My name is Mike and I am a coffee addict.

I love coffee for it’s caffeine.

Yawwwwwn. When I first get out of bed, I’m half asleep until I get my first cup of coffee. That first cup of coffee, I barely taste. It’s not until that caffeine starts to flow though my blood stream that my eyes open up and my senses come to life.

For my caffeine deprived body, Versanto’s Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee sounded like welcome relief first thing in the morning. It promised three times the caffeine of a normal cup of coffee. That was enough to get the attention of my sleepy brain.

I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and checked out the bag of coffee. It promised all natural energy, so I brewed up a cup of the High Octane Premium and gave it a test drive via my pour over.

The Drink: High Octane Premium, Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: Two Out Of Five Coffee Mugs

I took the first sip and felt the caffeine start to flow into my body. It opened my eyes a little more and I took a look at the ingredients.

When I posted pictures on Facebook, Benjamin Hall suggested that they may have pumped in the added caffeine buy using Robusta beans instead of Arabica. (Robusta = quantity, commodity coffee. Arabica = quality, better tasting coffee).

However, as I looked at the ingredients, Robusta was nowhere to be seen. It was just 100% Arabica coffee (although no mention of the origin of the beans).

But then there were these other ingredients. There was Guarana extract (Guarana natural flavoring, maltodextrin, citric acid, silicon dioxide), which kind of scares me because I try to only drink beverages and eat foods only with ingredients that I know what they are. It turns out that is a plant that has fruit, about the size of a coffee bean. That fruit is a stimulant with twice the amount of caffeine than a coffee bean.

Even more than the caffeine, I love coffee for it’s aromas and flavors.

By now my sense were coming to life. My nose picked on a generic coffee aroma with an earthy/vegetable aroma that I just couldn’t identify. I was expecting a chemical filled aroma like the one healthy coffees have, but it wasn’t bad. (It wasn’t great either.)

My tongue found the generic coffee flavor too. There was a hint of chocolate too, then a darker flavor that I couldn’t identify either. There was a hint of bitterness.

Ten ounces of the High Octane Premium is $10.29 on the Versanto website. It’s only avalibale in ground form.

Overall, High Octane Premium earned a below average rating of two out of five on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. It wasn’t a horrible cup of coffee, actually better than I was expecting, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of caffeine in the morning either.

The Drink: Vortex Vanilla Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: 0.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

I turned to one of their flavored offerings, the Vortex Vanilla (I pronounced it Vortex Vanilla like a television announcer saying sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY! Can you tell the caffeine was starting to kick in?). I was curious if the flavored coffees would cover up the unidentifiable aromas and flavors that I didn’t like in the High Octane Premium.

Before I even got too far with the Vortex Vanilla I noticed a pretty serious labeling issue. The front of the bag says it’s All Natural Energy. However, the back of the bag says the ingredients include natural and artificial flavors. It doesn’t even mention what those artificial flavors are. I was willing to look past the citric acid, silicon dioxide ingredients, but now it was getting a little crazy.

However, it did have a sweet Vanilla aroma that I did like. It even smelled natural, of course I’m not a chemist so I’m not sure if actually was.

There wasn’t much that I liked about the taste. It tasted like a dark, dark roast with a bitter taste and almost no vanilla flavor.

Vortex Vanilla is also $10.29 for a ten ounce bag.

No matter how much caffeine was in it, I couldn’t finish my cup of Vanilla Vortex. It ended with a 0.5 rating on the Daily Shot Of Coffee Scale.

The Drink: Supersonic Cinnamon Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee from Versanto
Type: Ground
Overall Rating: Two Out Of Five Coffee Mugs

The caffeine was pulsing through my body as poured a cup of the Suuuuuper Sooooonic CinnaMonMonMon.

The aroma had a cinnamon scent with a Christmas feel to it. It reminded me of a dessert or snack from the Holiday season, but I just couldn’t identify which one exactly.

There was a nice cinnamon flavor up front, but lurking in the background was the slightly bitter flavor that reminds me of a coffee that’s been roasted too much.

Ten dollars and twenty-nine cents will get you a ten ounce bag of the Supersonic Cinnamon.

Supersonic Cinnamon fell into the same category as the High Octane Premium. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It also ended up with a two out of five on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale.

