Coffee Reviews Are Here!

Up to this point Critical Tastings has provided dozens of tastings on beer and dark chocolate, along with some wine, scotch and a few miscellaneous tidbits. As of today we are adding coffee to that list.

The impetus behind this is my recent acquisition of a Keurig K-Cup brewer. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the K-Cup system, these are individual sealed packs that contain a pre-measured amount of ground coffee as well as a filter. The brewer forces pressurized water through the K-Cup (not unlike the way an espresso machine works) and you have a cup of coffee in 2 minutes with no prep or cleanup. Aside from being pretty dang convenient, it makes it pretty easy to taste a whole sampling of coffees without having to buy a pound of each. So, while we won't be limiting the coffee reviews here strictly to K-Cups, there will be quite a few K-Cup tastings over the next few weeks.

Now, a few caveats in regards to our coffee reviews. First of all, I don't consider myself a high-end coffee connoisseur. I'll never pay 500 bucks for a pound of roasted civet excrement. I just happen to enjoy a flavorful cup of joe in the morning and/or after dinner. All coffees will be ground and brewed like I normally would for any other cup of coffee (K-Cups will be an 8 ounce brew unless stated otherwise). Another point of note is that my use of the word "bitter" in a review here does not generally connote a negative quality as it does in many other coffee reviews. As far as my palate is concerned, when in the proper balance, bitterness adds a flavor depth to coffee in much the same way as it does with a fine dark chocolate or hoppy IPA. I enjoy a coffee that has a nice bite to it and that will be notable in the tasting notes here.

So, without further ado, onto the reviews...