Our mission is to help coffee lovers find and enjoy superior quality coffee.  We’re pleased to help facilitate your holiday shopping and gift-giving by providing convenient links to roasters’ websites where some of the Top 30 coffees of 2023 may be available for purchase.

As of the morning of Thursday, November 21, 2024, the following Top 30 coffees were available for purchase on roasters’ websites:

No. 2 – Review | Shop – Kakalove Cafe, Kenya Washed Yara Estate PB TOP, 97 points – $9.25/4 ounces

No. 4 | Review | Shop – Chuck’s Roast, Yemen Haraaz, 96 points – $24.00/150 grams

No. 7 – Review | Shop – Utopian Coffee, Ethiopia Ayla Bombe – $20.00/12 ounces

No. 8 – Review | Shop – JBC Coffee Roasters, Wilton Benitez Java – $26.00/8 ounces

No. 9 – Review | Shop – Torque Coffee, El Salvador Maria Pacas Bernandina Honey– $47.25/250 grams

No. 10 – Review | Shop – Hula Daddy Kona Coffee, Laura’s Reserve SL34, 97 points – $69.95/8 ounces

No. 11 – Review | Shop – Euphora Coffee, Panama Elida Estate Geisha, 97 points – $95.57/4 ounces

No. 22 – Review | Shop – Side by Each Brewing, Burundi Kayanza Cima Yeast Natural, 93 points – $19.00/16 ounces

No. 23 – Review | Shop – Bonlife Coffee, Colombia Lulo Wonka Wonka, 96 points – $19.99/8 ounces

No. 24 – Review | Shop – Durango Coffee, Costa Rica Las Lajas Perla Negra, 95 points – $18.95/12 ounces

No. 27 – Review | Shop – Old Soul Co., El Salvador Finca Loma La Gloria, 94 points – $20.00/12 ounces

No. 28 – Review | Shop – modcup, Colombia Wilton Benitez Gesha Thermal Shock Wine Yeast, 96 points – $30.00/125 grams

The post Shop for the Top 30 Coffees of 2024 appeared first on Coffee Review.

When you’re reading Coffee Review, you may find yourself wondering who else is in the virtual room with you. Who else is reading a report about the fine points of a processing method or origin, and what are they thinking? And what coffees are they drinking?

These questions are very important to us at Coffee Review, of course. Not only do we want satisfied readers who keep coming back to read us again and again, but we also harbor a basic human curiosity about who might be reading our reports and reviews and why.

We have two main ways we learn about our readers. First is the broad and impersonal data on Google Analytics and our own server logs.  These sources anonymously track who visits CoffeeReview.com and provides aggregate data on where our readers are located, how they found us, which web pages they visit, and so. Second, we periodically conduct surveys of our readers to gather more demographic data about them and their coffee-drinking and coffee-reading expectations, habits and preferences. We completed such a survey in early 2024, and share some of what we learned here, along with some aggregate data from Google.

The Basic Data

In 2023, Coffee Review welcomed more than one million readers from 218 countries and territories. Coffee Review ratings reached more than 100 million consumers through our worldwide network of digital, print, and marketing channels. Our readers will drink over a billion cups of coffee and consume more than 30 million pounds of coffee beans.

Two-thirds of our visitors are from North America. We have readers in all 50 U.S. states and every major metropolitan area in the country. The top ten countries by readership are as follows:

1. United States
2. Taiwan
3. Canada
4. Philippines
5. United Kingdom
6. China
7. Australia
8. India
9. Malaysia
10. Thailand

The Survey Results

Over 400 readers from around the world participated in our 2024 online survey.  The United States is home to 88% of them.

We found that Coffee Review readers overall have high levels of education and income.  Of Coffee Review  readers, 74% report having a college degree, which is roughly double the rate in the overall U.S. population.  Readers’ average annual income is $156,000, which is more than double  the U.S. medium household income of about $75,000 in 2022.

On average, our readers report drinking 2.9 servings of coffee per day, which is in line with norms for U.S. coffee drinkers overall. Coffee Review readers report spending an average of $20.60 per pound for coffee beans.

Readership by U.S. State

For many years, we’ve analyzed our website traffic data to better understand where interest in gourmet coffee is highest, at least based on Coffee Review per capita readership.

As we have noted in the past, a state’s population is the biggest driver of website traffic.  Not surprisingly, if one just looks at total CoffeeReview.com traffic, the top four states for readership are California, Texas, Florida, and New York, which are also the most populous states.

Of course, one would expect California to have more readers than Hawai’i just based on the large difference in population, nearly 40 million versus 1.5 million, respectively.  So in the following figures, we normalized the traffic data for population to calculate per capita readership, which is a better gauge of the level of interest in coffee.

The top 10 states by per capita readership in 2023-24:

1. Hawai’i
2. Washington
3. Virginia
4. Oregon
5. Minnesota
6. Montana
7. Maine
8. Vermont
9. California
10. Wyoming 

Hawai’i Tops the List Again

Most of the states on the list aren’t surprises. Hawai’i has been #1 or #2 on the list every time we’ve tracked per capita readership.  As we’ve noted in the past, when you consider that Hawai’i is the only state that produces significant quantities of coffee, it stands to reason that a lot of people have an interest in coffee news and reviews.

Washington, Oregon, and California are famous for their strong coffee cultures and long histories of roasting and consuming high quality coffees.  Minnesota, Maine, and Vermont are northern, cold-weather states, which could drive coffee interest and readership, especially in winter.

Montana and Wyoming are also northern states but, in the past, prior to COVID, they tended to appear well down the list.  It’s likely that COVID-era demographic shifts played our role in readership increases.  The local presence of many high quality coffee roasters in Montana (especially Revel Coffee and RamsHead Coffee Roasters) and Wyoming (JackRabbit Java and Mystic Monk Coffee) are likely driving interest in specialty coffees.

It’s not clear why Virginia would be so high on the list but there is no shortage of high quality coffee roasters – Roadmap, Ironclad, Index, Pinup, Merge — that are both serving and creating an enthusiastic specialty coffee scene.

If you are wondering what state is last on the list this year, it is Louisiana. We’re not sure why.

The post 2024 Reader Survey: Who Reads Coffee Review? appeared first on Coffee Review.

What is a single-origin espresso? Very generally defined, it’s an espresso produced from a single crop of coffee grown and processed in a single country, region, cooperative or farm. In other words, it is not a blend of coffees grown in different places or at different times.

Single-origin (S.O.) espressos allow an espresso drinker to explore the wider world of coffee in the same mindful, informed way as coffee drinkers who taste their coffees brewed as drip or French press. With single-origin espressos, the curious espresso drinker can explore the sensory impacts of variables like tree variety, processing method, growing elevation and, to some degree, roasting strategy — explorations that are difficult to impossible to pursue with blends. Plus, single-origins have the capacity to surprise us, and make the simple act of tasting an espresso shot or cappuccino a memorable mini-revelation that tasting a routine blend, even a very good routine blend, can’t offer us.

Such coffee explorations would seem to be particularly supported by this month’s tasting, as all of the 13 top-rated coffees we report on are identified quite specifically: by specific farm or co-op, by variety of tree that produced them, and often by growing elevation. And we were able to tell something about the roasting by taking Agtron color readings of the beans.

Tasting Colleagues

I was joined in this blind tasting of single-origin espressos by John DiRuocco, vice president of coffee at Mr. Espresso, a long-established (founded in 1978) coffee roaster in Oakland, California. The Mr. Espresso motto, quite justified by its practice, is “Italian inspiration, contemporary taste.”

Kenneth Davids and John DiRuocco tasting espresso coffees at Mr. Espresso roastery in Oakland. Courtesy Jason Sarley.

We conducted the tasting over several days at the lab in the Mr. Espresso roastery, with Brandon Talley, assistant director of coffee quality at Mr. Espresso, pulling the shots on a Faema E71E, and Coffee Review’s Jason Sarley in a supervising support role. As usual, we generated the shots using 18 grams of ground coffee to produce 36 grams of finished espresso, a relatively standard ratio in North American practice. For the “with milk” assessment, the shot was combined with three parts whole milk, heated but not frothed on the steam wand. As always at Coffee Review, the tasting was conducted blind, with Jason delivering the coffees identified only by numbers to John and me.

