Porca Food

Of all of the innovations challenging traditional expectations in specialty coffee today, the use of anaerobic (limited oxygen) fermentation to alter and intensify the character of the cup is perhaps the most striking. Anaerobic-fermented coffees that explicitly and successfully express this method tend to be intense and almost shockingly floral and fruit-toned, with the flowers often boosted by a candyish sweetness and surprising spice and herb notes.

Many in the specialty coffee world love them for their sheer difference from ordinary coffees, for the audacity of their soaring flowers and seduction of their sweetness. A few find their profiles too over-the-top, their floral notes perhaps less like fresh bouquets and more like eau-de-cologne, their fruit more Juicy Fruit gum than fresh fruit. Many in the coffee world … Read more

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

We sampled a range of coffee types, from unique house blends to classic single origins. Perhaps not surprisingly, the single origins rose to the top of … Read more

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 … Read more

If Black Friday passed you by, black coffee can save the day, as both fuel and theme for holiday gift shopping. Besides all of the splendid coffees reviewed here, the unprecedented boom in new coffee brewing tools and accessories entering the market over the past couple of years has made it easier than ever to bring more excitement to a well-crafted cup, be it your own or a loved one’s.

When gifting for a fellow coffee lover, it’s a good idea to start with this fact: People brew the way they brew because that’s how they like it. Change can be fun, flexibility is healthy, yet while coffee is a delicious destination to which there are many routes, not everyone wants to go off-roading.

There’s no wrong way to enjoy a great coffee, although there may be a better way. Here, we’ve compiled a … Read more

In 2022, Coffee Review blind-tasted more than 2,500 samples from leading roasting companies and coffee producers, 530 of which we reviewed on www.coffeereview.com. The Top 30 Coffees of 2022 represents a further selection: a ranking of the 30 most exciting of these coffees.

This year’s list represents the 10^th year we have compiled our Top 30 list of the most exciting coffees we have tasted over the preceding year. This annual event supports our mission of helping consumers identify and purchase superior quality coffees, while also helping recognize and reward the farmers and roasters who produce these coffees. The Top 30 celebrates and promotes coffee roasters, farmers, mill operators, importers, and other coffee industry professionals who make an extra effort to produce coffees that are not only superb in quality but also distinctive in character.

In 2022, roughly one out of four of the over 2,500 coffees we tested … Read more