organics Unsweetened Almond Malk
• Three Trees Organic Black Sesame Almondmilk
• Forager Project Organic Cashewmilk
• 365 by Whole Foods Organic Unsweetened Coconut Original Coconutmilk Beverage
• Oatly Original Oatmilk
• Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend
• Malk Organics Oat Malk Original
• Silk Unsweetened Soymilk
• West Life Organic Unsweetened Soymilk
• Good Karma Unsweetened Flaxmilk + Protein
• Milkadamia Unsweetened Macadamia Milk
• Dream Organic Ricemilk Original Classic

Of the four almonds, three oats, two soys, and one each of cashew, coconut, flax, macadamia and rice, we landed on four vegan milks we can recommend with enthusiasm. Some of the others might work well in pour-overs or cold coffee, but they were problematic in cappuccino format. Coffee shops have their go-to brands, of course; these are products we recommend for home use.

Why Vegan Milk?

U.S. retail sales of plant-based milk rose 6.4 percent to $2.299 billion between June 2022 and June 2023, driven in part by double-digit growth in oat milk and pea milk. A study by Strategic Market Research LLP values the 2021 plant-based milk market at $35 billion and predicts that figure will increase to $123.1 billion by 2030.

While alternatives to cow’s milk are essential for those who are lactose intolerant or allergic to it, there’s also a growing number of Americans choosing vegan diets, not to mention those of us who sometimes drink cow’s milk but want to mix it up — so, there’s a growing market for alternative milk products and strong competition among producers. (Note that some vegan milks also come with heated debates about how much water consumption their production requires — almond milk, in particular. But while this is an important conversation, it is outside the scope of this report, which focuses on sensory considerations.)

Assumptions, Values and Testing Methods

Before we began our testing, Coffee Review co-cupper Jason Sarley and I discussed our criteria for what constitutes a good alt-milk product, as well as our assumptions about what we’d find. We agreed that a good vegan milk for use in espresso drinks should froth well, should integrate smoothly with the coffee, should have an appealing texture in the mouth, and should, of course, taste good combined with the coffee and have a pleasing aftertaste.

We also shared some assumptions that turned out not to be entirely true. We both expected that the purest vegan milks — those without added sugars and various gums, stabilizers and other additives — would be our favorites, but our sensory analysis did not support this. We were surprised by which alternative milks played well with the coffees, and we made some genuine discoveries.

Our evaluative categories were as follows: frothing, mouthfeel, integration, flavor and aftertaste. Because we were looking at the milks and not the coffees, we didn’t use our standard review format but rather offer here detailed sensory observations without ratings for each milk.

Espressos We Used to Test the Milks

Sticking with the theme of broad accessibility, we chose coffees from three large roasters: Illy’s Espresso Classico, La Colombe’s Early Riser Single-Origin Rwanda, and Counter Culture’s Kabeywa Natural Sundried Uganda. These coffees can be found at many grocery stores or ordered online direct from the roasters. As straight shots, these three coffees epitomize their types: classic Italian style, chocolaty and nutty (Illy); washed third wave, bright and citrusy (La Colombe); and natural-processed, fruit-forward (Counter Culture). They all worked predictably well in cappuccino-scaled milk with our usual Clover Organic whole cow’s milk. But how would they do with these vegan milks?

While we were curious to taste the vegan milks plain, we decided to do so after our testing so we wouldn’t be unduly influenced and look for particular features in the milk shot. But when we did taste the standalone milks later, we had some revelations. (See “The Also-Rans” below.)

It also became clear to us during this process that the only evaluative categories that shifted with each of the different espressos were flavor and aftertaste. Integration of coffee and milk and mouthfeel (and frothing, of course) weren’t appreciably different across coffees. Our tasting notes reflect these findings.

Four Alt-Milk Winners

Two almonds, an oat and a macadamia nut milk rose to the top in our sensory testing, excelling in almost all, if not all, of the evaluative categories. We present our tasting notes here in lieu of formal reviews, as this is our first official foray into the genre. For each of the four recommended milks, you’ll find our observations on frothing, mouthfeel and integration, followed by flavor and aftertaste with each of the three coffees. Here they are, in no particular order:

Malk Organics Unsweetened Almond Malk ($6.99/28 ounces on Amazon)

Frothing: Very thick, meringue-like – but latte art is possible! Easy to get solid peaks; producing microfoam is more challenging.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, smooth, crisp (pleasantly dry).

Integration: Not fully integrated, more like an espresso shot with a milk “cap.” Would be better in café au lait or espresso macchiato format where the milk sits on top of the espresso shot.

Flavor with Illy Espresso Classico: Unsweetened, so the coffee flavor really predominates, and the almond undertones and aromas are distinctly and recognizably almondy. The milk doesn’t obstruct the coffee. Some people will add sugar to replicate the natural sweetness of whole cow’s milk.

Aftertaste with Illy Espresso Classico: Consistent and persistent; harmonious with the coffee throughout.

Flavor with La Colombe Rwanda: Quite almondy on the nose (like a Snickers bar). In the cup, there’s more almond flavor than with the Illy, likely because this coffee’s light roast makes its flavor more subtle and nuanced, but it holds its own.

Aftertaste with La Colombe Rwanda: Consistent throughout; doesn’t outlast the coffee.

Flavor with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: The milk tamps down the exuberance of the natural-processed coffee, leaving just a whisper of delicate fruit.

Aftertaste with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: Muted, short finish.

Three Trees Organic Black Sesame Almondmilk ($7.99/28 ounces on Amazon)

Frothing: Purplish in color from black sesame; decent froth but challenging for patterning or latte art (no microfoam to speak of).

Mouthfeel: Airy, frothy, lilting, nicely fatty.

Integration: Fairly well-integrated but might need to stir; a slight separation line is visible, but for all intents and purposes, the coffee and the milk blend nicely together.

Flavor with Illy Espresso Classico: Sweet like whole milk, but not overwhelmingly sweet. Notes of chocolate and hazelnut, and hints of date from the milk.

Aftertaste with Illy Espresso Classico: Moderately persistent. Lasts long enough.

Flavor with La Colombe Rwanda: Jason and I were split on this one. I found the coffee and milk pleasantly juxtaposed; nice tart/sweet combo. Jason thought the added date in the milk (see the ingredients section below) competed with the fruit of the coffee. Better with the Illy because this Rwanda is distinctive and the Illy is classic/familiar.

Aftertaste with La Colombe Rwanda: Moderately persistent.

Flavor with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: Absolutely the right fruit combo – alcohol leaning, dried raspberry/cherry/date mélange works beautifully. This is like a dessert, elegant and opulent.

Aftertaste with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: Seamless, long, flavor-saturated.

Oatly Original Oatmilk ($5.99/64 ounces on Amazon)

Frothing: If you’re a home latte artist, you’re in luck! This was our best-performing frother. Foam is delicate but persistent; good microfoam, conducive to latte art. (See the ingredients section for information about sugars created during processing.)

Mouthfeel: Lush, syrupy (low impact); quite viscous.

Integration: Excellent; milk and coffee combine very well.

Flavor with Illy Espresso Classico: Not too overtly oaty (surprising, given our experience with this milk in coffee shops). Amplifies baking chocolate notes; pushes them up and out. Nonconfrontational.

Aftertaste with Illy Espresso Classico: Long, lingering, balanced – coffee is prominent, oat is backgrounded.

Flavor with La Colombe Rwanda: Balanced; some oat flavor, but very pleasant and not overpowering. Hazelnut, stone fruit, freesia.

Aftertaste with La Colombe Rwanda: Balanced, sweet, moderately long.

Flavor with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: The natural-processed coffee is very aromatic; the grape candy profile is only slightly tamed by milk. Oat is rather pleasantly overwhelmed by fruit. Tastes like a sweet-tart candy, also chocolaty.

Aftertaste with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: While persistence is a bit muted by the fruit-forward coffee, the milk adds a pleasing nutty counter note.

Milkadamia Unsweetened Macadamia Milk ($5.29/32 ounces on Amazon)

Frothing: No froth whatsoever, so neither latte art nor a proper cappuccino is possible. (This might not matter so much for home use.)

Mouthfeel: Very smooth, lightly syrupy.

Integration: Very good, long-lasting integration of coffee and milk.

Flavor with Illy Espresso Classico: Ever so slightly naturally sweet, despite no added sugar – supports and highlights the coffee, doesn’t compete. Chocolate, hazelnut predominate in the cup.

Aftertaste with Illy Espresso Classico: Quiet, rather muted but pleasant.

Flavor with La Colombe Rwanda: Sweet in the nose but less so on the palate. Nutty sweet over (not under) the coffee, but coffee comes through underneath. Not a bad combo, but not harmonious either. Better with the Illy than with this lighter-roasted single-origin.

Aftertaste with La Colombe Rwanda: Very strong; overpowers the delicate coffee in the finish.

Flavor with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: Terribly discordant. (Jason aptly describes this combo as akin to trying on too many fragrances at the perfume store simultaneously.) Milk’s perfume and coffee’s fruit compete.

Aftertaste with Counter Culture Natural Uganda: Not harmonious; flavors fight.

Ingredients of Recommended Milks

After we worked our way through all 14 milks with the coffees, we decided to taste the milks by themselves. Of course, during the process, we got interested in the ingredients of each milk in terms of how the processing and presentation reflected in our experience of the milks as bases for the cappuccino format. In this section, we report only on the four milks we are recommending, but you can find our sensory notes on the remaining 10 alt-milks in the section titled “The Also-Rans.”

Jason and I both thought we’d prefer the vegan milks with no added sugars or gums, but we tried a wide range — both sugar- and gum-free and sugar- and gum-laden. The four milks that rose to the top of our sensory rankings include both types.

Malk Organics Unsweetened Almond Malk

Ingredients: Filtered water, organic almonds, Himalayan pink salt.