I love my caffeine in the morning or late in the afternoon when there’s an attack of the sleepies, but I love the natural aromas and flavors of coffee a lot more. I’m probably not the target market for this coffee. I wonder if I would’ve liked this coffee when I was a caffeine addicted college student staying up late studying or working long hours in retail when I got out of college.

What do you think? Would you try this coffee?

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Fine Print.

P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster, I would like to try your coffee and give my fair, honest opinion about it. Send me a message via the contact form if you’re interested.

Force 3X Hyper-Caffeinated Coffee: For Caffeine Addicts Or Coffee Lovers? is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

Student. This is what I consider myself. A student of life. A student of parenting. A student of coffee. My husband began that coffee tutelage, and I’ve since begun to study coffee on my own. And the warning I’ve read here on Daily Shot of Coffee so many times before sounded loudly in my head as I removed the bag of Gevalia from the mail packaging.“Coffee begins to go stale within 15 minutes of grinding….”

The Drink: Gevalia Kaffe Traditional Roast
Type: Ground Medium
Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 coffee mugs

Being one of the new kids on the block, I struggled with giving this, my second bag of coffee for review, such a low rating, but the more I drank, the more I questioned if I could even give Gevalia Kaffee Traditional Roast 2 mugs.

An exceptional smooth, never bitter coffee.

Smooth and perfectly balanced. This is our most beloved blend. There’s a reason this Swedish-inspired roast takes the crown.

Smooth, perfectly Balanced.

These were the promises I read on the package of ground medium roast Gevalia coffee. Even before I read them, though, I wondered what I was in for when I couldn’t even smell the coffee upon opening the box. Yet another strike registered when finding out the coffee was not whole bean. But I knew there had to be some redeeming qualities about this coffee. After all it was offered up for review. So with decisive positivity (Is that a word?), I immediately went to brewing a pot for my husband and me in our trusty Mr. Coffee drip machine.

When I opened the package the first time, I had a hard time picking up on the scent. I eventually dubbed what I was smelling as a muted chocolate and nuttiness. It didn’t tell me much about what I should taste. The first sip was powerful. Powerful like that hard sneeze that makes your brain hurt, powerful. There was a definite kick on the tongue, a distinct citrus taste, and the coffee itself was thick and syrupy. And there was something else I couldn’t quite make out. It was almost pungent, too sweet. And that was before adding a bit of heavy cream and organic agave nectar. I couldn’t figure out if that elusive taste was offensive or just different. It was almost not worth finishing that first cup, but I kept sipping, trying to figure out what I was tasting. Still a certain aspect of that citrusy kick eluded me. Needless to say, I was really not looking forward to the next cup.

The next morning, with the second cup in hand, I really began searching for what I had missed the previous afternoon. Floral? Maybe. Almost like a Sweettart? Mmm, maybe not. Then my husband mentioned dark chocolate, and the light bulb came on. That muted chocolate I had picked up on when I first opened the bag? That was the elusive aspect of the citrusy bite. It was as if they had used 100% Cacao with a heavy dose of too sweet citrus in the roasting process. Heaven forbid one add any kind of sweetener. My agave, added after numerous sips to determine if the brew was worth finishing, made the sweetness even more unbearable.

If you are interested in trying the Gevalia Kaffe Traditional Roast, you can find it at the Gevalia website. You have the choice of regular, decaf, whole bean or ground. An 8 ounce bag is $6.99.

I love chocolate. I love chocolate and citrus together. I would be interested in trying this Gevalia Kaffe Traditional Roast in whole bean form to see if the tastes would be more balanced, more smooth. To see if it warranted its description of taking the crown. At this point, I would not recommend sitting down to a cup of ground Gevalia Kaffe Traditional Roast. It seemed like a waste of my greatly anticipated morning pick-me-up.

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Fine Print.

From Pre-Ground Trepidation to Tastebud Travesty: Gevalia Kaffe Traditional is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

The Drink: Coffee Del Sol El Salvador Alicia
Type: Whole Bean Microlot
Overall Rating: 4 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

I’ve heard that Lady Gaga loves her coffee, I know because I get alerts sent to my email whenever a new a coffee related story is published online, but I had no idea that she was growing her own coffee in El Salvador.

Okay, maybe it’s not the same Lady Gaga. Maybe it’s the Lady Gaga of coffee, the nickname that Aida Batlle, a fifth generation coffee farmer has earned (I didn’t make it up) because her crops are among the most sought after like a platinum record.