Importance of Processing Method

When the tasting was finished and the results were tabulated, it turned out that one variable in particular moved to the front of the sensory line: processing method. (Processing method, readers will recall, describes the sequence of procedures that turn the moist seeds of fresh coffee fruit into dry, stable, roaster-ready green coffee beans.) The dramatic impact of processing methods involving anaerobic (limited oxygen) fermentation and its growing number of variations and applications tended to upstage the impact of other variables that create differences among green coffees, like tree variety, growing elevation and various more conventional processing methods.

Old Soul Coffee’s Natural Process “Unicorn Lot” drying at Anny Ruth Pimentel’s Finca Loma La Gloria in El Salvador. Courtesy of Jason Griest.

Thirteen of the coffees we tested achieved ratings of 94 or 95, all of which we review here. Among those top-rated 13 samples, nine, or almost 70 percent, were processed using methods that prominently incorporated anaerobic fermentation. Among the remaining four top-rated samples, two were processed by the conventional wet or washed method (all soft fruit residue was removed from the beans before they were dried), one by the honey or pulped natural method (skins were removed, but the fruit flesh or mucilage remained on the beans during drying), and one by the natural method (the beans were dried inside the entire fruit).

A stage in the multi-staged fermentation procedure for Royal Flamingo Coffee’s Colombia Red Fruits at Edwin Noreña’s Campo Hermosa in Colombia. Courtesy of Royal Flamingo Coffee.

The impact of the anaerobic ferment could be felt in the often striking sweetness and surprising aromatic complexity among all of the nine anaerobic-process samples. However, the only sample that displayed explicit anaerobic character in its candyish sweetness and perfume-like flowers was the Royal Flamingo Colombia Red Fruits Campo Hermosa Edwin Noreña (94). John very much admired this coffee at 95 and felt it was coherent and complete in its originality, with its intense aromatics supported by a sound structure. For me, however, there was a bit too much strawberry gummy and not quite enough coffee, though I managed a 92. But I suspect many readers will go with John’s take on this one. Give this striking coffee a try.

John and I switched sides with the quietly melodic, elegant Speckled Ax Ethiopia Dame Dabaye (John 92, Ken 95, net 94), which I found pure, poised and flawless. John found it a pleasing but straightforward washed Ethiopia espresso. But, again, try it; you may not be blown away, but I strongly doubt you will throw any of it away either.

Tree Variety

The celebrated Geisha/Gesha variety of Arabica, with its elongated beans, fine structure, and intensely floral, cocoa and stone-fruit character, has been one of the main vehicles that ambitious coffee growers have relied on over the past couple of decades in their often successful attempts to differentiate their green coffees and attract recognition and higher prices for them. Authentic Geishas, particularly those grown from seed of the original Panama strain (Geisha T2722), continue to impress with their grand but balanced structure and intense floral, fruit and cocoa aromatics.

Young coffee trees at Edwin Noreña’s Campo Hermosa in Colombia.

But Geishas may no longer seem as new and different as they once did. So applying anaerobic processing to a coffee from a respectable but otherwise unremarkable tree variety is an alternative way to surprise the buyer with aromatic fireworks and seductive sweetness. And at lower prices than might be expected for coffee from Geisha trees, with their often stingy yields and fussy needs. Of course, producers can double down and apply anaerobic processing to their Geishas, as is the case with the Big Shoulders Coffee’s anaerobic natural Marcela Gesha Espressso (95), Euphora Coffee’s anaerobic washed Colombia Buenavista Ataraxia Geisha (94), and AOI Coffee’s Ethiopia Growers Reserve Gesha Village Gaylee Special Fermentation (94), all of which pursue a distinctive cup by means of both distinctive tree variety and anaerobic processing.

Origin and Single-Origin Espressos

Seven of this month’s 13 highest-rated samples were produced in Colombia, all in southern or south-central Colombia. Of the remaining six, three were produced in Ethiopia, one in Rwanda, one in El Salvador, and one in Hawaii.

Why the preponderance of Colombias, obviously a popular origin, but until recently not the go-to origin for coffees intended for espresso? (Traditionally, that would be Brazil.) Mainly because a cluster of farms in southern Colombia appear to have mastered the use of complex methods of anaerobic fermentation, which, performed skillfully, can transform a high-grown, potentially acidy coffee into a lower-toned, richly complex, espresso-friendly coffee.

MK Coffee’s Rwanda Rulindo Red Bourbon drying in the “honey (fruit flesh) at Juru Coffee in Rwanda. Courtesy of Linking Coffee and Juru Coffee.

True, some of the other successful coffees in this month’s tasting used simpler, more direct applications of anaerobic methods than the Colombia farms. But, all in all, only two out of this month’s top-rated 13 samples were processed using legacy methods traditionally associated with the origins that produced them: The Wonderstate Colombia Sierra Morena Pink Bourbon (95) is a traditional washed-process Colombia, and the Speckled Ax Ethiopia Dame Dabaye (94) a traditional washed Ethiopia. Local tree variety may contribute to the success of MK Coffee’s Juru Rwanda Rulindo Red Bourbon Honey (94), though the honey processing method is atypical for a Rwanda.

Stay tuned, but it appears that the expectation that we can make consistent associations between coffee origin and coffee cup character continues to erode as ambitious farmers all over the world tinker with tree variety (e.g., Geisha) and processing method.

Roast Color and Espresso

Traditionally, Italian practice is to roast for espresso to around what Americans might call a darkish medium roast. However, when a taste for espresso drinks and European-style cafés first developed in the U.S. in the 1980s, roasters went really dark for espresso brewing. They aggressively dark-roasted high-grown Central America or Colombia coffees, producing intense, bitter coffees that required the softening, buffering impact of hot frothed milk to render them drinkable. Later, many American specialty roasters migrated toward something more like the original Italian tradition: moderately dark- to medium-dark.

Today, of course, on the leading edge of the U.S. specialty coffee scene, taste in roast style has completely flipped, regardless of brewing method. Rather than everything dark, as was the case 20 years ago, today virtually everything is light. Sometimes very light, regardless of intended brewing method.

Of the seven U.S. coffees reviewed this month, six are light-roasted. Only one, the Speckled Ax Ethiopia, was roasted modestly darker, to a little past second crack, classifying it as a moderately dark roast. The six coffees from Taiwan roasters were a bit darker roasted than the U.S. samples, tending toward medium or medium-dark, though none could be called outright dark roasted.

Omni Roasts and Acidity

Most of this month’s coffees probably qualify as what some in the coffee world call omni roasts—roasts that the roaster feels will do well when subjected to almost any brewing method.

This practice—one roast for all brewing methods—has a practical advantage for coffee sellers, of course. Fewer products, a more compact inventory, and perhaps simpler communication. The increased technical sophistication available today in managing roast, facilitated by computer control and monitoring, may help roasters apply roasting practices that tend to round sharpness and soften and integrate acidity in lighter roasts, making them more espresso-friendly.

The potentially bright, aggressive acidity characteristic of high-grown, light-roasted coffees has always presented a problem for espresso brewing. Some years ago, when the practice of pulling espresso from such bright, lighter-roasted coffees took off, I recall tasting some rather imbalanced espressos. Although we still run into an occasional rather sharply acidy single-origin espresso at Coffee Review, our tasting for this month suggests that roasters are becoming increasingly skillful at sourcing and light-roasting single-origins for all-purpose brewing, and, by implication, for espresso.

Acid-Reducing Anaerobics

The fact that there were so many anaerobic-fermented coffees among the espressos we tasted this month may have helped the acidity-reducing cause. Anaerobic processing tends to reduce or soften acidity, often replacing it with a backgrounded lactic tang, while encouraging a sweetness that helps balance any bitter edge to the acidity.

Single-Origin Espressos in the Café

When we decided on this month’s topic, we were a little afraid that single-origin espressos had had their day and were on their way out of fashion.

Perhaps. However, we received a reassuringly large number of submissions for this topic.

Roasters who sent us top-rated coffees and with whom we subsequently corresponded were largely divided about the value of single-origin espressos in their cafés. Generally, Taiwan roasters were more positive than were North American roasters, and for good reason, given brewing espresso at home appears more popular in Taiwan than in the U.S. Mark Shi of Taiwan’s MK Coffee reports: “Since Taiwanese cafes banned on-site drinking during the Covid-19 pandemic and most customers were working from home, I found that many people who drank coffee every day bought automatic espresso machines at that time, so for the beans suitable for espresso (including blended beans and single-origin beans), the demand is trending higher and higher.”