The success of this milk as a base for cappuccino was a surprising discovery for us. Both Jason and I thought it would lack the oomph needed to stand up to coffee. Tasted alone, it’s sweetly almondy, quite delicate. (The salt amps the sweetness of the almonds.) But it worked well with the classic Illy espresso, as well as the La Colombe Rwanda. We can’t really explain why this delicate milk muted the Counter Culture natural Uganda except to say the drink became a nut tsunami in this particular context. It wasn’t predictable, but it was irrefutable.

Three Trees Organic Black Sesame Almondmilk

Ingredients: Filtered water, organic almonds, organic black sesame seeds, organic dates, pink Himalayan salt.

This milk has 8 grams of added sugar per cup in the form of dates. We both loved its rich nuttiness and creamy mouthfeel, and when we realized that our go-to cow’s milk for testing espressos at the Coffee Review lab (Clover Organic Whole Milk) has 12 grams of natural sugars, it made sense that the sugar from dates would potentially work. This milk contains no gums, yet it frothed well nonetheless.

Oatly Original Oatmilk

 Ingredients: Oat base (water, oats). Contains 2% or less of: low erucic acid rapeseed oil, dipotassium phosphate, calcium carbonate, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, dicalcium phosphate, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin D2, vitamin B12.

Put simply, this is the kind of milk we didn’t want to like, full of additives whose functions the average consumer wouldn’t be able to readily interpret. But dang if it didn’t taste great with all three coffees. (This is a milk you’ll often find in coffee shops, and now we know why. It does its job of marrying well with espresso drinks.)

Note: The label states that this product has 7 grams of added sugars, but the website explains that these sugars are created in the production process when enzymes are used to liquefy the oats, resulting in a breakdown of the starches into smaller components including simple sugars. The FDA now requires this kind of process to be indicated under “added sugars.”

Milkadamia Unsweetened Macadamia Milk

Ingredients: Macadamia milk (filtered water, macadamias), calcium phosphate, guar gum, natural flavors, pea protein, sunflower lecithin, sea salt, gellan gum, zinc sulfate, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D2, riboflavin (B2), vitamin B12.

Pure, unadorned macadamia nuts are sweet and creamy, which makes them sound like a potentially good pairing with espresso. So, it’s a bit of a mystery why so many additives are needed to produce this milk, but we call it like we taste it, and it works well with two of the three espressos we tested. (It was spot-on with the Illy classic espresso and the La Colombe Rwanda.) As a standalone milk, its aroma is very sweet. But wait, it has zero grams of sugar! Jason hypothesizes that the “natural flavors” involve some kind of agent that essentially perfumes the milk. And, in fact, it bombed with the natural-processed Counter Culture Uganda, which has enough personality on its own. Still, we recommend it — with caveats — for its flavor with most espressos. Besides the issue of perfuminess, the other caveat is that it doesn’t froth at all, so you can decide how much you care about that. Otherwise, the texture is pleasing.

The Also-Rans

Here’s a rundown of the milks we don’t recommend for use in the espresso-based milk drinks you make at home. Note that not all of these milks are intended for use in espresso drinks, an our comments only apply to that application, though we do mention when we think a particular brand might work well with drip coffee or cold brew.

Califia Farms Almond Barista Blend

Frothing: Calcium carbonate added to make it “foam,” but it’s fake foam, i.e., it flattens right away. Visually unappealing. Bubbly.

Mouthfeel: Creamy but tacky/gummy/dry.

Integration: Separates quickly.

Flavor: Bittersweet milk shot. Somewhat nutty, but not overtly almondy. Calcium carbonate is easily tasted, a big turnoff.

Aftertaste: Long, a bit cloying.

Califia Farms Unsweetened Almondmilk

Frothing: Bubbly with persistence; fat bubbles.

Mouthfeel: Tacky.

Integration: Denser solids sink to bottom, bubbles float on top.

Flavor: Bitter, weirdly perfumy, chemical-sweet. Overpowers a pretty bold coffee.

Aftertaste: Very long and quite bitter.

Forager Project Organic Cashewmilk (with oat)                       

Frothing: Very impressive! Good microfoam, easy to pattern for latte art.

Mouthfeel: Light, silky, somewhat heavy.

Integration: Excellent integration, only a small amount of separation.

Flavor: Aroma doesn’t seem overly nutty, but strong cashew flavor competes in the cup. Sweet and inviting unheated, but sours as it steams. Could be good for cold coffee (unsteamed).

Aftertaste: Gets dry and bitter in the long.

365 by Whole Foods Organic Unsweetened Coconut Original Coconutmilk Beverage

Frothing: Virtually none.

Mouthfeel: Silky, very light.

Integration: None.

Flavor: Bland, mildly coconutty. Really butted heads with each coffee.

Aftertaste: Persistent.

Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend

Frothing: Frothed well.

Mouthfeel: Slightly gooey and a bit sharp.

Integration: Integrated well with the coffee.

Flavor: Sharp taste in addition to oat.

Aftertaste: Sharpness in the long finish underneath the oat.

Malk Organics Oat Malk Original

Frothing: Doesn’t froth well.

Mouthfeel: Dry, foamy.

Integration: Integrates well with coffee.

Flavor: Oaty!

Aftertaste: Long, cloying (unless you really like oat milk).

Silk Unsweetened Soymilk

Frothing: Decent froth.

Mouthfeel: Silky-smooth.

Integration: Poor.

Flavor: Medicinal, sharp, overpowering.

Aftertaste: Sharp, bitter, dry.

West Life Organic Unsweetened Soymilk

Frothing: Fair, but latte art would be challenging.

Mouthfeel: Very thin, watery.

Integration: Combines well with coffee.

Flavor: No perceptible soy aroma, but it moves the coffee toward its own bitter edges.

Aftertaste: Quiet.

Good Karma Unsweetened Flaxmilk + Protein

Frothing: None.

Mouthfeel: Sharp.

Integration: None.

Flavor: Vegetal, medicinal.

Aftertaste: Vegetal, medicinal, dry.

Dream Organic Ricemilk Original Classic

Frothing: No froth.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth.

Integration: Good integration, seamless.

Flavor: Too sweet.

Aftertaste: Very long.

We learned a lot during this exercise and look forward to more experimentation as new products come on the market. Whether you’re a committed vegan or just alt-milk curious, there is an increasing number of products available for you to experiment with in your at-home espresso ritual.

The post Plant-Based Milks for the At-Home Barista: Flavor, Frothing and More appeared first on Coffee Review.

Simon Hsieh’s Bull Demon King is a darker-roasted blend that works well as a steepable brew bag. Courtesy of Simon Hsieh.

Among the many paradoxes in the wide world of coffee, one ongoing question regards ritual versus convenience. Some people like the slow, meditative pour-over brewing method, and others prefer to pre-program a batch brew and have it waiting for them when they wake up. And then there are the times when you don’t have a lot of options — camping, air travel, hotel stays — when just about any coffee tastes good if it’s hot and caffeinated. Recent years have seen an increase in the quality of specialty instant coffee, but let’s face it, it still doesn’t replicate the experience of freshly ground whole-bean.

Kakalove Cafe uses brew bags at the cupping table to assess new green coffees. Courtesy of Kakalove

The new kid on the block is brew bags: ground coffee packaged in steepable bags that resemble tea bags. Designed for convenience, brew bags require only hot water and a cup, and they are growing rapidly in popularity, both in the U.S. and in Asia. We tasted 32 brew bags submitted by roasters in the U.S. and Taiwan, of which we review 12 here that scored between 89 and 92. (The score range for the entire pool of 32 was 76 to 92.) Recommended brewing times range from five to eight minutes, depending on the manufacturer.

What was perhaps most surprising was the wide variety of coffee styles available in this format, from straight-ahead house blends to experimentally processed single-origin microlots. Consequently, cupping for this report was a fairly nuanced experience. But in the end, how good are brew bags, really? Do they resemble their whole-bean counterparts? Or are they just a step forward in the quest for convenience?

A Marriage Made in Purgatory

Despite the wide variety of coffee styles, each roaster who makes the foray into brew bags has to decide what to put in that bag, and there are basically two schools of thought. One argument is that darker-roasted coffees perform better with immersion methods, and this idea lends itself to blends that roasters feel comfortable taking a bit darker than the average single-origin coffee, blends they can replicate year in and year out. The counter-argument is that single origins display more varietal character and more transparent terroir, so why not package a coffee that aligns more with what specialty coffee lovers want to drink — typically light to medium roasts of traceable single origins. What coffees work best as brew bags is an interesting question, and both answers are satisfying — until you get into tasting these coffees, where both lines of reasoning reveal their flaws.

Red Rooster’s Ethiopia Worka Sakaro anaerobic natural performed well in brew bag format. Courtesy of Tony Greatorex

The three top-scoring coffees, all rated at 92 — Mostra Colombia Geisha Spirits, Red Bay Motherland Burundi, and Red Rooster Ethiopia Worka Sakaro Anaerobic — are all single origins, so, it might seem that this camp’s thinking is superior. But given the potential cost differential for roasters to produce certain single-origin bags, the calculation is not so clear. Mostra’s Geisha Spirits brew bag costs $6.80 per serving, due to the cost of the green coffee. Even the least expensive U.S. brew bag reviewed here, the Red Bay Motherland Burundi, costs $1.86 per serving (not counting the Roadmap Road Less Traveled, which was on sale at press time for $1.50 per serving), so it’s not like brew bags are a budget proposition (compared with brewing a cup of whole-bean coffee at home).

Red Bay Coffee’s Motherland single-origin Burundi translates nicely to the portable brew bag. Courtesy of Red Bay.

Note: For reasons not entirely clear, packaging costs in Taiwan are significantly lower. Two of the Taiwanese brew bags reviewed here cost roughly $1 per serving; the third costs $3.28 per serving solely because of the cost of the green coffee. The average retail price of single brew bags in the U.S. is somewhere around $2.50.