Not too long ago, I had a chance to check out Batlle’s latest hit, the Alicia Microlot roasted by Coffee Del Sol. A microlot is a small number of “hand picked” green coffee beans, usually the top quality that a farmer or cooperative produces. Literally the cream of the crop.

I worried that it was all just hype, but my mouth started to water as I let the aroma float out of my mug and into my nose. There was scents of dark chocolate, Cinnamon Toast Crunch (yes, the cereal) and a hint of smoke.

I was hooked from the first sip. There was a nutty, chocolate flavor that mixed with a sweetness that reminded me of strawberry syrup. It was a very smoothy, very drinkable cup of coffee.

Twelve ounces of roasted beans from the Alicia Microlot is $13 via Coffee Del Sol.

Overall, Coffee Del Sol El Salvador Alicia is a simple, yet very delicious cup of coffee. It earned a four on the Daily Shot Of Coffee rating scale, mainly because I could see myself drinking a lot of this coffee.

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P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster and you would like to see your coffee reviewed, please visit the contact page.

Fine Print.

Lady Gaga’s Coffee: Coffee Del Sol El Salvador Alicia is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

One of the first coffee shops that really blew me away was Intelligentsia in Chicago. I remember visiting it and think it was like traveling to Mecca. Opening the doors to their shop was like opening the doors to a brand new world.

And for me it was a brand new world at the time. It was the first place that I could go for a shot of espresso and really enjoy it. It was the first place that I could really soak up the magical world of coffee and marvel at all of the different coffees they carried and all of the different ways that they could brew those beans.

To this day, anytime I head back to Chicago to visit, I try to find time to visit their shop near Millennium Park.

So, it’s pretty safe to say that I was excited when NeedCaffeine.com, the only non-Intellgentsia distributor of their coffee online offered to send me some of their coffee to review. Unfortunately that excitement was muted when I opened up the box.

The Drink: Intelligentsia Lil’ Bit Lighter Blend Coffee
Type: Ground Blend
Overall Rating: 3.25 Out Of 5

The grin on my face shrunk as I took out the bag of Lil’ Bit Lighter Blend and I saw that it was pre-ground. I was still looking forward to trying it, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be the same as whole bean. I know I may sound a little bit like a spoiled child, but using whole beans and grinding it yourself right before you brew your coffee does make a difference.

Here’s an experiment to try: Buy two bags of the exact same coffee, one whole bean and one pre-ground. Brew them both up and I bet that you’ll be able to taste a difference. I’ll bet that the whole bean coffee will be more flavorful and enjoyable.

But that’s neither here or there now. (I just have to make a note to myself to always ask to review whole bean coffee in the future.) Now, I just have to move on do the review. I brewed it using a pour over, and read a little bit about the coffee. It still sounded like an interesting coffee.

Dominated by chocolate and a lingering finish of caramel and pecan, this full bodied cup enlivens the palate with fig, dried mango, and crisp acidity.
-NeedCaffeine description

As soon as I put the cup of coffee in front of my nose, I picked up on the nutty flavor. There was also a sweetness, that reminded kettle corn. I picked up on hints of grapefruit, honey and some spices. There was a lot going on, but it smelled toned down.

The nutty flavor came out in the sip too. There it mixed with a grapefruit flavor that came with a hint of tartness in an otherwise very smooth sip coffee. There was a fruity, wine like flavor in the background.

A 16 ounce bag of Intelligentsia Lil’ Bit Lighter Blend Coffee is $14.69 via Need Caffeine and is available in whole bean or ground.

Intelligentsia Lil’ Bit Lighter Blend Coffee was good, but it wasn’t great. I just felt like there could’ve been more to it. It earned just a slightly above average rating of 3.25 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale.

The Drink: Intelligentsia Flying Blend Coffee
Type: Ground Blend
Overall Rating: 3.25 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

Next up was the Intelligentsia Flying Blend. I’ll have to admit, I was a little bit curious about this one because there was no description about the beans or where they are from other than that they were grown at 1250-1800 meters and were from Latin America. However, just because I don’t know the origin of the beans, doesn’t mean that I’m just going to throw the coffee out. If it tastes good, where the beans are from matter a whole lot less.

A harmonious and versatile blend that offers a full, earth body with chocolate tones, hints of fruit and toffee.
-NeedCaffeine description

Flying Blend started off with a sweet honey like aroma. In the background there was an earthiness and the smell of vegetables. However, it was difficult to really pick up on exactly what I was smelling, I probably spent a few minutes just sniffing my coffee.