Arthur Chen of Taiwan’s Balmy Day Coffee Office (Ethiopia Anaerobic Washed G1 Wild Rose S.O. Sidamo, 94), offers an extended recommendation for how roasting for espresso should be conducted (slowly), concluding that single-origin espressos “… should be like a taste bomb, allowing the flavor of the coffee to be concentrated and focused, so that the single-origin coffee flavor can bloom in the mouth like fireworks.”

American Single-Origin Skeptics

A generally more skeptical attitude among American roasters regarding single-origin espressos is voiced by Old Soul Coffee’s Jason Griest (El Salvador Finca Loma La Gloria Natural Process “Unicorn Lot”, 94). Jason writes, “Single origin espressos can be fun, but we find a ‘good’ one elusive to find and so, rarely have one on the bar at our shops.” Jason echoes the position of many North American roasters, who feel that an espresso coffee needs to be versatile above all: “Our main espresso blend called The Remedy is made up of three components, designed to complement each other in terms of body, acidity and sweet/bitter notes that can be enjoyed both as a straight shot and with milk.” Lee Paterson of Hawaii’s Hula Daddy (Kona Espresso Special Selection, 94) points out that “Since most of our sales are to North America, where drip coffee is king, espressos are a small part of our business.”

Anny Ruth Pimentel’s Finca Loma La Gloria in El Salvador. Courtesy of Jason Griest.

Tim Coonan of Big Shoulders Coffee (Marcela Gesha Espresso, 95) takes a more encouraging middle-ground position: “Our S.O. espresso program serves three purposes. These are coffees that are challenging for roasters and baristas alike. So it’s educational for us. We find these are appreciated by those regular customers who are looking for an opportunity to both learn more about coffee and also [are] willing to explore some boundaries in the process. These are customers who also enjoy their espresso solo, not with milk.”

American Single-Origin Enthusiasts

Taking a wholehearted pro-single-origin position are Bryan and Beth Brzozowski of Royal Flamingo Coffee (Colombia Red Fruits Campo Hermosa Edwin Noreña, 94), who are planning to extend their successful e-commerce and wholesale business to a brick-and-mortar café this year. They write, “Single-origin espresso is something we’ve become known for in our coffee community and has played a major role in our e-commerce and wholesale growth. When we open our café next month, we’ll be leaning hard on single-origin espresso. … For example, we’re planning to have a few options on the menu where customers can order a drip and a shot of single-origin espresso comes alongside (a pair we are calling the Barista’s Boilermaker).”

Wilson Alva of Finca Sierra Morena, producer of Wonderstate Coffee’s Colombia Sierra Morena Pink Bourbon. Courtesy of The Coffee Quest.

Summing up the pro-single-origin side is Caleb Nicholes of Wonderstate Coffee: “We believe that single-origin espressos have a distinct and important role in specialty coffee. In all of our café locations, we offer both a single-origin espresso, which is roasted lighter, as well as a deeper roasted blend. Having a lighter-roasted espresso option gives us the opportunity to introduce our customers to a very light-roasted espresso experience that is very much reflective of a coffee’s variety, micro-climate and processing style. While brighter, more fruit-driven and aromatic espressos can be jarring for some coffee consumers, it is an excellent way to expand perceptions around what espresso can be. We love to surprise our customers with something they have never tasted before, and single-origin espresso is one of the best ways we have found to do that.”

Single-Origin Espressos at Home

Of course, café owners need to please nearly everyone who comes in the door. Consumers only need to please themselves—or at most their families and guests. So perhaps the single-origin espresso game, with its potential for coffee exploration and sensory revelation (along with its risk for temporary disappointment) is best played by consumers at home. If so, we feel that the coffees we review this month offer an excellent and diverse starting point.

John DiRuocco Reflects on the Tasting

John writes: “Roasters from all over the world submitted their finest offerings from familiar to exotic. It was an exciting challenge to describe and evaluate these coffees. The vast assortment of processes and varieties translated to a thrill ride of aroma, acidity, and fruit. As a roaster based in Italian coffee tradition, our approach to espresso at Mr. Espresso is based on the idea of balance and roundness, something that can be enjoyed several times a day, every day. What set the best of the coffees we tasted apart for me were not only flavor profiles that contained explosive fruits, intricate floral flavors, and intense acidity, but those that were balanced by a pronounced sweetness and round body to create a memorable espresso experience.”

Thanks to the roasters who greatly enriched this report by sharing their ideas and experience regarding single-origin espresso coffees: Matt Bolinder, Speckled Ax Coffee; Bryan and Beth Brzozowski, Royal Flamingo Coffee; Chris Chao, AOI Coffee Roaster; Arthur Chen, Balmy Day Coffee Office; Tim Coonan, Big Shoulders Coffee; Jason Griest, Old Soul Coffee Co.; Albert Hsu, OLI Cafe; Miguel Meza, Paradise Coffee; Caleb Nicholes, Wonderstate Coffee; Lee Paterson, Hula Daddy Kona Coffee; Mark Shi, MK Coffee Roasters; May Wang, Euphora Coffee; Zhou Tzuchiang, Bargain Cafe.

The post Single-Origin Espressos: Anaerobics Crash the Party appeared first on Coffee Review.

Every year in December, Coffee Review’s editorial team hustles to choose the topics for the following year’s editorial calendar. This, our January report, shares some thoughts on the topics we chose and how we chose them.  See our full 2024 Editorial Calendar.

In November, as Coffee Review compiles its annual Top 30 Coffees list, we carefully consider the factors that made the coffees we tasted in 2023 so exciting. We contemplate the thousands of samples cupped over the course of the year and the nearly 600 reviews we published. The Top-30 list is primarily designed to recognize and reward the farmers and roasters who produce these fine top-scoring coffees, but it also serves as a buying guide for coffee lovers.

In addition, the process serves to inform and inspire Coffee Review’s choice of report topics for the upcoming year’s editorial calendar. We inevitably discover exciting new coffees and trends, new roasters and roast styles, emerging origins, new varieties and processing methods, as well as old favorites that spur our ideas for exploration in the coming year.

Our list of potential topics always exceeds our ability to cover them. This is even more true in 2024, as we’ve decided to trim the number of scheduled reports from 10 to 5. Normally, we begin our cuppings in January and wrap up the year with our final report in November. In the coming year, to establish a more sustainable pace and better serve our readers, we have decided to publish reports every other month rather than every month. It will give us a little more breathing room, and it will open the door to adding a couple of impromptu reports on exciting topics that pop up during the year.

So, how do we choose topics?

From the point of view of sourcing samples, we strive for a topic that will generate a sweet spot of between 30 and 100 coffees. If we choose too narrow a topic (or a poorly timed one), we may not be able to source enough quality samples for a meaningful cupping and report. If we choose too broad a topic, we will be inundated with samples, and testing too many coffees limits our time for researching and writing the report and reviews.

Remember that Coffee Review also accepts both roasted and green samples for blind review throughout the year as part of our fee-based services. Not surprisingly, roasters and farmers usually try to put their best foot forward, which means we typically receive high-end coffees from popular origins that often earn deservedly high scores. That’s fine with Coffee Review, as our mission is to help consumers find superior quality coffees. However, because we already receive many coffees from such high-profile origins, we tend not to feature those popular origins as report topics. We try to choose topics that will tease out exciting coffees that we might not otherwise have an opportunity to review.

Roasters often don’t submit many decafs, dark roasts, or coffees from lesser-known origins for standalone review because they may not garner attention-grabbing high scores. And because our mission is to help consumers find and enjoy superior quality coffees — not “out” coffees, roasters or farmers that don’t earn a high score — one tends to see only the cream of the crop reviewed on our website. We cup a lot of unremarkable coffees over the course of the year to uncover the 500-plus coffees that merit 90 points or higher. If one casually reads Coffee Review, one might incorrectly think every coffee gets a 90-plus score, when in fact, only 10 to 15 percent of coffees we cup earn a score of 90 points or higher.

For each report, we test anywhere from 30 to more than 100 coffees that relate to the report topic. Based on our tasting, descriptions and ratings, we choose 10 or more coffees that we review in detail, and that provide the descriptive backbone for each report.

These are the report topics we have chosen for 2024, based in large part on what we are excited to explore in the coming year.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2024: COFFEES ROASTED IN HAWAII

We often start the year with a regional report, exploring what local roasters are up to in a particular area of the United States. Last year, the topic was “10 Ski Country Coffees.” This year, in sharp contrast, we will report on coffees roasted in Hawaii.