Furthermore, in our tasting, we found that the lighter-roasted coffees needed more steeping time than the darker roasts, causing significant heat loss during brewing. (We didn’t have enough of each sample to test the roast level by instrument on these coffees, so our comments are based on sensory perceptions.) One solution to the heat loss problem is to brew in a travel mug or some other portable cup with a lid — which is likely what you’ll have on hand, anyway, if you’re not at home. But this changes the aesthetic experience significantly, essentially blocking the aroma.

The other single origins that made our top 12 are Evans Brothers Steep ‘N Deep (91), which is 100 percent Guatemala; Kakalove Cafe’s washed Ethiopia (91); Euphora Coffee’s Ethiopia natural (89); and Wildland Coffee’s Limited Edition Light Roast Fair Trade Brew Bag (89), which is a Colombia Pacamara.

Mostra’s Ryan Sullivan makes the case for using a more expensive green coffee in brew bag format: “Geisha is a highly sought-after, expensive, delicious coffee. So, why not see if we can take all those great attributes of Geisha and combine it with the ease of use, convenient coffee tea bag? Something like a coffee tea bag or instant coffee doesn’t have to be cheaper coffee for people on the go. We think there is a market of higher-end coffee drinkers who appreciate great quality coffee for those moments when you can’t stop at your favorite cafe to get a pour-over.”

The downside? In addition to the longer steeping time and consequent heat loss mentioned above, generally speaking, we find the brew bag format mutes aroma, so some of the drama of these special single-origin coffees is blunted a bit. (See below for a direct comparison of three of these coffees with their whole-bean counterparts.)

Blends, on the other hand, are often daily drinkers that don’t always throw off fireworks, coffees that can be replicated each year in high volume and can be designed to show best as darker-roasted profiles. These are generalizations, of course, but the roasters we spoke with who chose blends did so for these reasons. Oliver Stormshak of Olympia Coffee, whose Big Truck Blend scored 90, says, “We chose Big Truck Blend because it’s a little darker roast profile and we found that, for solubility, a darker roast tended to extract easier in this format.” Big Creek Coffee’s Rise Blend, which also scored 90, is another popular house blend, about which owner and roaster Randy Lint says, “We went with our signature blend because it appeals to the broadest range of tastes. Customers enjoy the moderate acidity brought out by a slightly longer roast treatment, and the medium to medium-dark roast level works for most people.”

Simon Hsieh, whose Bull Demon King Blend scored 91, says, “The reason I choose this blend for this version is that it’s easier to get a better result using the immersion method with a darker-roasted coffee. As the hot water is poured in the mug, the temperature keeps dropping during the process. The darker the coffee is, the easier and faster the flavors are coming out from the grounds. Consider this as the same logic as the French Press method; it’s better to use a darker-roasted coffee rather than a lighter one.”  We found this to be true, as well, and our solution to the extended brew times necessary for all of these coffees was to brew in a portable travel mug (a Fellow Carter, in this case), with the lid on to retain heat during the brew time, which worked well in terms of getting the proper extraction.

On the flipside, most blends are already accessible sensory experiences with mass appeal in their whole-bean format, so the muting that happens with brew bags puts these kinds of coffees at a disadvantage. But they do, with their accessibility and playful names, offer a great marketing opportunity to pitch this way of drinking coffee to travelers, campers and adventurous spirits of all kinds.

Other examples in the blend camp are Nostalgia Coffee’s Memory Lane (91) and Roadmap CoffeeWorks’ Road Less Traveled (90).

About the Manufacturing Methods

Of the 12 brew bags reviewed here, six were packaged by Steeped Coffee, a company based in Santa Cruz, California, that raised $5 million in 2022 through crowdfunding and continues to grow like gangbusters. Nostalgia Coffee Roasters manufactures in-house and controls every aspect of production, from coffee selection and roasting to grinding and packaging, as does Wildland Coffee (the latter packaged Mostra’s sample as well). Of the three Taiwan samples, Euphora packages in-house, while Kakalove and Simon Hsieh outsource packaging to certified local companies.

We were interested to learn as much as possible about brew bag technology, but because of the proprietary — and competitive — nature of this emerging coffee sector, we were only able to learn the basics of the process. Essentially, roasted whole-bean coffee is ground, de-gassed and packed into steepable, compostable food-grade brew bags and then packaged and, in most cases, nitrogen-flushed for freshness. There are variations on this theme, of course, with some companies making promises about the details of the process, such as how long it takes from receipt of roasted coffee to packaging, and how long it takes to get ground coffee into the brew bags and packaged and sealed.

We were able to learn the most about the methods used by Steeped, Nostalgia and Wildland, the three U.S. companies that manufacture these products in-house. Taylor Fields, founder of San Diego’s Nostalgia Coffee Roasters, says that the brew bag format aligns with her company’s mission to use coffee as a vehicle for systemic change, to help the industry become more diverse, equitable, sustainable and inclusive. She says, “Brew bags tie into that because they bring a whole new market, a new subset of the coffee-drinking population. Brew bags make specialty coffee more accessible to those who feel intimidated in third-wave shops. The format is also sustainable because it eliminates the need for pods and is potentially fully compostable.” (The outer packaging into which the compostable brew bags are sealed can be made of compostable material, although some roasters choose foil to extend shelf life.)  Fields adds that as her production volume increases, she is able to ignore the commodity market to work with producers to get them more for their green coffee. Nostalgia has a strategic collaborative partnership with NuZee, also a San Diego-based company, for the final packaging stage.

All three U.S. manufacturers we spoke to described a similar basic process: Freshly roasted coffee is ground to what each considers an optimal micron particle distribution, allowed to de-gas for a pre-determined period of time that varies per company, and flushed with nitrogen when packaged with the goal of creating an oxygen-free environment inside the packet. There’s some explicit divergence where dose is concerned. Steeped uses 14 grams of coffee per bag, while Nostalgia uses 12 and Wildland uses 16. Nostalgia’s reasoning is that 12 grams leaves more room in the bag for water to hit the coffee, and Fields says that agitation is key to good extraction. Zach Frantz, founder of Wildland Coffee, which focuses almost entirely on brew bags, offers a higher dose for a stronger (or larger) cup.

Steeped does have its own line of coffees, but its business model relies heavily on manufacturing brew bags for other roasters. It has a system of “discovery” for potential new roasters, who send in three different coffees or roast profiles to see which fares best in this format. Once the roaster makes a decision, Steeped packages the final product in co-branded bags.

Nostalgia Coffee’s Memory Lane Blend was designed expressly for use in brew bags. Courtesy of Nostalgia.

Steeped uses a compostable bag for its outer packaging, and guarantees freshness for one year, while Nostalgia goes with foil, citing that it provides a better oxygen barrier. Our own small testing revealed that 13 out of 26 coffees packaged in compostable outer layers had oxygen levels between 6.5 and 19 percent, indicating that compostable packaging might not provide as effective an oxygen barrier as suggested by the 12-month freshness claim (more about our oxygen testing below).

Whole Bean vs. Brew Bag Head-to-Head

Because we cup thousands of coffees each year, it’s perhaps not surprising that we’ve been able to taste several of these coffees in whole-bean format. Red Rooster’s Worka Sakaro Ethiopia Anaerobic scored 95 last year for its extravagant complexity. The 92-scoring brew bag version isn’t an altogether different animal; it’s just a bit sleepier and more mellow.

Nostalgia’s Memory Lane scored 93 last year, and our whole-bean review cited the coffee’s balanced fruit and florals, and undercurrents of baking spices throughout. The brew bag version, at 91, is balanced, but all of the sensory categories are turned down a small notch, especially aroma. (Note that this roaster indicated she changed the blend ratio for the brew bag format, so this comparison is a loose one.)

Lastly, we rated Simon Hsieh’s Bull Demon King whole-bean blend at 96 in espresso format in 2021. The brew bag version scored 91. While the two brewing methods are very different from one another, it’s still fair to say that this blend’s decadence, flavor saturation and viscosity when tasted as a brew bag are shadows of the whole-bean original.

These are all exceptionally good green coffees, so it’s not surprising that they performed in the top of their class in this tasting, but knowing where they started in whole-bean terms is an eye-opening gauge when evaluating brew bags as a whole.

The Question of Oxygen

We tested the oxygen present in each of the 32 brew bags we tasted. Despite elaborate efforts by all manufacturers to keep staling oxygen out of the bags — and offer a shelf-life of up to one year — we found mixed results.

This is important, of course, because of the freshness factor. What’s clear is how much the presence or absence of oxygen affected sensory outcomes. Ten out of the 12 brew bags that earned the highest scores contained no oxygen; two contained 12 percent. Brew bags that scored below 89 contained percentages of oxygen ranging from zero to 19. We know that oxidation is bad for coffee over time, but it isn’t possible to reach any blanket generalization  from these limited results given that this is our first foray into the brew-bag segment.

Roasters Weigh In on the Genre

How do roasters feel about this new(ish) coffee format?

Melissa Scholl of Roadmap CoffeeWorks says, “We debated adding a quick-brew option for months. We started roasting 32 years ago and were one of the first to roast only to order, date each roast, and ship the same day. So, this was a big change. But after exploring the options, we had to admit that technology had indeed progressed over the last three decades, and we felt this was now something we could do with integrity that our customers would find helpful and enjoy. The only negative has been some price resistance since the packets are more expensive than traditional instant coffee. Our customers readily buy $35-a-pound coffee beans, but a $2.50 cup of ‘instant’ coffee is a new idea. We sell single packets so that folks can try it easily.”

Road Less Traveled is a popular blend at Lexington, Virginia’s Roadmap CoffeeWorks. Courtesy of Roadmap.

Hsieh says, “I want to expand my customer base and also to extend my market to overseas. Not everyone wants to buy a lot of gadgets to perform ceremonial brewing steps to get a good cup of coffee, but many still would like to get a good cup of coffee in a much easier way.”