The flavors were a little hard to determine too, like they were all muted and blended together. I did pick up on a earthy and nutty flavor at the start of the sip. Towards the end their was a honey and wine like flavor.

It was an extremely smooth, clean cup of coffee.

Sixteen ounces of the Flying Blend is $14.69 via the NeedCaffeine website.

Overall, I liked the Flying Blend from Intelligentsia, but I didn’t love it. It ended up with a 3.25 rating also. It was good, but I think it was probably a lot better right after it was ground.

The Drink: Intelligentsia Infinite Festival Coffee
Type: Ground Blend
Overall Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

The third and final coffee that NeedCaffeine sent my way was the Intelligentsia Infinite Festival Coffee.

It was also pre-ground, but I did notice something on this bag (the other two also had it) that there was a roasted on date. My coffee was roasted on 1/11/2012. That’s something a lot of coffee roasters (even those who just sell whole bean) seem to be afraid to put on their labels, so they get a huge thumbs up for that.

A harmonious and versatile blend that offers a full, earth body with chocolate tones, hints of fruit and toffee.
-NeedCaffeine Description

The Infinite Festival Blend greeted my nose with a wine like aroma. I also picked up on a sweet, milk chocolate. It was good, but it still seemed like it was muted.

As far as flavors, I picked up on an earthiness, cigar like flavor (imagine chewing on the end of a fine cigar) and a wine flavor. It was a smooth sip, with just a hint of citrus tartness towards the end. It was a fun coffee to drink, but it tasted a little mellowed out.

Intelligentsia Infinite Festival Coffee is $14.45 for a pound.

Overall, Intelligentsia Infinite Festival Coffee was my favorite one in this group. It was a good coffee and earned a respectable 3.5 on the 5 point scale. It would probably beat out a lot of whole bean coffees, but I still feel like it had this toned down quality to it.

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Fine Print.

Even Great Coffee Can Go Average When It’s Pre-Ground: Intelligentsia is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

The Drink: El Salvador Santa Ana From REV Coffee
Type: Whole Bean Single Origin
Overall Rating: Four Out Of Five Coffee Mugs

Last week, the cool people over at REV Coffee (I’ve never met them so I’m just assuming they’re cool, but I think it’s a safe assumption), a roaster in Smyrna, Georgia sent me a bag of their El Salvador Santa Ana.

REV Coffee Label - Click For Larger Image

I liked a lot of things about this coffee and I’ll get into them further down in this post, but the first thing I noticed wasn’t the coffee. It was the design of the bag. I really liked the information that they included, it was like a checklist of all of the things I would like to know before buying a bag of coffee, with a couple of bonus pieces of information for extra points.

To start with, they included a roasted on date. Mine was roasted on a January 9th. Way too many coffee roasters don’t include it, for one reason or another. Which is a shame, because coffee loses it’s flavor even in it’s whole bean form. The best coffee is 3-14 days old (depending on what expert you ask, on the type of coffee, how it was roasted, etc). It’s almost like a lot of roasters are afraid to say when their coffee was roasted because it isn’t fresh and it would cut into their bottom lines, yeah I said it. Of course, there’s other reasons, but that’s one that flashes into my head when I open up a bag of coffee and it doesn’t smell full of flavor.

The package also included a map of Central America, pinpointing in El Salvador where the coffee was grown. Not really something that I would say is required, but it was a nice bonus piece of information.

The front of the bag tells what farm grew the coffee, Cerro Las Rannas. Probably not the most valuable piece of information to someone that’s just getting into coffee, but drink enough coffee and you’ll start to recognize names of farms. For me I like to see that the roaster knows the name of the farm, which hopefully means they know where their coffee is coming from. I swear some roasters couldn’t answer that question.

The bag also mentions this coffee’s varietal, bourbon and how it was processed, pulp natural, sun dried. For someone just getting into coffee, not the most helpful pieces of information, but it’s good information to start paying attention to. In future coffee reviews, I’ll explain more what it means.

The bag also has their tasting notes, juicy, lively, tropical fruit. I like to read the tasting notes, but only after I’ve actually tasted the coffee myself and wrote down my own notes, that way I’m not influenced by what they smell and tasted. Of course, you don’t have to do that, in fact if you’re looking through bags of coffee, you probably want to look at the tasting notes so you know that you’re getting a coffee that you’re going to like.