Hawaii, in general, and the renowned growing region of Kona, in particular, are famous for growing excellent coffees. Many of the farmers who grow coffees in Hawaii also roast their own coffees for sale at their local tasting rooms and online. Many of these producers are well known to Coffee Review readers, as several have regularly appeared on our Top 30 Coffees list each year. However, not all coffee roasted in Hawaii is grown in Hawaii. There are many quality roasters on the islands who put out fantastic coffees from other great origins, as well.

Coffee Review cups and scores coffees on a blind basis. We evaluate coffees. We don’t endorse companies. We don’t play favorites. However, it would be disingenuous to suggest that we don’t have friends in the coffee industry. After the tragic wildfires on the island of Maui in August 2023, we’ve heard directly from our friends that it has been tougher than usual to operate a business in Hawaii, both emotionally and financially.

So Hawaii is a great topic any time, but it is a particularly timely topic now. We’re excited to evaluate the coffees that roasters in Hawaii are currently producing for locals, tourists and coffee lovers on the mainland and around the world.

APRIL/MAY 2024: SINGLE-ORIGIN COFFEES DESIGNED FOR ESPRESSO BREWING

Coffee Review regularly evaluates espressos for standalone review that do not appear in our tasting reports. Roughly 20 percent of the reviews we’ve published over the years have been for coffees designed for espresso brewing. Of late, however, it seems like we receive fewer requests for espresso reviews. This decrease may go back to changes in the coffee marketplace during the peak of Covid. Competitions and events that featured espresso brewing were canceled, and there was a dramatic drop in espresso consumption at cafes and coffee shops. Consumers drank more coffee at home, where fewer people have espresso machines.

For our part, as a possible indicator of excitement levels, half as many espressos appeared on our Top 30 Coffees lists over the past four years compared to previous years. From 2020 to 2023, the average number of espressos on the list was just 2.25, down from 5 in 2019 and 4 in 2018, an average of 4.5.

Evaluating espressos at Coffee Review is more complex and time-consuming than evaluating non-espressos, so we have to gear up physically and mentally for tasting reports that require espresso brewing. One of the benefits of Coffee Review’s revised editorial calendar is that we have more time to conduct an espresso-focused cupping and publish a report on coffees designed for espresso brewing.

We haven’t published an espresso report since Darker-Roasted Espresso Blends in August 2021, so we’re looking forward to evaluating the current offerings from roasters who are producing single-origin espressos in 2024.

JUNE/JULY 2024: READY-TO-DRINK PURE BLACK COFFEES IN CANS OR BOTTLES

When the heat of summer starts to kick in, overall coffee consumption tends to wane. This is when refreshing iced coffees and chilled ready-to-drink (RTD) canned and bottled black coffees take off. So, summer is the perfect time to test RTD coffees.

The availability and popularity of RTD coffees has exploded since Coffee Review first reviewed them in our July 2014 report titled Bottled Iced Coffees. Almost all the submissions for that first report were not only blends, but blends of mostly unnamed components and, frankly, generic in profile.

At the time, Coffee Review Editor-in-Chief Kenneth Davids observed:

“The best of these bottled cold coffees seemed to us to deliver a product worthy of the North American specialty industry: less distinctive and less pronounced in character than analogous hot-brewed coffees, but smoother, more refreshing, yet still distinctive enough to surprise and engage.”

Indeed, five RTD coffees earned scores of 90 points or higher, including the 94-point Cold Brew by Slingshot Coffee in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In our 2018 report — Cold-Brewed Black Coffees: Quality in a Can? — we were impressed by the complexity of the handful of top-scoring cold-brewed coffees we tested, but were left wondering if the RTD trend was just a passing fancy.

At the time, we noted:

“Specialty coffee companies small and large are intensely at work trying to bring some of the sensory refinement and differentiation available in whole-bean coffee to the arena of ready-to-drink cold black coffee in cans and bottles.”

The 24 RTD coffees we tested for that 2018 report averaged 89 points, from a low of 75 to a high of 94, and for the first time, an RTD coffee — the 94-point Reserve Cold Brew from States Coffee & Mercantile — appeared on our Top 30 Coffees list, appearing at #21.

So, why did we dip into this category again in 2020, despite a lack of overall enthusiasm about the genre in 2018? Well, it wasn’t lost on us that the growth of the cold brew segment is much more than a passing fancy. RTD black coffee is here to stay, and quality 1s on the rise. Of the 37 RTDs we tested in July 2020’s RTD Rising: Single-Origin Cold Coffees Elevate the Game, 11 scored 92 points or higher, including Corvus Coffee ‘s 94-point Guji Uraga Nitro Cold Brew, which earned the #21 spot on our list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2020.

With Cold Black Coffee: Simplicity Rules the Post-Pandemic RTD Landscape in July 2021, we revisited cold-brewed bottled coffees in the context of a changing, post-Covid marketplace. The pandemic brought into focus what is basic and fundamental, and the 10 RTD cold-brewed coffees we reviewed in that report, rated 92 to 94, displayed the common denominator of simplicity, in the best sense of that word: classic and direct.

In our June/July 2024 report, we will once again test the variety and quality of RTD coffees as they march on into the summertime coffee mainstream.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024: DECAFFEINATED COFFEES FOR BREWED APPLICATIONS

The rule of thumb is that about 10 percent of consumers drink decaffeinated coffee. So, why are only 2 percent of reviews on coffeereview.com decafs?

Part of the reason is obvious. Ninety percent of coffee drinkers don’t drink decaffeinated coffee, so they tend to be overlooked by the vast majority of coffee drinkers. Furthermore, because decaffeinated coffees generally don’t match the quality of their caffeinated counterparts, many roasters consider them only as a necessary evil generated for a small fraction of their customer base. In relationship to Coffee Review, most roasters don’t submit decaffeinated coffees for review because they generally don’t earn eye-popping scores that might help drive sales.

Coffee Review certainly isn’t biased against decaffeinated coffees. We simply evaluate what we find in the cup. Unfortunately, when decaf is in the cup, it often just doesn’t excel. That said, Coffee Review certainly appreciates a quality decaf. In fact, decafs have appeared on our annual Top 30 Coffees list five times since 2013.

In our most recent report about decafs, in 2015, Kenneth Davids made two broad observations that may still fairly describe the reputation and trends regarding decafs in 2024:

“Observation one: Most decaffeinated coffees continue to be bad, in some cases close to foul.”

“Observation two: On the other hand, great coffees clearly can survive and transcend the rigors of decaffeination. Four decafs from this [report’s] cupping attracted ratings ranging from 89 to an impressive 93.”

With our August/September 2024 report, we will revisit these observations as we seek to help decaf drinkers find and enjoy superior-quality decaffeinated coffees.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER: GUATEMALA-GROWN COFFEES

People walking in the main street of Antigua with the Agua volcano in the background.

In 1997, when Coffee Review was founded, Guatemala was a coffee heavyweight. In our first large-group “calibration cupping” in July 1997, we selected Guatemala Coffees for the topic. It was just our fifth tasting report and our first ever report dedicated to a single country of origin. It was sandwiched between Supermarket Coffees in June and Decaffeinated Coffees in August. Davids described Guatemala as “one of the world’s classic coffee origins.”

Two years later, in our July 1999 report — New Crop Guatemalas — he opened with:

“Guatemala is rivaled only by Kenya as coffee insiders’ favorite origin.”

Guatemala is still a classic origin and an insiders’ favorite, but not to the extent it was 25 years ago. We still cup coffees from Guatemala regularly, and they generally score well to very well. Since 1997, we’ve published more than 600 reviews of coffees that were solely from Guatemala or featured Guatemala as a named component in blends. As such, Guatemala coffees have been involved in 8 percent of all the coffees we have ever reviewed.

Why choose Guatemala as a report topic in 2024? In short, it’s overdue. We haven’t featured Guatemala coffees as the topic of a tasting report since Suave and Idiosyncratic: Coffee of Guatemala in September 2013.

AN EVENTFUL YEAR AHEAD FOR COFFEE

We’re looking forward to an exciting year of tasting and reporting.  See our full 2024 Editorial Calendar.

The post 2024: Coffee Review’s Year in Preview appeared first on Coffee Review.

An array of coffee brewers and grinders designed by working coffee professionals. Photo courtesy of Howard Bryman.