Caesar Tu, of Kakalove Cafe, doesn’t love the brew bag format — he thinks it waters down the flavor of any coffee, and he also finds it difficult to showcase the light-roast single origins he loves in this way — but he knows that many people like the convenience, so he stocks them. It costs him only about 30 cents USD per bag to manufacture them, so it’s not a big financial risk. And his single-origin washed Ethiopia, which isn’t fancy or flashy but is true to its gently bright, floral Ethiopia style, scored 91.

Better Than Instant, Not as Good as Whole Bean

Our experience of these 12 coffees was clear: They’re better than the instant genre, generally speaking, with a much more lively and viscous body and more flavor saturation in the cup. But they don’t offer the full sensory experience of whole-bean coffees. Our comparison with the whole-bean versions of three of these green coffees, while limited, leads us to think the score differential between the two formats may average around two to three points. This makes sense given that the final product is ground coffee. Even though attempts to reduce oxidation through nitrogen flushing and impermeable packaging are partly effective, the lower scores for brew bag versions of some coffees means there’s more work to be done in this area.

We also found aromas — one of the great pleasures of grinding fresh beans and engaging in the pour-over ritual — to be fairly muted across the board. But if you dial in your steeping time for the kind of extraction you prefer, the flavor in these brew bags is pleasing, much more than you’d expect from a “convenience” coffee. So, next time you find yourself waking up in the woods, on a red-eye flight, or in a hotel with only a pod machine in the room, try one of these brew bags and see what you think.

The post Coffee Brew Bags: Convenient, But How Good Are They? appeared first on Coffee Review.

Snow blankets the landscape in Hamilton, Montana. Courtesy of Big Creek Coffee Roasters.

While the sun is finally peeking through the clouds in our home base of Berkeley, California, much of the U.S. is still blanketed in snow. If you’re trying to dig out of your driveway to go to work, that’s a bummer, but if you’re getting ready to hit the slopes, you’re in your happy place. Either way, you’re going to need coffee, and we’ve found 10 ski country coffees to recommend you get your gloved hands on. Why drink the generic brew that’s served at most ski lodges? You deserve better. These thoughtful roasters from popular ski areas in Vermont, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, Utah and California have got you covered.

We sampled a range of coffee types, from unique house blends to classic single origins. Perhaps not surprisingly, the single origins rose to the top of our score tally. The 10 we review here include one blend and nine single-origin coffees — one from Panama, three Kenyas, three Ethiopias, an El Salvador and a Tanzania. We spoke with the roasters to find out why they chose these coffees, what their roasting philosophies are, and what their local communities appreciate in a winter coffee menu.

Panama Geisha at the Top

Our highest-scoring coffee was a Panama Finca Las Nubes Geisha from Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea Co., whose balanced, delicate, berry-driven profile landed it at 94. And it’s a bargain for a coffee produced exclusively from the Geisha variety at $15.00/8 ounces. Holly Alves, “marketing maven and chief of stuff” at Vermont Artisan, says, “Our philosophy of roasting is to always be on the lookout for high-quality green beans that have characteristics unique to their particular origin, then roast them in small batches to highlight their best qualities.” This statement echoes the values of small roasters everywhere who are trying to elevate the craft of coffee through thoughtful sourcing and meticulous roasting.

Vermont Artisan Roastery in Waterbury Center is a winter oasis for coffee lovers. Courtesy of Vermont Artisan.

As for winter-specific offerings, Vermont Artisan makes an exclusive Alpine Blend for The Lodge at Spruce Peak at Stowe Mountain Resort. While Alves says that Vermont Artisan’s Kenya, Moka Java and Artisan Dark Blend are the company’s three most popular coffees, regular customers and baristas alike are always excited about special coffees, like this Geisha, that differ from the everyday choices.

Three Approaches to Kenya

Kenya’s classic coffees work well for a range of roast profiles, and our blind cupping coincidentally turned up three coffees that express different faces of Kenya, from bright and juicy to cocoa-toned and spice-driven.

Eagle, Colorado-based Color Coffee’s Kenya Gaturiri AA (93) is brightly sweet-savory with a complex bittersweet structure and juicy acidity. Founder Charlie Gundlach says, “Our philosophy of roasting is always to achieve maximum juiciness, sweetness and flavor clarity. We roast light, no doubt, but also steer away from sour and vegetal flavors. Our roasting is calculated, precise and consistent.” He adds, “Our customers like how we tame Kenya acidity without introducing roast flavors.”

A bird’s eye view of the roastery at Color Coffee in Eagle, Colorado. Courtesy of Color Coffee.

Durango Coffee’s Kenya Karinga AA (93) presents familiar notes we’ve come to associate with the origin, in particular black currant and cocoa nib. Owner-roaster Carl Rand’s philosophy is “to retain the character of the variety and land on a balanced coffee with optimal sweetness,” which he’s achieved beautifully here. The Durango, Colorado-based company doesn’t have a special winter menu; this Kenya was imported by Covoya, but Rand says that Durango’s most-popular coffees, year-round, are direct-trade offerings from Costa Rica (Las Lajas), Guatemala (El Retiro and La Merced), and Colombia (Bayter brothers), all farms he’s worked with for many years.

Ashland, Oregon-based Noble Coffee Roasting submitted a Kenya Muiri Estate Peaberry (92), which founder and CEO Jared Rennie says is challenging to profile because of the thermodynamics of roasting a spherical coffee bean. For him, the goal is “to bring out the fullness of the origin’s character — the terroir — by roasting the coffees quite lightly, but enough that we are allowing the essence of each coffee to be developed.” He adds, “The Muiri Estate happens to be an excellent coffee for ski season with its potpourri-esque character.” We also found the cup to be warmly spice-toned, with notes of ginger blossom and orange zest. As a bonus, Noble exclusively sources USDA organic-certified coffees.

Tending to coffee trees at Muiri Estate in Kiambu County, Kenya. Courtesy of Noble Coffee.

Ethiopia is Always In Season

While The Nomadic Bean (Jackson Hole, Wyoming), Breck Coffee (Breckenridge, Colorado) and Drink Coffee Do Stuff (Truckee, California) are all situated in the heart of popular ski territories that see a lot of visitor traffic, they also each have a strong local following among year-round residents. So, in addition to inexpensive blends whose catchy names appeal to seasonal visitors seeking snow, they stock single-origin coffees that are staples for locals and coffee-obsessed tourists. We review here an Ethiopia from each roaster (ranging in score from 91–93), and it’s probably not a coincidence that all three are natural-processed. Though this is a small sample size, the prevalence of Ethiopia naturals in our report cupping is evidence to support the notion that coffee styles associated with specialty coffee’s third wave have reached far beyond urban centers into small towns where coffee is taking on more value and nuance.

Margo Askins roasts coffee at The Nomadic Bean, her one-woman show in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Courtesy of The Nomadic Bean.

The Nomadic Bean is Margo Askins’ one-woman show. Her Ethiopia Guji Odo Shakiso (93) is a delicately fruit-forward coffee with notes of just-picked blueberry, honeycomb and crisp chocolate. Askins says she chose this coffee for its sweet fruit and heavy body, and she reports that her customers like that it’s “very drinkable, mild-mannered, fruity but not bitter or overly acidic.” She always has a natural-processed Ethiopia on the menu, and she has seen customers who are longtime dark-roast devotees opening up to this particular coffee — a win for her roasting style, which tends toward lighter profiles. She spends a lot of time helping customers learn to optimize their at-home brewing for different roast profiles. She says, “What I’ve found with many customers is that a bit of how-to education, whether about grind size or water temperature, really changes their sense of characteristics in the cup, and once they get a coffee dialed in, they come back for more.”

One of Breck Coffee Roasters’ unofficial brand ambassadors. Courtesy of Kia Grant.

Breck Coffee’s Ethiopia Guji Kercha G2 (92) is a cleanly sweet-tart natural that gets ballast from crisp cocoa and sweet herb notes. Founding partner Alex Bremer says, “We were very impressed with how balanced and complex this coffee was from the first time we cupped it. Its fruit notes, relatively low acidity and beautiful body make it a perfect choice for the light-roast natural-coffee drinker. He adds, “Obviously, living in one of the biggest ski destinations in the world, we see our biggest crowds in the winter, the majority of whom have one goal in mind: Get on the mountain and ski! That said, we love having a quick, affordable coffee to fuel these folks up before a long day on the hill. Typically, during the busy season, we gravitate toward medium- or dark-roasted washed coffees that will satisfy the majority of our clientele while still offering at least one natural, as well as a microlot or anaerobic coffee, just in case somebody has a hankering for a more complex cup.”

Checking on coffee drying on raised beds in Ethiopia’s Guji Zone in the southern part of the country. Courtesy of Drink Coffee Do Stuff.

The founder of Truckee, California-based Drink Coffee Do Stuff, Nick Visconti, says, “Roasting and brewing coffee in Lake Tahoe comes with unique challenges and opportunities, one of which is tourism and traffic swings that bring outdoor adventurers and coffee lovers from across the country. Our menu changes just as the vibe changes seasonally. While our main blends are available year-round, our single origins rotate in and out with summer skies and winter snowpack. Typically, we find ourselves sourcing and serving coffees that are sweet and comforting in the winter, light and bright in the summer.” He says his customers love the Ethiopia Dur Feres (91) for its “amazing sweetness coupled with approachable fruit overtones and an entry-level price point for its origin.” For the record, the company’s perennial bestsellers are the aptly named blends Hell Yeah!, Bark at the Moon, and Tips Up Tahoe, all dark-roast blends.