With all that being said, it’s not just the packaging that matters. What’s in the package is pretty important too. Even the best designed bag that’s filled with information won’t make up for a poor quality coffee.

From the first sniff, I knew that I wasn’t dealing with a poor quality coffee. In fact, just opening up the bag and smelling the beans brought out my happy face.

After I brewed it in my French Press and poured it into my cup, I smelled all sorts of delicious aromas. There was a fruity aroma that I liked, but just couldn’t my finger exactly on what fruit it was, no matter how much I smelled it. There were also hints of spices that reminded me of Christmas, a hint of cinnamon and a dash or two of sugar.

My nose loved it and so did my tongue. It was a smooth coffee, with a light body (how heavy it felt on my tongue) and full of flavor. First there was a sweet fruity flavor, then a tart grapefruit like flavor. There were hints of cinnamon and allspice in the background.

A 12 ounce bag of El Salvador Santa Ana from REV Coffee is $14.99. It’s a little bit above average in the specialty coffee world, but I think it’s worth it, because you’ll taste the difference from a bag of coffee that’s $7.99.

Overall, El Salvador Santa Rita from REV Coffee earned an excellent rating of four out of five coffee mugs on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. This would be the perfect coffee for someone that doesn’t want a dark, over powering coffee. For anyone new to specialty coffee and wants to try to identify the smells and tastes, this would be a good coffee to start with.

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P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster and you would like to see your coffee reviewed, please visit the contact page.

Fine Print.

Loaded With Flavor And Information: El Salvador Santa Ana From REV Coffee is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

Most of the coffee roasters and companies that I encounter to have been in existence for just a few years or less, probably ten at max. I sometimes forget that the coffee industry as I know it, hasn’t been around forever.

But then again there’s roasters like Henry’s House Of Coffee in that have been around since 1965. For more than 45 years, Henry Kalebjian (and his family) has been roasting by hand coffee in the House Of Coffee store in San Francisco.

A year or so ago, one of you awesome readers (and I’m sorry that I forgot who said it) suggested that I try some beans from Henry’s House Of Coffee. The reader raved about it, so it’s been on my long list of coffees to try. However, I forgot about it until Henry’s son contacted me about reviewing some of their coffee. Of course, I jumped at the chance.

Here’s the three coffees that they sent me to get a feel of their coffee.

The Drink: Gypsy Mix From Henry’s House Of Coffee
Type: Whole Bean Dark Roast Blend
Overall Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

A blend of three mysterious coffees from the Arabian Peninsula mixed with African beans gives this blend a fantasy air about it. The best description is a heavy mocha like body with hints of pear and apple.
Henry’s House Of Coffee Description

I’ll admit that I was a little nervous about the Gypsy Mix. Dark Roasts aren’t always my favorite, in fact I’m kind of afraid of them. Plus, when it comes to the origins of coffee…mysterious doesn’t sound like a good thing. Of course, I wasn’t going to chicken out so I brewed the Gypsy Mix in my French Press and sat down to see what I could discover about this mysterious coffee.

I smelled a delicious chocolate aroma that had just a hint of smoke in the background. It was just the tiniest hint of smoke, so it passed my early warning dark roast tests.

The taste didn’t scare me away either. This coffee was smooth with a medium body. It had a dark chocolate flavor with hints of sweet maple syrup. Towards the end of the sip, I picked up on a different chocolate flavor. This one was a milk chocolate. A hint of dark roast (not burnt) flavor ended the sip.

A pound of the Gypsy Mix is $15.80 on the Henry’s House Of Coffee website.

Overall, the Gypsy Mix earned an above average 3.5 rating on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. It was a good coffee, but I think a dark roast coffee drinker would enjoy it more than me.

The Drink: Bella Finca From Henry’s House Of Coffee
Type: Whole Bean Dark Roast Blend
Overall Rating: 3.75 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

One of our unique custom blends of five specialty beans, Bella Finca means “Beautiful Garden.” Beans from Indonesia and Latin America blend beautifully together to provide the palate with a rich full body flavor and a creamy finish.
Henry’s House Of Coffee Description

This was another dark roast, but after trying the Gypsy Mix, I was a little bit more comfortable about trying this one.

The first thing that I noticed is that there was a lot going on in the aroma department, especially for it being a dark roast. There was a hint of smokiness, the coffee nutiness, but then there’s a mix of chocolate, earthiness, spices and woody aromas. It was like walking through a forest while eating a chocolate candy bar.