For all the many beautiful and clever pieces of equipment that exist for brewing coffee, it’s remarkable just how few of them are designed by “coffee people” — people whose primary occupation is within the coffee industry.

Houseware companies and other manufacturers will sometimes consult with specialty coffee pros when developing products for the quality-oriented audience. And of course, electrical and mechanical engineers are perhaps best suited to the task of designing machines with moving parts and complex electronics. It’s also true that running a coffee business leaves little time and energy for additional projects beyond the sourcing, roasting and selling of coffee.

So, while it may not be surprising, it’s still a little ironic that the catalog of coffee gear made by roasters or baristas is remarkably small. But it does exist, and for the Coffee Review Gift Guide this holiday shopping season, we’re shining a light on this admirable niche.

Every entry on this year’s list of items to consider as a gift (or as a treat for oneself) this holiday shopping season is a unique piece of equipment designed entirely by professional coffee people — passionate industry pros whose primary occupation is coffee, and whose primary objective in creating these products is to help specialty coffee consumers get the best experience possible from their coffees.

For each item, we share the stories and/or bona fides of its designer, the coffee-related problem it was designed to solve, and what it is about each one that brings us joy.

There are no affiliate links here. Coffee Review takes no commission on any sales that may result from this list. We aim purely to enlighten and appeal to seekers of high-quality coffee equipment, as well as to show support for the industry professionals whose passion keeps the coffee world moving forward.

Happy shopping and happy holidays to all!

The April Brewer ($29 – $39)

A flat-bottom pour-over brewer that rewards a practiced technique.

Comandante C40 Manual Grinder ($325 – $360)

One of the highest-quality and most attractive manual coffee grinders on the market.

Etkin 2-Cup Coffee Dripper ($45)

Just like the lovely Etkin 8-Cup, but for when you only want a cup or two.

Native Design Expedition Brewer ($49)

The slimmest, lightest-imaginable brewer for refueling in the backcountry.

The Cupping Brewer ($40)

Scales up the traditional cupping brew for something more savorable and shareable.

Simplify the Brewer ($21)

A manual pour-over brewer optimized for a single central pour; no fuss, no muss.

NextLevel Pulsar ($65)

A zero-bypass brewer with a flow control valve that’s as easy or as geeky as you want it to be.

VacOne Air Brewer ($149.95)

With a fine mesh screen and strong vacuum pump to strain brews quickly, this immersion brewer opens a world of possibilities.

Varia VS3 Grinder ($299.90)

Statuesque, compact and meticulously thought-out electric coffee grinder for which a variety of different burr sets are available.

The Full Reviews

The April Brewer

($29 – $39)

www.aprilcoffeeroasters.com/collections/april-brewers

WHO MADE IT:

Patrik Rolf literally wrote the book on transforming from a private coffee nerd into a renowned coffee professional. (His memoir, From Nerd To Pro – A Coffee Journey, is printed on paper made from recycled coffee cups.)

Rolf founded a roasting company called April Coffee in Copenhagen in 2016, although he had competed in professional-level coffee competitions before he’d ever worked in coffee.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

As a competitor and as a roaster, Rolf found that achieving consistency from one manual brew to the next was more challenging than it needed to be. With the right tool, great cups could be easy to repeat, whether for competition judges, for customers or for oneself.

In 2019, Rolf won the silver medal in the World Brewers Cup competition using the brewer of his own original design — the April Brewer.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

The key features Rolf baked into the April Brewer are its large single drain hole, its exterior peripheral vents, and its pronounced interior bottom ridges that prevent the paper of a Kalita-style basket filter from adhering to the base and sealing it off while brewing.

All three of these features encourage a fast downward flow, which shifts more impact onto the other choices made by the barista such as the grind size and coffee-to-water ratio. As a baseline, Rolf suggests a straightforward two-pour technique that he thinks strikes an ideal baseline balance between ease and precision to consistently coax the best from the coffees he roasts. Easy and intuitive to replicate brew after brew, we find ourselves gravitating back to that technique with most coffees, and loving the articulate, well-defined cups that result.

Available in plastic, glass or ceramic, the April Brewer rewards a precise technique, making it a fun and consistent tool in the hands of anyone with a scale, a gooseneck kettle, a quality grinder and a discerning palate.

Comandante C40 Manual Grinder

($325 – $360)

www.comandantegrinder.com

WHO MADE IT:

Father-and-son roasters Bernd and Raphael Braune of the German coffee company Supremo Coffee. From their home base outside of Munich, the Braunes have continued to source and roast top-tier coffees at Supremo while expanding into the grinder business, which at this point has eclipsed Supremo both in terms of revenue and global reach. The C40 has recently been joined by the larger-capacity C60 and the ultraportable C25 Trailmaster.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

It was only a few years after the 2004 founding of their quality-obsessed company Supremo Coffee that Bernd and Raphael Braune started to feel their quest to source, roast and deliver the finest imaginable coffees was being scuttled at both ends of the supply chain by lackluster grinders. Poorly performing grinders were too often a disservice to the proper evaluation of the stellar quality green coffees they cupped on the farms of creative and hardworking producers. The Braunes were also concerned that low-quality grinders in their customers’ homes were pulling the rug out from under all their efforts to source and roast par excellence.

They needed an excellent grinder they could pack with them on sourcing trips, and they needed that same professional-level piece of equipment to be accessible to their customers. By 2013, production of the first generation of Comandante manual grinders had begun, and in the decade since then their designs have continued to evolve and improve. Now in its fourth (product) generation, the Comandante C40 MK4 Nitro Blade features the same house-engineered conical burr set made from martensitic steel introduced with the Mk3 model in 2016, yet in the lightest package so far.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

Many throughout the industry consider the Comandante C40 to have set the gold standard for performance and build quality in a manual coffee grinder, and we can see why. It looks great, it’s a pleasure to use, and it puts out an exceptionally uniform grind that is ideal for pour-over and AeroPress. It performs admirably in the espresso range as well.

Its light weight is indeed a boon to its use on the road, but we also simply love the ergonomics and warmth of its handmade wooden knob and the textured, durably powder-coated body. The beans crunch with a pleasant tenor and its winsome amber glass catch jar is worth the extra weight and potential (but unlikely) breakability.

One also can’t help but feel like a member of the Comandante family when considering not only the heartwarming father-son backstory, but the courteous degree of attention to detail. The wide range of available colors and hand-turned wooden options welcome all personalities. Worried about the glass? The C40 also ships with a lighter and more durable plastic alternative. Is the body not grippy enough? For those willing to accept the impact on aesthetics, it includes a rubber ring that slides onto the body for better grip.

Etkin 2-Cup Coffee Dripper

($45)

www.etkincoffee.com

WHO MADE IT:

The Etkin Brewer was invented by Michael Butterworth, an Authorized SCA Trainer and consultant based in Istanbul, Turkey, who is also co-founder of specialty coffee blog The Coffee Compass.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

With the original 8-cup Etkin Brewer, Butterworth sought to offer an alternative to the conical filter format upon which most multi-serving manual brewers are based by designing a flat-bottom brewer big enough to serve everyone at the table. Recently, Etkin rolled out a smaller two-cup version that allows Etkin lovers to enjoy the same user experience and exquisite cups even when home alone.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

We sang the praises of the original 8-cup Etkin Brewer in a previous gift guide on Coffee Review. While the eight-cup capacity remains a marquee feature of the original, other creature comforts such as its hefty and beautiful white porcelain build, smooth interior walls and heat-hoarding dual-wall construction also contribute greatly to its pleasure and efficacy. All of these features transfer perfectly to the smaller version.

Plus, the Sibarist paper filters we recommended for the eight-cup model are even better suited to the 2-Cup, with no “creative folding” required; the prefold lines on the Sibarist Fast Flat are compatible with the Etkin 2-Cup, resulting in an elegant, fast-flowing zero-bypass platform.

The Expedition Brewer

($49)

https://native.design

WHO MADE IT:

Brian Franklin was an athlete and personal trainer prior to his first experimentation with roasting coffee at home in the late 1990s. He founded the professional roasting company DoubleShot Coffee in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2004, and has had an adventurous career in specialty coffee ever since (adventures he has documented in an upcoming book called The Coffee Purist, slated to start shipping this December.)