Two Classic Washed Coffees and a “Gateway” Blend

Two solid samples from roasters new to Coffee Review are the Backporch El Salvador Las Delicias Pacamara (92)  and the Pink Elephant Tanzania (92). The Backporch El Salvador comes to us from Bend, Oregon, and is a bold, rich-toned cup with tart fruit and spice undertones. Founder Dave Beach says he’s worked with the producers, the Menendez family, for over a decade, and that customers love this coffee’s woodsy, nutty, citrusy notes. He says, “We typically add more coffees to our menu during the winter season, mainly due to the holidays, which is when we roast and sell our nicest microlots and more expensive coffees that are popular for gift giving.”

Backporch Coffee founder Dave Beach at El Salvador’s Finca Las Delicias with farmer Rene Monroy and owner-operator Miguel Menendez, Sr. Courtesy of Backporch.

Pink Elephant’s Tanzania is floral and chocolaty, with an intensity that co-owners Mitch and Kelley Baker attribute to this Tanzania’s peaberry grade. Their roastery in Heber City, Utah, and coffee shop in Park City attract a mix of tourists and locals, and the Bakers maintain their focus on high-quality single origins and blends that are both remarkable and approachable. While their café menu remains relatively consistent year-round, they like to offer winter specials with homemade syrups, such as a peppermint mocha made with local dark chocolate.

Big Creek Coffee in Hamilton, Montana is an easy stop on the way to Lost Trail Powder Mountain, a popular skiing destination. Courtesy of Randy Lint.

The one blend on our list is Big Creek Coffee Roasters’ Glow Seasonal Reserve Blend (92), which owner-roaster Randy Lint calls a “gateway” coffee. While the bulk of Big Creek’s sales are medium and dark roasts, Lint says, “We consider this seasonal light roast a ‘gateway’ coffee because we’re introducing customers to the new flavors of a well-developed lighter roast at a time of the year when they are more willing to take a chance and step outside their typical comfort zones.” It’s a rotating blend of two organic-certified Ethiopia coffees, one washed (Ethiopia Gedeb Halo Beriti) and one natural-processed (Ethiopia Kayon Mountain). Big Creek, in Hamilton, Montana, is conveniently located on the way to the local ski area, Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Sula, Montana. Lint reports that visitors hitting the slopes tend toward heavier drinks in the long winter months, like Americanos, breves, and maple brown butter lattes. But he adds, “Glow allows our customers to explore [the often surprising character of] natural-process coffees without hitting them over the head from the outset.”

Ski Country Takeaways

The 10 coffees we review this month, ranging in score from 91–94, are all examples of the excellent work small specialty roasters are doing in their communities. We were especially impressed with their care and attention to both sourcing and roasting. Given the influx of winter tourists from around globe to these popular ski destinations, it’s no surprise these roasters seek to balance their menus by offering lower-priced, approachable coffees alongside higher-end, more nuanced selections to appeal to a wide range of palates and preferences. This should be welcome news for our readers heading to the slopes this winter, and a call to support these innovative local roasters when you visit.

The post Warm Your Bones With 10 Ski Country Coffees appeared first on Coffee Review.

Our monthly reports are a bit like a coffee grab bag — we never know what kinds of submissions we’re going to receive, but we always get some surprises that steer the month’s given theme in specific directions. And that’s really the point with our reports: to pose a question and see what potential answers surface. The end result is never comprehensive, but it’s always engaging and intriguing.

This month, we were curious about roasters whose coffees we’d never cupped before, of which there are many. So, it was exciting to see what submissions landed — coffees from veteran roasters to newbies, spanning the U.S., Canada and Taiwan — and to introduce the work of roasters entirely new to Coffee Review to our readers.

We review nine coffees here, ranging in score from 92-94, and the themes that emerged in our cupping include intentionality, transparency, mission, and, of course, quality. Another clear theme is that all nine feature coffees from classic origins. Four are from Kenya, three from Ethiopia, one from Colombia, and one from Costa Rica. Of these, all but one was processed by traditional methods, washed, honey or natural, without the additional processing experiments that distinguish a growing percentage of coffees we review: anaerobic (fermented in an oxygen-free environment); fermented with the addition of wine yeasts or lactic acid bacteria; or processed with various fruits added to the fermentation tank.

We have mused internally about why these roasters new to our publication submitted more traditional coffees than the broader range of styles we routinely evaluate for review. Is it because the submitters were thinking conservatively, i.e., wanted to send in “classic” coffees that have a long history of performing well on our cupping table? Or is it because these roasters themselves and their customers have an affinity for the classic cup profiles? We’re not really sure, but what rose to the top this month were eight fairly traditional coffees in terms of origin and processing, along with one experimentally processed coffee fermented with passionfruit.

We interviewed the nine roasters to learn more about their coffees and their company’s philosophies.

Women Who Mean Business

All of the roasters whose coffees we review this month spoke of their companies as mission-driven, whether their core values line up around empowering farmers, transparency in the supply chain, or principles of customer service. But we were especially gratified to find that several companies are women-owned and/or feature women in leadership roles. Both Swelter and Sightseer are women-owned businesses that take their raison d’etre even further: They exclusively source coffees from of women producers.

Stephanie Welter-Krause’s Swelter Coffee (get it?) was founded in El Cerrito, California in 2020 with a mission to support women coffee producers and build a sustainable business. She is also committed to reducing landfill, so she offers a Zero-Waste Coffee Club, which allows customers to receive monthly deliveries that they can transfer to an Airscape vacuum-sealed container (or another container they already own), so subscribers can have a fresh supply of coffee at the ready with no packaging waste.

Sightseer Coffee is a queer-owned company that also works exclusively with women-farmed coffees. Founded in Austin, Texas in 2021 by Sara Gibson and Kimberly Zash, Sightseer was launched with the intention of making the coffee industry more representational. Gibson says, “While women typically make up about 70% of the manual labor force on coffee farms, they are often shut out of decision-making and ownership. By sourcing exclusively from women, we’re hoping to do our part to start to change that. When women have more financial power, more resources tend to be invested back into social and environmental initiatives, leading to better outcomes for families and communities.”

Sightseer Coffee is a queer-, women-owned business based in Austin, Texas. Courtesy of Sightseer.

Amazingly, both roasters submitted the same coffee, but with very different roast profiles, allowing us to taste the range of this green. It is a washed Ethiopia from Yirgacheffe produced by sisters Hirut (Beti) and Mahder Birhanu, processed at their washing station, Dumerso, and imported by Catalyst Trade.

Swelter’s version, Birhanu Sisters’ Ethiopia (93), shows notes of cocoa nib, bergamot, red plum, jasmine and cedar. Sightseer’s profile, called Bat Country Dark Roast Ethiopia and rated at 92, isn’t a dark roast in the Starbucks sense of the word, but more a medium-dark cup that emphasizes crisp chocolate, honeysuckle, dried persimmon, almond nougat and fresh-cut oak. 

Two Veterans in the Field

While most of the submissions we received for this month’s report were from newer roasters, two came from established businesses. Nevertheless, mission remains the narrative throughline. 

David Blanchard, founder of Richmond, Virginia-based Blanchard’s Coffee, says, “We believe coffee should be accessible and approachable for anyone who wants to enjoy a great cup, so we work hard to remove the pretense from the experience and focus on sourcing great, traceable, sustainable coffees, thoughtfully roasting them and meeting our customers where they are.” We cupped Blanchard’s classic Kenya Karindundu AB (93) and were pulled in by its complex, richly bittersweet structure with notes of cocoa nib, red berry and savory florals.

Richmond, Virginia-based Blanchard’s Coffee offers a Kenya Karindundu that we rated at 93. Courtesy of Blanchard’s.

Burlington, Vermont’s Vivid Coffee, which started as a wholesale operation before adding several cafés, prefers to source coffees from small farms and farming communities. Vivid’s Ian Bailey says, “We prioritize excellence and quality alongside equitable purchasing practices. This means we partner with the same coffee producers year after year; we are a predictable source of income for producers. We often work directly with producers and exporters to ensure fair prices are being paid to farmers. We’re grateful to partner with farmers who are committed to excellent production and processing standards, quite a few of whom have placed in their countries’ Cup of Excellence competitions.”

Vivid Coffee’s cafe in Burlington, Vermont. Courtesy of Vivid.

Vivid’s Kenya Gichithaini AA (92) is a deep, savory-leaning cup with leading notes of black tea, dark chocolate, golden raisin, sandalwood and tiger lily.

Two Emerging Roasters from Taiwan

More than a quarter of all coffees we receive for standalone review each year are roasted in Taiwan, a country with a well-developed coffee and café culture that seems, from our vantage point, to be cutting-edge in terms of sourcing practices that encourage innovation. Many of the experimentally processed coffees we review come to us first by way of Taiwanese roasters, suggesting that this region may be something of a bellwether for trends in the industry. 

Rest Coffee Roasters, based in New Taipei City, sent a lovely Costa Rica Canet Raisin Honey (93), a sweetly herbaceous, floral honey-processed cup with notes of gooseberry, sage, magnolia, baking chocolate and pine nut.

Wang Tzu Chi of Rest Coffee Roasters in Taiwan. Courtesy of Rest.

Co-owner Wang Tzu Chi, who founded the company with her husband, Hare, says, “With ‘rest’ as the starting point of the brand, we hope that modern people can stop for a while in the midst of daily stress and brew a cup of fresh coffee from various countries, feel it with their own heart, taste it with their own taste buds, and let their body and mind rest for a time.”

Located in Taichung’s Xitun District, AKA Coffee goes somewhat against the light-roast trend, preferring, as Tony Chuang says, “to roast coffee smoothly for transparent flavor, trying to soften the acidity of each coffee and balance it with sweetness in the roast profile.” Chuang is partial to Kenyas for their wide range of aromatic and flavor expressions, and his Kenya AA (93) included in this month’s report is a case in point with its vibrant, balanced acidity, rich sweetness and satiny-smooth mouthfeel.

Three Newbies on a Mission

The genesis of Bassline Coffee’s passion lies outside the coffee industry — in music, where audio-video engineer Brad Katz found himself sidelined during the Covid lockdown. Katz had a personal interest in coffee roasting, so he got creative and decided to turn his hobby into a business in 2021. Bassline’s tagline is, “a roast for every rhythm.”