It was a heavy coffee, with a thick body. It was the kind of coffee that I think my dad would like.

This coffee immediately opened my eyes up with it’s dark roast and strong coffee flavors. A lot of dark roast coffees stop there, but I also picked up on hints of nuts and spices. In the after taste, there was a little bit of charcoal and smoky flavors. However, it was only a drop or two and it didn’t take away from the smoothness of the coffee.

A pound of the Bella Finca is $14.20 online.

Overall, Bella Finca earned a well above average rating of 3.75 on the rating scale. It was a great coffee, full of life and flavor. It might’ve been a little too dark from me, but it was the kind of dark roast coffee that makes me want to try more like it.

The Drink: Vista Alegre From Henry’s House Of Coffee
Type: Whole Bean Medium Roast Single Origin
Overall Rating: 3.75 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

By using a drip irrigation system, the trees of the Vista Alegre bean are nourished using irrigated water even after the coffee cherries have ripened. This continued nourishment allows the cherry to further mature and develop. After a medium roast the coffee releases a syrupy body with illusions of dark chocolaty sweetness.
Henry’s House Of Coffee Description

This was the coffee that I was most looking forward to trying. The description made it sound exactly like the kind of coffee I usually like. I couldn’t wait to brew it in my French Press.

Things started of good, with an aroma filled with chocolate and a bit of nuttiness.

The chocolate and nuttiness returned in the taste department, but it didn’t stop there. There was also a sweet and spicy flavor to it. I kept going back for sip after sip, trying to figure out what I was tasting, but I didn’t get anything specific besides an empty mug.

It was a strong coffee with a thick body, but it wasn’t so strong that it over powered any of the other flavors.

Vista Alegre is not cheap at $17 for a pound, but it is worth trying even at that price.

Overall, it was another well above average coffee from Henry’s House Of Coffee. It earned a 3.75 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. I think it’s the kind of coffee that a variety of coffee drinkers, from light roast to dark roast, would enjoy.

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Fine Print.

P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster and you would like to see your coffee reviewed, please visit the contact page.

Standing The Test Of Time: Henry’s House Of Coffee is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

Editors Note: Today I wanted to introduce you to our new staff writer Geoff. I’ll let him tell you a little bit more about himself.

I got serious about the idea of coffee long before I could appreciate a good cup. Years ago, at my first real job out of college, I would bring a thermos to work every day. Once, a co-worker I was smitten with asked if she could have a cup of my coffee. I beamed like the proud aficionado I was not and gladly poured her a cup. With one gesture she broke my heart, practically spitting out the overly-sweetened syrupy liquid. I dropped the sugar cold-turkey and quickly found myself in love… with coffee’s bitter and bold taste.

I’m proud to say that now I’m an enormous coffee snob. I only take my coffee black, I drink it in a cup and I won’t have less than two cups a day. I currently wander the streets of New York City in search of cafes not owned by Starbucks. Seriously, though, coffee provides me with a huge level of enjoyment in my life. I look forward to the morning cup and am relaxed with a mid afternoon hit. A cup or a shot of espresso after a good meal is nothing to sneeze at either.

The Drink: Klatch Coffee Costa Rica Cerro Paldo
Type: Whole Bean Medium Roast (Sustainable, Dir. Trade)
Overall Rating: 3.85 Out 5 Coffee Mugs

The upcoming weekend was all set. Three days relaxing in the wilds of the Berkshires in Massachusetts with friends. The only thing that would make it better would be if… there it was, a Go Coffee Go package in my mailbox. I’d be packing the French press, electric tea kettle and coffee grinder on this vacation.

My choice for review was Klatch Coffee’s Costa Rica Cerro Plado. Klatch Coffee is based in Upland, California and founder and CEO Mike Perry has a degree in Chemical Engineering which he has combined with a love of coffee. Cerro Plado refers to the name of the farm that grows this coffee. The current farmer Ronald Monge Valverde is the third generation of coffee producers in his family. Klatch also lists the variety of plant that has produced the beans, the region within the country and the altitude at which it was grown. The detail that got me the most excited was the date of roasting, hand-written on the bag: A week and a half from when it arrived in the mail.