Currently, DoubleShot’s operations include not only a roastery and cafe, but also a recently planted coffee farm in Nicaragua called Dos Manzanas. The enterprise expanded again earlier this year when Franklin and other DoubleShot team members rolled out a line of brewing equipment and tools under the brand name Native Design.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

The Expedition Brewer is a very flat, very light brewing kit for backpackers and travelers. Franklin tinkered with the design for over 12 years, aiming for simplicity and portability as well as a product that’s easy to manufacture, durable over time and beautiful to behold.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

The kit involves a handsome duck canvas pouch that stores a wooden support ring and a thin sliver of laminated copper that, when spread out and balanced on a mug or travel tumbler, supports a conical paper filter. The pouch can also store a few extra paper filters as well as an American Weigh Pocket Scale, all of which are also for sale at the Native Design website.

In our experience, this kit does everything it needs to do. It holds a filter while brewing. It packs flatter and weighs less than a pair of socks. It has the rugged good looks of a brewer Indiana Jones might’ve used. And it’s made in Oklahoma by a passionate crew of deeply entrenched coffee people with many a story to tell.

The Cupping Brewer

($40)

https://cuppingbrewer.com

WHO MADE IT:

Josh Taves, a specialty coffee pro since 2006, is the former director of the Rocky Mountain Craft Coffee Alliance and former head of business development at Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Stovetop Roasters. Taves initially launched the Cupping Brewer in 2015 and today runs his own professional equipment distribution service and consulting business called Dialed Coffee Services.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

Cupping is the process used by coffee professionals to evaluate the flavor and quality of coffee. Green coffee buyers cup coffees in order to make purchasing decisions; roasters cup while developing roast profiles and for quality control purposes. The procedure involves mixing ground coffee with hot water in a little bowl for a precise immersion brew in accordance with strict protocols for consistency. The cupper then coats their palate with vigorous slurps from a spoon repeatedly over time as the bowl cools.

Taves, in the course of his duties as a specialty coffee professional, often finds his sips at the cupping table to be the tastiest he gets from a particular coffee — better than any other brewing method. He wishes he could have more of that brew to savor and share with others. The Cupping Brewer is his solution.

Larger than a standard cupping bowl, the Cupping Brewer is a handsome glass piece made specifically to scale up a cupping-style brew and pour it into one or two regular mugs for a more familiar and longer-lasting enjoyment.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

While pleasure is the main goal, the Cupping Brewer can also be used for analytical purposes. It’s particularly handy for home roasters who are interested in a more standardized tasting process but are reluctant to engage with traditional cupping due to the limited quantities they can roast at one time. The Cupping Brewer offers a pro-style tasting platform as well as a satisfying brew — one that does well at highlighting sweetness while clarifying the distinct notes a great coffee can yield.

Simplify the Brewer

($21)

https://simplify.coffee/

WHO MADE IT:

Ryo John Ito, founder and head roaster of Japanese roasting company Bathtub Coffee.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

Ito wanted more people to feel comfortable with manual coffee brewing. He wanted to simplify the brewing process, and figured a single pour straight down the middle would be about as simple as it gets. Yet this tends not to work very well on most brewers, as so many are designed with staggered pours, spiral patterns and other techniques in mind. To support his simplified method, he needed to simplify a brewer.

The result is the clear Tritan plastic device called Simplify the Brewer. Boosted by funds raised with a Kickstarter campaign in 2019, Simplify the Brewer is a single transparent piece into which Ito actually put a deceptively large amount of thought. Structurally, the Simplify takes some of the principles of the April Brewer to their logical conclusion: An even bigger 40-millimeter bottom hole, even less contact between the paper and the device, and even greater airflow between the cup and the brewer to allow pressure and vapor to freely escape.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

The Simplify flow is fast enough that Ito suggests pouring 230 milliliters of hot water right down the middle of 15 grams of finely ground coffee all at once over the course of about 30 seconds. A grind dialed in for the brew to drain within a total of 60 to 90 seconds will supposedly result in a quick and tasty cup.

In our experience, this is true, and dead simple. When time is tight and we need a no-brainer brew, the Simplify is the gadget we grab. Its featherweight durability makes it great for travel, and particularly when paired with a Melodrip accessory, any old kettle will do — no gooseneck required.

The NextLevel Pulsar

($65)

https://nextlevelbrewer.com

WHO MADE IT:

In a tale of true internet coffee geekery come to life, the NextLevel brewer is the invention of two geographically distant roasters who met in an online forum and bonded through discussion of a blog post by a coffee-loving astrophysicist.

It was 2019 when Richard Unruh, the founder of roasting company Free Space Coffee in Galva, Kansas, met Darren Schmidt, who at the time was roasting and selling coffee in Kentucky under the company name Back Porch Coffee. The article they’d both read was a deep dive by scientist and author Jonathan Gagné that zeroed in on the coffee brewing phenomenon known as “bypass,” which refers to water that circumvents the bed of ground coffee instead of flowing through it.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

Water that doesn’t flow through coffee doesn’t contribute to the extraction; if it winds up in the cup, it’s just watering down the cup. The unaccounted absence of that water in the brew bed slightly throws off the intended coffee-to-water ratio and may result in a net under-extraction, while a channel of over-extracted grounds could be left behind in the path water takes as it flees. Either way, the heart of the problem with bypass is that it is generally uncontrolled. When precision is a goal, anything that happens by accident is bad.

Schmidt and Unruh put their minds together to design a brewer that makes it simply impossible for bypass to occur. This is the NextLevel LVL-10 Brewer, a “zero-bypass” brewer whose flat, circular filter lines the bottom of an otherwise impermeable Tritan cylinder. Unlike conventional brewers with paper filters that rise up along the walls, liquid in the LVL-10 has nowhere to flow but straight down through the coffee. At the top is a showerhead lid that disperses any untrained pour of hot water from any type of kettle into an even array of precise droplets for a consistent and thorough saturation of the coffee bed.

The rate at which water flows through the coffee bed in an LVL-10 is dictated entirely by the grind, the dose and the pour. Yet as a percolation brewer, the one thing beyond the LVL-10’s control is the ability to stop the water completely. Schmidt and Unruh, geeks to the end, wanted to be able to play with phases of full immersion, as well as the ability to extract more from coarser grinds that drain fast. This time, in direct collaboration with Gagné himself, the team created the NextLevel Pulsar: an LVL-10 brewer with a flow control valve at the bottom for the user to open and shut as they please.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

In our opinion, the Pulsar is easily one of the most versatile manual brewers on the market. It’s as handy for a slapdash steep-and-release brew as it is for a studied recipe executed with lab-grade surgical precision, just for kicks. It’s also big enough for multi-cup brews, sturdy and easy enough to use while traveling, and works well for an overnight cold brew.

The VacOne Air Brewer

($149.95)

https://vaccoffee.com

WHO MADE IT:

The VacOne is the result of a collaboration between Colombian engineer and product designer Eduardo Umaña and Luis Fernando Vélez, head of the Colombian coffee roasting company Amor Perfecto. Recently, Umaña sold the rights to his design to a Minnesota-based kitchen appliance manufacturer, allowing him to focus entirely on Origin Roasted, a company that ships roasted coffees to U.S. customers from roasteries operating at or near the Central and South American farms where coffees are grown.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

Finely ground coffee can yield a full and complex extraction very quickly. But in Umaña’s opinion, the existing methods of brewing with finely ground coffee extract too much and are just too inconvenient. Crema generated via espresso, moka and Turkish methods generally imparts bitterness, despite its beauty. All these methods can also be finicky to perform if not costly to equip.

In collaboration with Vélez, Umaña created the VacOne to provide a flexible platform for fast brews using finely ground coffee that also mitigates the bitterness of crema. The user adds hot (or cold) water to ground coffee in the top part for what is essentially an immersion brew, then presses one button to activate a strong vacuum force that rapidly draws the liquid down from below. Crema that may form on the surface of the slurry remains on the surface of the grounds after draining, and a fine mesh screen at the base of the brewer filters out the grounds.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

While its genesis focused on a fine grind, grounds of virtually any size can be brewed in any number of cycles in the VacOne, resulting in a wide range of possible cup styles. This makes it a simple and flexible daily driver shareable by people of differing preferences and skill levels. We’ve had great results with straightforward full-cup immersion brews as well as with concentrated cold brew.

Its flexibility also widely opens a door to creative experimentation. For example, the VacOne can be used to perform a series of quick immersions/agitations/filtrations that mimic the method of a cutting-edge new professional coffee system called the Ground Control that is currently making waves on the commercial specialty coffee scene.