Lead roaster Tim Carter says, “We currently offer a wide variety of coffees, both in terms of region and roast level. Our Ethiopia Bekele Heto Natural (93) has been one of our favorite offerings, so far. We love a nice natural with a clean fruit and a lot of funk! This bean has so much to offer that we feel it shines as a light roast. We know Bassline sounds like we focus on the lows, but we also highlight those trebles!” We rated this coffee, imported by Royal, at 93, engaged by its berry-driven, sweet-tart cup.

ILSE Coffee Roasters, in North Canaan, Connecticut, offers a Kenya Ichuga AA (93) with classic notes of black currant, narcissus, toffee, cedar and pink grapefruit zest. Owner and co-founder Rebecca Grossman says, “We describe ourselves as an ingredient-driven company, as we feel that starting with the best raw product is one of the most important things we can do. We enjoy roasting and serving coffees with a distinct sense of origin, as well as coffees that have strong flavor clarity and complexity. We work with a lot of the same producers yearly and very much value our relationships throughout the supply chain. Our goal is to work with the utmost intentionality throughout the entire sourcing, roasting and serving processes.”

Examining a coffee just off the roast at ILSE Coffee. Courtesy of ILSE.

The Angry Roaster, based in Toronto, Canada, sent a Colombia Jardines del Eden Pink Bourbon Wine Yeast Honey, which, at 94, represents the highest-scoring coffee we review here, as well as the list’s most experimental — passionfruit pulp was added to the tank during fermentation. And this sweet-tart fruit is distinctly present in the cup, casting the whole profile in a tropical direction.

Co-owners Mal and Donna of Toronto’s The Angry Roaster. Courtesy of The Angry Roaster.

Owners Donna and Mal say, “Our mission has been to bridge the gap between the everyday coffee drinker and the specialty crowd while also bringing awareness to the issues facing the coffee growers of the world. Whether environmental or socio-political, with each coffee we try to bring a new story, and, when we can, contribute to it with some of our profits. And with that, we choose a variety of coffees in hopes it speaks to both ends of the spectrum, those new to specialty coffee and more refined palettes.”

And what’s with the company name? According to the Angry Roaster website, “Simply put, when you look at the state of the world today, If you’re not angry, you’re not awake.”

We appreciate the opportunity to discover these new-to-us roasters, and we look forward to seeing more coffees from them in the future.

The post Classic Origins, Mission-Driven Companies: 9 Roasters New to Coffee Review appeared first on Coffee Review.

Coffee is spread out on a concrete patio to dry in Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by Kim Westerman.

While Mexico is somewhat under the radar when compared to more popular coffee origins, the country has been producing coffee since the late 18^th century, and given recent developments, may well be poised to become a model for coffee production in the 21^st century. In this month’s report, we review nine exceptional coffees from four different Mexican growing regions.

Coffee farmers everywhere face various barriers to success — some more than others — including climate change, pests and plant diseases, and prices for their annual crop too low to survive on. But narratives of resilience also abound, and if our findings in this report are any indication, Mexico may be a prime example of both increased quality and improved infrastructure achieved in the face of adversity, developments boding well for the future.

A Brief History of Mexican Coffee Production

Coffee is grown in 15 of Mexico’s 31 states, but the vast majority is grown in the south, in Chiapas (approximately 41 percent), which borders Guatemala and has excellent conditions for coffee production (higher growing elevations and a cooling marine influence from both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans). The other main regions of production, in order of output, are Veracruz, Puebla and Oaxaca. Though coffee is only 141^st on the list of products most exported by Mexico, it was the 10^th largest exporter of coffee in the world in 2020, with the lion’s share of green coffee produced going to the United States (49.7% of total production).

The majority of coffee grown in Mexico is processed and sold via cooperatives, of which there are currently more than 600 throughout the country. This model is not unique, by any means, but it took hold in Mexico as a way for indigenous groups to maintain cultural identity and autonomy, and as a grassroots response to the lack of governmental intervention when crises arose. The Zapatista movement in Chiapas, in particular, maintains strong values around organic and other traditional coffee-farming practices, which is one of several factors that distinguish and differentiate Mexican coffee production from many other growing regions in Central and South America. And while there are certainly private coffee estates in Mexico, it’s notable that eight of the nine of the coffees we review this month are either from cooperatives (official or unofficial) or individually owned farms that have partnered with neighboring farmers in a collaborative way; only one is from a single farm. Though the Mexican government is more involved in the coffee industry, of late, than in earlier decades (more on that below), it seems fair to say that the coffee industry’s strong communal impulses have remained the bedrock of the country’s success.

Sustainability Certifications in Mexico

There are several options for producers in Mexico seeking third-party certifications for their coffees, along with the price premiums associated with these certifications. All certifications to some degree address ecological, social and economic issues in their standards, but emphasis differs by certification. Organic certification is most popular with Mexican producers. In most years Mexico is the second-highest producer of organic coffee in the world, just behind Peru. Three of the coffees we review this month are organic-certified. Fair Trade, with its particular emphasis on cooperative arrangements among small-holding producers, is also very important in Mexico; among the nine coffees reviewed this month, two are certified Fair Trade. Rainforest Alliance certification (now merged with Utz Certification under the Rainforest name) is historically structured to appeal to larger farms seeking data-driven, holistic validation of their sustainable practices, although its new standards include specific consideration of smallholders.

Talking with smallholding farmers in Chiapas about their work with Fair Trade USA. Photo by Kim Westerman.

None of these certifications is without controversy — about the standards themselves and in terms of what is ultimately best for people, the environment, and the coffee industry — but for the purposes of this report, suffice it to say that there are competing systems at play, complicated by the increasing influence of “direct trade,” a set of voluntary practices that can be very appealing for both farmers and green buyers. And there are additional steps roasters must take, with each certification, to be allowed to claim the certification on their roasted coffee, involving fees and documented practices that are not always completed. For example, a roaster may have purchased a coffee certified organic at origin but be unable to legally display that certification on the roasted coffee because the roastery is not also certified organic.

Government Involvement and Support

In 1973, the Mexican government established a national coffee organization, INMECAFE (Instituto Mexicano del Café) to provide financial and technical support to farmers, but it dissolved in 1989 with the termination of the export quota system maintained by the International Coffee Agreement, leaving coffee farmers to fend for themselves, as well as find their own sales channels. AMECAFE (Asociación Mexicana De La Cadena Productiva Del Café) is currently the most prominent coffee association, and it’s having some success in regaining the government’s attention in recent years.

Since 2015, Mexico coffee farmers have been hit hard by roya, or leaf rust, a devastating fungus that attacks the leaves of coffee plants, spreads easily and is very difficult to treat. This crisis has spurred SADER (Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development) to partner with AMECAFE, along with

the National Service of Health, Food Safety, and Food Quality (SENASICA), the Integrated Coffee Production Chain (Sistema Producto Café), and some private-sector companies to help by establishing plant nurseries, grafting and cloning, and providing training through the government-sponsored Sustainability and Welfare for Small Coffee Producers (SUBICAFE) program. A 2019 report by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service suggests that Mexico is continuing to rebound well from the leaf rust crisis.

Top-Scoring Coffees

As with all Coffee Review reports, our view of what is happening now in Mexico is limited by the submissions roasters send us, as well as what is available in the market during our cupping window. Because the coffee supply chain is very complex, green coffee arrivals in the U.S. purchased by importers and roasters are impossible to precisely time, so we usually miss some potentially excellent coffees for our reports. In this case, according to Vernaé Graham of Fair Trade USA, many of the Fair Trade-certified coffees from Chiapas have not yet arrived, though we did get our hands on a few.

Luckily, we still received a wide range of origins, certifications and processing methods among the 30 coffees we received for consideration. The top-scoring nine, which we review here, encompass four regions (Chiapas, Guerrero, Nayarit and Oaxaca) and four processing methods (washed, natural, honey and anaerobic).

Processing Innovations As Value-Added

As in many coffee-producing countries, Mexican farmers are starting to work with processing methods that fall outside the traditional washed method that has, for decades, defined export-grade coffees from Mexico. These alternative methods generate the kinds of cup profiles that are currently trendy in the ultra-specialty coffee world, and when successful, earn their producers higher-than-average prices.

The highest-scoring coffee overall, at 94, is Revel’s Finca Cerro Azul Aces Lot — processed anaerobically (fermented in the whole fruit in a hermetically sealed vessel) and produced by a single farm. It is richly aromatic and fruit-toned with ballast from deep chocolate and sweet floral notes, and an intentional sweet ferment. This is a style of cup we now see on a weekly basis from regions throughout the coffee world, as anaerobic processing variations proliferate, bringing their particular tendencies to the sensory potential of the bean. (Read more about that here.) And it’s clear evidence, along with the four other anaerobic-processed samples we received, that Mexico is climbing on the processing-experimentation bandwagon. Fourteen of the 30 submissions were natural or honey-processed, which leaves only 16 traditional washed coffees in the mix. This is not surprising given the global trends we’re seeing, but it is a rather rapid departure from the preponderance of washed Mexican coffees we’ve reviewed in the recent past.

Revel Coffee’s submission for the Mexico tasting report was a Finca Cerro Azul Aces Lot, produced in the Guererro State. Photo courtesy of Revel Coffee.

Revel’s Gary Theisen says, “I think this might only be about the fifth coffee in 15 years that I’ve brought in from Mexico. Most of the importers I have a relationship with tend to list coffees from Mexico that are more intended to serve as a base component for blends. Single-estate coffees that can stand on their own have historically proven to be a bit of a challenge to find. In the case of the Cerro Azul, it had so much quality and intrigue to the cup that I couldn’t pass it up as a quality exemplar from the region that I hope is a harbinger of ubiquitous standout Mexican offerings to come.”