My first impression upon opening the bag was a nuttiness followed by a sweetness suggesting fruit and chocolate. As it was brewing in the French press the smell of fruit became livelier. It made me think of dried cherries and apricots. It was thin on my tongue and very smooth. Not a hint of acidity or bitterness. There was a boldness that I felt enveloped by. In the next few sips the sweetness deepened in complexity, subtle and rich with the cherries and apricots taking on hints of brown sugar.

During the weekend my friends asked for many a pot, and I happily made about three every morning.

Klatch Coffee seems to be doing a great job and in my opinion that Chemical Engineering degree certainly paid off. It earned a 3.85 on the Daily Shot of Coffee scale.

Online you can order the Cerro Paldo directly from Klatch Coffee or from Go Coffee Go where we purchased it. The price is the same, $12.95 for a 12 oz. bag.

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Fine Print.

Klatch Coffee’s Costa Rica Cerro Paldo: Worth Taking Your Coffee Grinder On Vacation is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

Most of the coffee that we drink in the is grown in one country (that’s probably really far away), shipped most likely by boat to the United States, then roasted by the coffee company before we buy it. It’s a system that works, but one coffee roaster has a different way of doing things.

The name of the coffee company is Azahar Coffee and they call their system value added at the source (VAS). They’re based out of Colombia where they directly interact with the farmers, not just buying the coffee directly from them, but also cupping with them so the farmers can see what’s good about their coffee, but what also needs to be improved. Then Azahar Coffee brings the coffee to their roasting plant, which is also in Colombia. After it’s roasted, it’s flown to the United States for us to sip from the comfort of our own home. It’s similar to the farm fresh or farm to plate movements that are gathering steam.

At least, that’s the simple version of VAS and what Azahar Coffee is doing, I’ll let Tyler Youngblood of Azahar Coffee explain it a little better in this week’s Daily Shot Of Coffee Podcast.

Suscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

Huge thanks to Tyler and Azahar Coffee for working with me to make this first podcast come to life.

Azahar Coffee Reviews

The Drink: Finca El Guamo (name of the farm), “Los Agucates”
Type: Single Origin Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

First up from Azahar Coffee comes from a farmer named Maria Cecilia Trujillo in the Hulia province. In this video, you can meet her daughter and learn more about their farm.

Brewed in my French Press, I picked up on a aroma full of mouth watering scents. There was a sweetness that reminded me of a sugar candy like gummi worms, honey, wine and a little bit of chocolate in the background.

The taste was full of life. It started with a wine like flavor, that was followed by the sweetness of honey and I swear I could taste a strawberry dipped in chocolate in the background. I didn’t know that a Colombian coffee could taste like this. As it cooled down, I liked it more and more.

An 8.8 ounce bag is $15.50, so it’s not cheap, however I don’t mind paying more for quality and when I know more of the money is going back directly to the farmer.

Overall, this was a fun coffee to drink. It earned an above average 3.5 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee. It’s a great coffee to get you going in the morning.

The Drink: Finca El Sinaí, El Morro (lot name)
Type: Single Origin Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 4 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

Yair Vélez grew these beans on his farm Finca El Sinai in the Quindío province. In this video you can travel to the source and see where the beans comes from and how they’re processed.

This coffee also had a sweet aroma. I smelled freshly made caramel, fruitness of red grapes and a hint of spice in the background.

The taste had the fruity flavor of an Ethiopian coffee, mixed with the nutty/spicy flavor that I traditionally expect from a Colombian coffee. On one side there was a wine like flavor and hints of a strawberry syrup that lingered on my tongue. On the other side there was a spicy flavor like paprika (only a little darker) and the woody flavor of something grilled on cedar plans.

An 8.8 ounce bag of this coffee is $14.25.

Overall, this one scored slightly higher, earned 4.0 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale. I really enjoyed the mix of flavors that it left on my tongue.

The Drink: Finca Italia
Type: Single Origin Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 4 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

These beans were grown by a farmer named Gabriel Rey in the Colombian province of Nariño. Check out the Finca Italia video where Gabriel talking about his coffee beans and farm.

This coffee had an aroma of chocolate, a scent that reminded me of a bouquet of flowers and a sweet fruitiness (that I just couldn’t put my finger on to identify).

The taste department was led by strong, but smooth coffee flavor. I picked up a mellow wine like flavor, a bit of all spice flavor, chocolate and more chocolate in the after taste.

An 8.8 ounce bag of this coffee is $16.50.