Varia Brewing VS3 Grinder

($299.90)

https://www.variabrewing.com/collections/varia-vs3

WHO MADE IT:

Prior to launching Varia Brewing, founder Ramsey Gyde roasted coffee professionally in Wellington, New Zealand, and was at one point a sales associate for 25-year-old Australian specialty coffee company Toby’s Estate. Toby’s Estate founder Toby Smith is also a co-founder of Varia Brewing. Robin Lin, who founded the company Ultimate Coffee Roaster in Shanghai in 2013 and currently roasts and sells coffee under the brand AOKKA, is a partner in Varia Brewing.

WHY THEY MADE IT:

Gyde and company are passionate about taking classic methods and upgrading them with better materials, enhanced features and meaningful design tweaks. In the field of electric home coffee grinders, they saw many flimsy poor performers taking up too much counter space with their less-than-sexy fits and finishes. The VS3 addresses all of these concerns with powerful performance, head-turning good looks, a surprisingly small size and robust construction.

Varia also makes four different burr sets users can swap into the VS3 for different brew methods and other benefits. Having recently introduced the model’s second generation, the VS3 is now built to tighter tolerances, with higher precision alignment and an upgraded motor and stainless steel gearbox, among other subtle improvements.

WHY WE LOVE IT:

The gestalt of the VS3’s features punches well above this tiny grinder’s weight in terms of the quality of its grind and the sheer joy of using it. The deliberately slow RPM at which its 38-millimeter conical burrs spin encourages a more evenly sized output, generates less mess- and retention-inducing static electricity, and keeps the grounds cool and flavorful. While downright petite compared to other countertop electric coffee grinders for home use, the VS3’s all-metal construction still gives it a heft and a presence while minimizing vibration and instilling confidence in its longevity.

Its appreciably stiff adjustment collar has yet to let us down while making tiny tweaks in the dialing-in process for pour-over or espresso, and we also simply can’t get over what an attractive little monolith it is, saving precious inches in our crowded coffee corner with a minimalistic profile that seduces like functional sculpture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – HOWARD BRYMAN

Howard Bryman is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance journalist and photographer who focuses on the specialty coffee industry, which he has either worked in or written about for the past 10+ years. He is the associate editor of Roast Magazine’s Daily Coffee News website, and an occasional contributor to the print magazine as well. With experience as a barista, manager, roaster’s apprentice, origin tourist and equipment tinkerer, Bryman’s fascination with specialty coffee’s tools, trends and challenges is matched only by his enthusiasm for the beverage itself.

The post 2023 Holiday Gift Guide: Coffee Makers Made by Coffee Makers appeared first on Coffee Review.

Resolve to Drink Better Coffee in 2024

If you’re looking to drink better coffee in 2024, we’re pleased to help facilitate your shopping by providing links to roasters’ websites where some of the Top 30 coffees of 2023 may be available for purchase. As of the morning of Monday, January 1st, 2024, the Top 30 coffees below were available for purchase on roasters’ websites:

No. 2 | Review | Shop |Hula Daddy Kona Coffee, Kona Pointu, 97 points – $69.95/8 ounces

No. 3 | Review | Shop | GK Coffee, 2023 BOP GW-03 Princessa Carmen Geisha Washed, 98 points – $79.00/20 grams

No. 4 | Review | Shop | modcup coffee, Colombia Wilton Benitez Sidra, 96 points – $60.00/250 grams

No. 6 | Review | Shop | GK Coffee, Kenya AA TOP Gicherori, 97 points ~ $17.50/200 grams

No. 7 | Review | Shop | Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Ethiopia Shantawene Washed, 96 points – $22.00/12 ounces

No. 11 | Review | Shop | Revel Coffee, Colombia Calderon Honey, 96 points – $32.25/12 ounces

No. 19 | Review | Shop | Magnolia Coffee, Costa Rica Las Lajas SL28 Natural, 95 points – $30.00/12 ounces

No. 21 | Review | Shop | Hula Daddy, Laura’s Reserve SL34, 96 points – $69.95/8 ounces

No. 22 | Review | Shop | Roadmap CoffeeWorks, Peru Gilmer Cordova #13, 95 points – $29.00/12 ounces

No. 28 | Review | Shop | SkyTop Coffee, Mexico Los Aguacates, 95 points – $42.00/12 ounces

The post Shop for the Top 30 Coffees of 2023 appeared first on Coffee Review.

View the Top 30 Coffees of 2023 List Now >

Since 2013, Coffee Review has published an annual list of the year’s Top 30 Coffees, ranking the most exciting coffees from the thousands we cupped over the course of the year.  Each year, we rank the 30 most exciting coffees  based on quality (represented by overall Coffee Review rating); value (affordability relative to other similar quality coffees); and other factors that include distinctiveness of style, uniqueness of origin, tree variety, processing method, certification, and general rarity.

Discover the Top 30 Coffees from past years:

Top 30 Coffees of 2022

Top 30 Coffees of 2021

Top 30 Coffees of 2020

Top 30 Coffees of 2019

Top 30 Coffees of 2018

Top 30 Coffees of 2017

Top 30 Coffees of 2016

Top 30 Coffees of 2015

Top 30 Coffees of 2014

Top 30 Coffees of 2013

The post Top 30 Coffees of 2023: The Countdown Begins Friday, November 17 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.

What is trending in the specialty coffee world for 2023? What will be 2023’s major controversies or issues? Which origin countries or regions should Coffee Review look in on? Every December brings a round of often intense debate and speculation as we at Coffee Review exchange emails and bang heads trying to come up with topics for the following year’s 10 tasting reports.

For these reports, we test anywhere from 30 to 100 coffees that relate to the report topic. Based on our tasting, descriptions and ratings, we choose 10 or more coffees that we review in detail, and that provide the descriptive backbone for each report.

Here are our report topics for 2023, many chosen with particular focus on what we see as specialty coffee trends in the coming year.

February 2023: Coffees from Roasters in Ski Country

We start the year with a seasonal report by having a look at what local roasters are up to in ski country. Beyond the “coffee” served at mostly corporate eateries at ski lodges, whose chief characteristics are “hot” and “brown,” what else is going on in the base-camp towns where residents also get their morning fix? We review a range of coffees from specialty roasters in proximity to North American slopes.

March 2023: The Anaerobic Processing Trend

Lately, coffee producers and their export partners have been busy aiming to excite the coffee world with new taste profiles created by experimenting with processing methods, i.e., how the fruit is removed from the beans and how they are dried. The almost universal processing method for fine coffee up to around 2010 or so was the wet or washed method, in which the soft fruit residue is entirely removed from the beans after harvest and before they are dried. The supremacy of the washed method in fine coffee was first challenged by a return to the ancient dry or natural method, in which the beans are dried in the entire fruit, giving us the now-familiar “naturals” with their potential for sweetness and fruit character. Around the same time, a fashion for “honey” processing took off — here, the skins of the coffee fruit are removed immediately after picking, but the beans are dried with at least some of the sweet, sticky fruit flesh still adhering to them.

And now, we are being inundated with “anaerobic-” processed coffees, meaning that, at some point in their journey from tree to drying table, the beans are sealed inside tanks to ferment with no (or very little) exposure to oxygen, discouraging oxygen-loving, sweet-alcohol-promoting yeasts while encouraging oxygen-averse bacteria. The bacteria-rich ferment often promotes a tangy sweetness with a slight lactic edge, as well as frequently surprising aromatic notes that can range from musk to bubble gum. There are many variations on the anaerobic method with varying sensory outcomes. For example, the fermentation may take place after removal of the skin (anaerobic honey or washed) or before the removal of the skin and drying (anaerobic natural).

We will revisit the anaerobic phenomenon in our March 2023 report. Will our testing of a broad range of anaerobics suggest that the latest flood of such experiments is expressing the method with more finesse, perhaps taming it, smoothing it out? Or do the exciting, often peculiar, occasionally disturbing sensory surprises of the method still dominate, delighting coffee adventurers while provoking traditionalists?

April 2023: Testing Those Ubiquitous Coffee Bags

Ground coffee in steepable filter bags (they look roughly like tea bags, but are larger) sold in single-serve nitrogen-flushed, atmosphere-protective packaging seem to be popping up on virtually every roasting company website we visit of late. The pitch, of course, is convenience: no grinding, no measuring, just pull the bag out of its little envelope and immerse it the right temperature water for the right length of time. In most cases, the coffee inside the bags is specialty quality, and the bags and packaging make a mighty effort to reduce waste and potential negative impact on the environment.