We rated five coffees at 93, one a natural-processed coffee and one a honey. Fumi Coffee Company’s Chiapas Las Margaritas Pache Natural was produced under the direction of Byeong Soo Kim (AKA Teddy) of Finca Don Rafa, whose model is to work with neighboring farmers to help all improve and prosper together. Fumi’s roasted version of this coffee is rife with tropical fruit notes and sweetly herbaceous.

The one honey-processed coffee we review, roasted by Badbeard’s Microroastery in Portland, is a Chiapas Chimhucum “Semi-Washed.”Badbeard’s Justin Kagan has long seen Mexico as an under-appreciated origin. He was principal cellist of the Mexico Symphony from 1990-1998, back when it was difficult to get good coffee to drink as a resident of the country because, as he says, “The good stuff was all exported.” But he lived there long enough to find the good local coffee and roast it with friends, so he has always known the quality was there. Badbeard’s Chiapas, produced by an unofficial collective of smallholding farmers, is delicately sweet and subtly complex, with dried stone fruit, cocoa and citrus notes.

Community announcements posted on a mural commemorating the 1997 massacre in Acteal, Chiapas. Photo courtesy of Amavida Coffee.

Mostra Coffee’s Nyarita Canela (92) feels like a real discovery, given how few coffees we’ve seen from the Nayarit region in the past. Natural-processed, it’s crisply sweet and fruit-driven with notes of dried plum, hazelnut, cocoa powder and marjoram. Ryan Sullivan says, “We chose this coffee not only because we feel like it is an excellent coffee, but also to help support the community that it comes from. This has been an ongoing relationship for Mostra working with the TAMBOR Cooperative through San Cristobal. In 2012, coffee producers in the town of Huaynamota were in financial turmoil. Betrayed by a trusted colleague, the organization was left with crippling debt that was passed on to community members who had personally cosigned the loan. CAFESUMEX and San Cristobal worked with TAMBOR to negotiate their debt terms and begin the road to financial recovery. Seven years later, TAMBOR has financially recovered. Since 2015, TAMBOR has exported its crops debt free.” TAMBOR is one of many examples of the success of the cooperative model in Mexico.

Turning coffee to ensure even drying at Cafe Capitan in Chiapas, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Red Fox Coffee Merchants.

Classic Washed Coffees Remain Solid

Despite their numerical minority in terms of the total coffees we received for this report, four of the nine coffees we review this month are in the traditional washed style. All offer versions of the classic Mexico cup profile we readily recognize — and all are produced by cooperative groups the country is known for.

Amavida Coffee Roaster’s Maya Vinic (93), from the cooperative of the same name, displays notes of baking chocolate, almond butter, date, clove and magnolia, and is certified both organic and Fair Trade. Speckled Ax’s Capitan Maragoype (93) has savory underpinnings with notes of hop flowers, cinnamon and fresh-cut cedar supporting top notes of black cherry and dark chocolate. Amavida’s Jennifer Pawlik says, “Mexico coffee and the farming families are deeply rooted in our own origin story. Amavida has sourced coffee from Maya Vinic since our early days and has also supported coffee producing communities in the region through project work with On the Ground Global (OTG). In the past there was a lot of focus on access to clean water, which has now expanded to agronomy projects and collaborations with OTG and Cooperative Coffees (through their Impact Fund). We also work with an all-women’s cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico which in turn gives further support to project work with OTG in the region.”

Wonderstate Coffee’s Ozolotepec (93), also certified organic, is perhaps the most classic of the coffees we cupped — sweet, balanced, chocolaty and nut-toned — and was produced by members of the members of the UNECAFE Cooperative. Caleb Nicholes says, “We love Mexico as a coffee origin because of the older, traditional varieties such as Typica, Bourbon and Caturra grown in such wildly unique micro-climates. We love this Oaxaca Ozolotepec, in particular, as the region is so stunningly beautiful and the indigenous farmers there have such a rich and distinct cultural heritage. Producers from the UNECAFE cooperative tend to have quite small, organic farms, crafting some of the brightest and cleanest profiles in the entire state of Oaxaca.”

Pulping coffee directly into a fermentation tank at Cafe Capitan in Chiapas. Photo courtesy of Red Fox Coffee Merchants.

Camerin Roberts sent Lone Coffee’s La Cañada Oaxaca Organic (91), which we appreciated for its friendly accessibility, sweet nuttiness and gentle fruit and floral underpinnings. It was produced by members of the Union de Productores Las Flores. Roberts chose this coffee “because it has been part of the blend for our bar espresso for a while now, which is the base of our many popular espresso drinks. As a standalone, it’s fruity and not too acidic. It has a certain friendly complexity that our customers enjoy.”

And we also enjoyed the Fair Trade-certified, organic (FTO) coffee from Water Street Coffee (91) in Kalamazoo, Michigan, sourced from family-owned farms organized around the Grupo de Asesores de Producción Orgánica y Sustentables (GRAPOS), a farmers’ group operating in the municipalities of Unión Juárez, Cacahoatan, and Tapachula in the state of Chiapas. It’s a quietly complex cup with crisp apple and sweet herb notes with consistent undertones of almond brittle. Aaron Clay spoke of Water Street’s positive relationship with the Fair Trade USA organization: “The systems and support they offer make it easy to be a part of the Fair Trade movement — holding organizations to high standards by providing safe working conditions, sustainable livelihoods, and protecting the environment.”

Takeaways

Our foray into the Mexico coffee landscape, while just a slice of what’s happening on the ground, was quite heartening. Quality is high, processing experiments are widespread and successful, and the cooperative model that Mexico coffee production was founded on is holding strong. We hope the country continues to rebound from the leaf rust crisis, and we’re excited to see what becomes of the many new partnerships being formed — may they all succeed in helping farmers achieve stability and thrive.

The post Mexico Coffee: Processing Innovation, Cooperatives, and the Tradition of Collaboration appeared first on Coffee Review.

The ever-evolving world of specialty coffee continues to see rapid growth in the area of product differentiation, with a strong emphasis on processing innovation at the farm level. In the last decade or so, as the story of each individual coffee has become more important to the consumer, it is variation in processing method that seems to get the most attention.

Perhaps that’s because processing method, even more than tree variety, has the capacity to decisively alter cup profile, allowing farmers to direct outcomes and make their coffees stand out in a range of sensory directions. Experimenting with processing method also carries less long-term risk for farmers than planting new tree varieties.

Sunset view of downtown Los Angeles, broadly the home of Regent Coffee, Espresso Republic, and The Reverse Orangutan.

This month, we focus on the contribution that roasters from Southern California are making in what is a particularly innovating and exciting time in coffee. However, coffees from the eight roasters featured here are not wild, envelope-pushing products of anaerobic fermentation or the outcome of other experimental methods such as adding fruit, wine yeasts, or lactic acid to fermentations — practices that are currently trending throughout the high end of specialty coffee. Instead, they are rather pristine traditional washed-process coffees or coffees meticulously prepared using the now classic natural or honey methods. Nevertheless, all focus on processing in their narratives — though more on the quality and nuances of processing than on novelty or difference. As you read the reviews associated with this report, you’ll understand why — each coffee is exemplary in its processing category, and each coffee’s story speaks to the care around processing at the farm level.

Classic Washed-Process Coffees Are Still Relevant

While farmers and specialty coffee roasters across the globe are busy figuring out their relationship to processing experimentation (how funky is too funky? How much manipulation is desirable? Are anaerobics a passing fancy?), classic washed coffees still have a place in consumer’s hearts, so even cafés serving molecular coffee cocktails at $12 a pop haven’t abandoned them.

Three Southern California roasters whose washed Kenya, Ethiopia and Honduras we review this month are examples of the highest-quality washed processing, evidenced not only by roaster and farmer narratives but also by the coffees’ presentation in the cup, which impressively foregrounds the classic character respectively associated with each of these origins.

Crystal Pier at Pacific Beach in greater San Diego, California, home of Jaunt Coffee, Nostalgia Coffee Roasters, and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters.

Jimmy Silva, of San Diego’s Jaunt Coffee, says, “The SoCal coffee scene is focused on quality coffee, food offerings and the shop environment. Our role in our community is to provide exceptional coffee, create relationships with schools, organizations, and neighborhoods that surround us, and have offerings that appeal to our diverse district. The San Diego coffee community is eclectic in the sense that, depending on where you go, you will find cafés that represent their local communities and cultures quite well.”

When we blind-cupped Jaunt Coffee’s Kenya Nyeri Gathaithi (93), we knew it was a Kenya based on aroma alone. Telltale black currant notes — alongside wisteria, lime zest, tamarind and cedar — peg this coffee as a Kenya. It is wet-processed using the traditional Kenya “double-washed” method, meaning that after fermentation and washing the beans are soaked a second time in fresh water, promoting the clarity associated with the finest Kenya coffees.

Silva says that Jaunt’s plans include expanding its café space and creating a dedicated area for just roasting. He adds, “We’ve managed to stay relevant by focusing on the quality and value of our offerings, centering our attention on community support, social media (marketing), and, of course, our staff. Without our strong and supportive staff, there’s no way we could continue to move forward.”

Kim Anderson, co-owner of Handlebar Coffee, behind the bar in Santa Barbara. Courtesy of Handlebar.

One of two roasters reviewed this month that are completely new to us is Handlebar Coffee in Santa Barbara. Founded in 2011 by a Kim Anderson and Aaron Olsen, who met on the professional cycling circuit, Handlebar is a hub in the burgeoning culinary scene in Santa Barbara. The name of the micro-roastery is a nod to their shared love of biking.