Overall, this coffee earned an above average rating of 3.75. I enjoyed the delicious balance of flavors that kept me wanting more.

I enjoyed sipping on the offerings from Azahar Coffee, but what really makes them stand out is their VAS system and the ability to know where my morning cup of coffee comes from.

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Fine Print.

If you’re a coffee company/roaster and you would like to see your coffee reviewed, please visit the contact page.

DSOC Podcast 1: Azahar Coffee And Their Fresh From The Farm Beans is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

The Drink: Dominican Republic Peaberry From Peter Asher Coffee And Tea
Type: Single Origin Whole Bean
Overall Rating: 4 Out Of 5 Coffee Mugs

There’s a lot of great things that come from the Dominican Republic, but my favorites are baseball players like Robinson Cano and Rafael Soriano from the New York Yankees. And coffee. (Can you tell that my football teams were knocked out of the playoffs and that I’m ready for spring training to start?)

Since this is a coffee blog, I’ll tell you more about the coffee. What I’m reviewing today is Peter Asher Coffee And Tea’s Dominican Republic Peaberry. Peaberry is a type of coffee bean that is smaller and generally more intense in flavor.

The best definition of what peaberry is came from my friends over at Wikipedia:

“Normally the fruit of the coffee plant develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry, but sometimes only one of the two seeds gets fertilized, so there is nothing to flatten it. This oval (or pea-shaped) bean is known as peaberry. Typically around 5% of all coffee beans harvested are of this form.”

This peaberry had a sweet fruit aroma, that almost reminded me of a mixed fruit juice. I picked up on hints of chocolate (think a box full of the candy Milk Duds) and a little bit of caramel and vanilla in the background. I had a sneaky suspicion that I was going to like this coffee, it was loaded with variety of scents that blended well together.

My first sip of the coffee was too hot to identify all of the flavors, but I knew right away that it wasn’t just the aroma of this coffee that I was going to like.

When it cooled down some, I started to analyze the smooth, thick body of this coffee. There was chocolate up front (mix of dark and white chocolate) with a sweet fruity flavor with a hint of citrus (strawberries and lime) in the background.

A 12 ounce bag of Dominican Republic Peaberry is a steal at $10.50.

Peter Asher’s Dominican Republic Peaberry is the kind of coffee that I could drink all day. It was loaded with flavors and scents that made my mouth and nose very happy. It earned an excellent rating of 4.0 on the Daily Shot Of Coffee scale.

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Fine Print.

P.S. If you’re a coffee company/roaster and you would like to see your coffee reviewed, please visit the contact page.

Dominican Republic Peaberry From Peter Asher Coffee is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee

This is a guest post by Mike. Learn more about how you can guest post for Daily Shot Of Coffee.
Full disclosure, I received this coffee from Mike (our coffee blogger, and fearless leader!) via Go Coffee Go’s website because I won a contest here on Daily Shot. I chose Bird Rock coffee because I recently read in Roast magazine that they had been awarded Micro-Roaster of the year for 2012. Bird Rock has some very small roots, but their coffee has been getting some notoriety and I definitely wanted to taste it for myself. The thing that I found most striking in the article is that Bird Rock is never content with where they are at as a company. It seems as though a challenge, or a new project is always on the horizon. For example, the owner of Bird Rock challenged the previous two winners of the Micro-Roaster of the year award to a sort of “roast-off”. This kind of ambition is refreshing to me in a world of wash, rinse, and repeat.

Anyways, back to the coffee! As I noted in the title, as soon as I got the coffee in the mail I put my french press to work. Generally speaking, I like to use either the pour-over method or the press when I am trying a coffee for the first time. This coffee is a medium roast, and immediately the aroma was enticing, with hints of nuttiness and citrus. I was looking forward to this cup of coffee. On a Daily Shot of Coffee rating scale, I would have to give it a 4.0 out of 5. The coffee had some flavors of sweet fruit and caramel, with a full body, and a very smooth finish. I was definitely giving my mug a refill!

I look forward to trying some more Bird Rock coffee, and I would recommend this coffee to anyone interested in it. This coffee has started a new tradition for me; from this point forward I will be ordering a pound of coffee from the Micro-Roaster of the year, to see if they are worthy of the award. Bird Rock definitely proved itself worthy.

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My name is Mike Brown, and I am passionate about all things coffee!

Pressing Bird Rock’s Guatemala Finca Santa Ana is a post from: Daily Shot Of Coffee