This coming April we test and review coffees sold pre-ground in single-serve steepable bags.

But how good is the beverage produced by these convenient little expedients? What impact does grinding and packaging, months in advance of brewing, have on exceptional coffees? And which of the many roaster and coffee names on the bags are likely to produce an exciting cup?

We look forward to finding out and sharing our findings with our readers in our April 2023 report and reviews.

May 2023: A Reviving Origin — Java and Bali

One massive trend throughout the specialty coffee world is the breakdown of a predictable relationship between country of origin and cup profile. Widespread experimentation with processing methods and introduction of new tree varieties are complicating the once familiar relationships between cup character and origin. Looking back over our recent reports on coffees by origin country, often half or more of the samples we receive represent coffee types not typical of the origin we are surveying. With our recent cupping of Mexico coffees, for example, only 40% of the coffees sent to us by roasters were processed by the traditional washed method, which, for decades, constituted an absolutely essential indicator of a high-quality Mexico coffee.

The growing discrepancy between country of origin and predictable cup character explains why we are planning more frequent reports on processing method and variety in 2023 than reports on specific coffee origins. We are, however, planning a report on the interesting developments on the Indonesian island of Java, where the longstanding traditional profile of Java coffee, based on standard washed coffees produced by a handful of government-owned estates, is now being supplemented by a lively community of smallholding producers who are turning out an array of interesting coffees ranging from traditional Indonesian wet-hulled coffees to natural, anaerobic and traditional washed types. This complexity is being supplemented by a similarly varied production from the neighboring island of Bali. Look for our May 2023 report on the coffees of Java and Bali.

June 2023: Lighter Roasts and Dark-Roast Confusion

What is a “dark-roasted” coffee in 2023? With many of the smaller upmarket roasters who submit coffees to Coffee Review, “dark roasts” may not be dark at all. They are most often what we could call “medium-dark” or even “medium” roasts, in which even a trained palate will have difficulty picking up a hint of the rich, scorchy taste beloved by those who like “real” dark roasts. Yet, if we look in the opposite direction, toward companies that built their original brands on clearly defined dark roasts, like Starbucks and Peet’s, we face the opposite ambiguity. A Starbucks “blonde” roast, for example, the lightest roast Starbucks generally distributes, is almost the same darkness of roast as are most third-wave roasters’ “dark” roasts. We know because we measure darkness of roast by instrument, in our case an Agtron near-infrared spectrophotometer that reliably identifies degree or darkness of roast.

Where does that leave consumers? Confused, most likely, particularly if they try to choose roast color by the language on coffee bags and websites.

What makes a roast “dark”? Contemporary coffee roasters differ on their definitions. Courtesy of Kenneth Davids.

In our June 2023 report, we’ll do our best to sort through the language and the reality of today’s dark-roast labels in North American specialty coffee, along with, of course, reviews of the best examples of both kinds of “dark” roasts, old and new.

July 2023: Reviewing Alternative Milks for Espresso

Part of a much larger movement away from animal-based foods, most contemporary cafés now offer customers at least one, often several, plant-based substitutes for dairy milk in drinks like cappuccino and caffè latte, including soy milk, almond milk, oat milk and others.

A spectrum of plant-based milks. For our July 2023 report we test and review a range of such alternative milks as they perform when frothed and combined with espresso.

For our July 2023 report, we’ll test several plant-based milks widely used in the coffee world. The focus will not be on the coffee but rather on the performance of the milk substitutes: in sensory partnership with the coffee, in ease of use, and in the texture and resilience of the froth. We will choose coffees of two different roast levels to test with the alternative milks.

August 2023: Women Producers in Charge

In our June 2017 report, we first considered women coffee producers in a global context. We turned up a heartening number of roasters focused on highlighting women-farmed coffees, as well as several non-profits dedicated to empowering women farmers. In our August 2023 report, we’ll look at the current players in the important work of supporting and making more visible the agricultural contributions of women to the coffee industry and review the finest women-farmed coffees we turn up from their roaster partners.

September 2023: Making Sense of All Those Ethiopias

Is Ethiopia itself something of a trend? Possibly, judging by the sheer number of reviews of Ethiopias crowding our review pages, outnumbering reviews of coffees from most other origins. The reasons for this are many, but most are tributes to Ethiopia’s unique place in in the world of coffee. Coffea arabica originated in Ethiopia, and coffees grown there today are virtually entirely produced from selections of indigenous coffee, almost all with genetic-driven potential for vivid aroma/flavor notes and balanced, sweet-leaning structure.

Ethiopian couple enjoying coffee in a village coffee ceremony in 1999 in the Yirgacheffe region. Courtesy of Kenneth Davids.

We have the idea, however, that the sheer volume of reviews of Ethiopia coffees may discourage some readers from fully exploring their unique pleasures. So, with our September 2023 report, we’ll look back at Ethiopia coffees reviewed in previous months, perhaps supplemented by additional samples freshly sourced, and offer an outline of Ethiopia coffee styles and cups, together with ways readers might look beyond rating numbers to the details of our reviews when choosing Ethiopia coffees to enjoy.

October 2023: Hoping for Another Geisha — Rare Regional Varieties Go Global

The Geisha/Gesha variety of Arabica, originating in Ethiopia but rediscovered and first publicized in Panama in 2004, has changed the face of specialty coffee. Geisha’s startlingly distinctive character confirmed that variety counts in the cup, and that the botanical variety of Arabica tree is one of the leading factors that impacts a coffee’s cup quality and character. Since then, Geisha has been carried to many parts of the coffee-growing world, including a revival in its original home in Ethiopia, and, as it gradually becomes less precious and less costly, is on its way to becoming a commonplace high-end coffee pleasure.

Another impact of Geisha has been to set the coffee world searching for additional distinctive, potentially superstar varieties. Wush Wush (Ethiopia), Sidra (Ecuador), Pink Bourbon (Colombia) and Sudan Rume are among varieties that display a distinctive cup profile, and are being promoted as something different and exciting, deserving to be planted in fields far from their original homes. The increasing affordability of genetic fingerprinting has intensified and supported this quest. A group of researchers has discovered varieties of Arabica in Yemen that appear to be unique to that country. Varieties like Ecuador’s Sidra, once considered a local spontaneous hybrid of Bourbon and Typica, may, based on genetic fingerprinting, turn out to be an Ethiopia variety naturalized far from its original home.

Look for our October 2023 report, which will focus on coffees produced by these new variety-star hopefuls.

November 2023: The Fermenting-with-Fruit Trend

On the heels of the challenge to tradition represented by anaerobic processing (see the preview of our March 2023 report above), still another processing wrinkle is arriving to challenge coffee purists. A few innovating coffee producers have begun to add natural fruit or spices to the fermentation tank along with the coffee fruit or beans. This procedure does not produce the sensory equivalent of the artificially flavored beans that coffee enthusiasts have long condemned, with their overstated, metallic, cloying flavors. So far, our limited tasting of natural fruit-fermented coffees has found that their added aroma/flavor notes are generally well-integrated into the basic coffee profile rather than an intrusive, distracting overlay.

Still, the procedure is understandably offensive to coffee traditionalists. In particular, some coffee leaders who support Cup of Excellence and similar green coffee competitions argue that these fruit-added fermentation experiments are essentially cheating on the fundamental act of coffee production. A few critics have attacked the anaerobic processing practices sketched earlier in this report on similar grounds.

For our November 2023 report, we will taste as many of these fermented-with-natural-fruit (or spice) experiments as we can turn up. After sampling a range of them, we will review those we consider most successful and report on the status of the controversy around them.

An Eventful Year Ahead for Coffee

Innovation and change in the specialty coffee world show no sign of slowing down, while traditionalists push back with ever more refined resistance. We’re looking forward to a provocative and engaging year of tasting. We hope you’ll come along.

The post 2023 Preview: Coffee Trends, Controversies and Change appeared first on Coffee Review.

The window during which we accept coffees for these review articles is usually the 1st day through the 10th day of the month prior to publication. For example, we plan to accept coffee samples for the May report during the period from April 1st through April 10th.

However, professional travel or other distractions may lead to modifications of the 3rd through 10th schedule, so we ask that all roasters submitting coffees for a given report first query Kim Westerman at Kim @ CoffeeReview.com before sending their coffees.

For more information about Coffee Review’s full range of review services, visit our Review Services page.

View 2023 Editorial Calendar

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