Handlebar’s Honduras Marcala (93) is richly nutty with an inviting butterscotch undercurrent and a balanced, bittersweet structure that gives it complexity and gravitas. Head roaster Geoffrey Leech says, “This particular coffee from Honduras came across our table almost three years ago. We were initially looking for an espresso component, and after cupping the Marcala, we were wonderfully surprised that not only did it have the quality that we wanted to add to our espresso blend, but it was so enjoyable that we decided to offer it as a standalone offering on the shelves. We’ve carried the Honduras ever since and has become a staple in our cafés. The coffee is well balanced, offering a little bit of acidity and brightness but not so much to deter the everyday consumer.”

Aerial view of Pacific coastline overlooking Santa Barbara, California, home of Handlebar Coffee and up the road from Moore Coffee & Tea.

How is Handlebar looking ahead after the rough pandemic years? Leech says, “Like so many businesses, we are working our way back to pre-2020 normalcy, getting our food program up and running again with the hopes that we can again provide the full possibilities to the local community.”

Bird Rock Coffee’s Ethiopia Raro Boda (94) is the epitome of a classic washed Ethiopia with its citrusy-sweet, richly cocoa-toned and floral cup profile. Bird Rock’s business model has long focused on developing durable relationships with growers, and this is the third year running that the roaster has carried this coffee. It was processed using the traditional Ethiopia washed method: The freshly pulped coffee is fermented under water for 24-48 hours, washed, then soaked in fresh water for approximately two hours. After soaking the coffee is dried on raised beds for approximately 10-14 days. Co-owner and roaster Maritza Suarez-Taylor says this processing method promotes a cup with floral, tropical, and citric aromas.

Co-owner Jeff Taylor adds, “The SoCal coffee scene, much like the rest of the U.S., has really grown in the past 10 years. Our focus, since the beginning of Bird Rock Coffee in 2002 (and first café in 2006), is on quality, unique varieties and overall amazing coffee. We have many direct relationships with producers that we’ve maintained for 13-plus years. That communication and friendship/partnership allows us to discover great coffees consistently and focus on what’s new and exciting at the farm level. We aren’t a company that chases cupping tables for quality; we focus on development and maintenance with the producers we work with annually. Our producers trust us to represent them with great roasting technique and quality in the cup.”

Five Coffees on the Natural-Honey Fruit Continuum

The remaining coffees we reviewed for this report were all processed by either the natural or the honey methods, variations on the theme of intensifying a green coffee’s impulses toward the expression of fruit in the cup. The natural process simply means that the coffee cherries are dried in the whole fruit (rather than stripping the fruit off the bean before washing), and this ancient, now-classic processing method allows for development of a wide range of fruit notes in the aroma and on the palate. Honey processes, pioneered in Brazil but refined and popularized in Costa Rica, remove the skin but leave varying degrees of fruit flesh on the bean, partly in an effort to modulate the intensity and character of fruit notes in the final product. Both natural and honey processes are now ubiquitous throughout the coffee-producing world, and the number of coffees on the natural-honey spectrum we get for review in the Coffee Review lab each year outnumber the washed-process coffees. So, we feel confident in categorizing these two processes as classic at this point in specialty coffee’s evolution.

Taylor Fields of Nostalgia Coffee Roasters and Felipe Trujillo, owner of La Ventolera Farm, walking to his farm in Colombia. Courtesy of Edgar Ontiveros, Nostalgia Coffee Roasters.

Two natural-processed coffees rose to the top scores in this month’s cupping — Moore Coffee & Tea’s El Salvador Aida Batlle La Florida Natural and Nostalgia Coffee Roasters’ Colombia Geisha Cordillera Natural, both of which landed at 95 for their clean but intensely fruit- and floral-driven profiles.

Owner and roaster Gayla Moore, of Ventura-based Moore Coffee & Tea, echoes the idea that successful SoCal roasters aim to excel in both food and beverage, and that coffee continues to be a central part of that story. She says about the El Salvador La Florida reviewed here, “I have followed Aida Batlle for some time, and I make it a priority to search out women producers. Batlle’s [use of the natural] processing method results in a taste profile that matches both my palate and the roasting style I’ve developed over the years, which is balanced and lingering.” The La Florida natural is a richly floral- and fruit-toned coffee with tropical notes of passion fruit and star jasmine.

Moore continues to promote the work of women on both the producer and retailer sides of the business. She says, “It’s heartening to know my coffee is well-represented in my community, as well as being appreciated by customers across the country. I’ve been able to stay relevant because, first and foremost, I offer top-quality coffee. I also watch the market for taste and economic trends and am able to adapt to changes while staying true to my commitment to excellent product and customer service.”

Taylor Fields, owner of Nostalgia Coffee Roasters, has nothing but praise for Felipe Trujillo’s Colombia Geisha Cordillera, which also earned a score of 95. This natural-processed Geisha is deeply chocolaty and spice toned with throughlines of dried blueberry and magnolia.

Fields, who just returned from visiting Trujillo at his farm, says, “What attracts us to any particular coffee is also what our customers love about it. Every single coffee we offer has to be approachable, unique, direct trade, and improve the lives of those who work with it. This Colombia Geisha hits all of those points times 10!”

She adds, “This Geisha is also unique because of our direct trade relationship and story behind the coffee. Felipe is truly helping to shape the next generation of specialty coffee producers in Colombia. In partnership with [exporter] Unblended Coffee, he is taking a tremendous role in mentoring young producers and creating pathways for them to enter the specialty market in the United States. We were able to visit with both Unblended Coffee and Felipe at the end of June, participate in a forum and work directly with the young producers on how to enter the market and take the leap into investing in quality over quantity. Felipe is an inspiration to so many, and this Geisha embodies all of his hard work.”

Preparing to replant coffee trees at Felipe Trujillo’s La Ventolera Farm. Courtesy of Edgar Ontiveros, Nostalgia Coffee Roasters.

Sadly, although this was Trujillo’s first harvest of this Geisha, it will also be his last for the next few years, as all of these Geisha trees died due to severe rain and cold.

When we asked Fields about her roastery’s SoCal ethos, she replied: “I originally fell in love with coffee while in Chicago, as those cafés offered a respite from the bitter cold winters and welcomed all types of coffee lovers. At Nostalgia, our vibe, values, and approachable roast profiles aim to evoke that sense of hospitality, embrace, and friendly nature while sharing the sunny SoCal warmth with as many people as possible. At the end of the day, Nostalgia is a fusion of Midwest hospitality with the idyllic Southern California lifestyle.”

Two honeys and another natural round out our top-scoring coffees, all scoring 93.

Chino-based Espresso Republic’s Ethiopia Gigesa Natural (93) is fruit-toned and sweetly herbaceous with notes of Bing cherry, marjoram, honeysuckle, salted caramel, and fresh-cut oak. The roaster didn’t answer our request for comment by publication time, but the coffee is worth seeking out among offerings by Southern California roasters. It’s a sun-dried coffee in the classic Ethiopia fruit-and-herb style.

Leon Nie, founder of Regent Coffee in Glendale, loves Costa Rica’s Hacienda Sonora (93) so much that this lot, produced from the locally developed Villa Sarchi variety, is the third coffee he’s carried from this farm. Leon, who came to the U.S. from China in search of better opportunities for his family, now operates a successful roastery in his adopted home. He says of the Southern California coffee scene, “I think SoCal specialty coffee is in a very fast developing period. My wife, Di Yao, and daughter and I moved to the U.S. in 2015, and then, it wasn’t easy to find a decent specialty coffee shop. I’m so lucky and honored to be among the growing number now.” He still considers himself a student of coffee and hopes to grow organically with a focus on high-quality coffees and cold brew. The Costa Rica Villa Sarchi honey is juicy, balanced, and cleanly fruit-forward.

Jamil Radney (left) and Geoff Clark, co-owners of The Reverse Orangutan, in a self-described “fun kinda ‘we’re gonna drop the hardest mixtape’ shot.” Courtesy of The Reverse Orangutan.

Another roaster discovery for us here at Coffee Review is The Reverse Orangutan, a Glendora-based roaster whose Ethiopia Shantawane Buncho Honey (93) we enjoyed for its vibrantly sweet-tart profile supported by sweet herb and cocoa notes.

Jamil Radney, co-owner, roaster and lead barista, says, “The specialty coffee scene here is experiencing a beautiful new stride as coffee shops continue to push the limits on delicious coffee. There are so many new players in the industry with so many different approaches to sourcing, roasting and philosophy, it’s wonderful. Our role is to deliver serious gourmet shit with an approachable demeanor. We think coffee should be good, easy to comprehend, and something you’re excited to enjoy. Our guests love that we aren’t afraid to bring in fun experimental lots, and they get excited about new and emerging flavors coming from these talented farmers and mills.”

Radney and Geoff Clark, co-owner and director of green purchasing, who together founded The Reverse Orangutan in 2018, have 20 combined years of experience in the specialty coffee industry working for various cafés in the Southern California region. Radney says, “We cut our teeth as baristas in the burgeoning third-wave scene, where latte art and pour-overs became the norm. During our tenure as baristas, we saw the industry becoming too exclusive, and we believe we can make a change in that regard. We believe coffee should be approachable, casual, and seriously gourmet. Our company’s name is an homage to a chess game that happened in the 1920s. One of the players consulted an orangutan about what their first move should be, and the chess opening has since been called ‘the orangutan offensive.’ Our business philosophy is that the world has made its first move, so we’re playing our counter-offensive, The Reverse Orangutan. Our name is our guiding principle in how we approach the coffee game.”

It was clear in talking with these roasters, both the experienced and the newcomers, that in addition to a laser focus on quality and obsession with meticulous processing, another SoCal theme emerged regarding the need for accessibility and consumer-friendliness. We wholeheartedly second this aspiration, as quality and access are not — should not be — mutually exclusive (as is often the case with wine).

We were barely able to touch on the expansive range of specialty roasters and coffees in Southern California this month, but even with this small selection of classic washed, natural, and honey-processed coffees, it’s clear that the region is upping the specialty coffee ante for us all.

The post Sticking with the Classic: 8 Coffees from Southern California Roasters appeared first on Coffee Review.