Craft Coffee at Your Door Step

Choosing the right coffee is a lot like choosing a good wine. It requires a well developed palette, a working knowledge of technical vocabulary, a keen interest in geography, and usually, willingness to spend a decent amount of money. Faced with a plethora of options, it would be nice if someone we trusted would just order for us.

Enter Craft Coffee. Craft Coffee is a a monthly coffee subscription service that selects 3 coffees roasted by leading independent roasters and ships them to your doorstep.  Craft chooses their coffees through a rigorous blind taste test regimen that involves a jury that includes coffee professionals across the country.

Craft Coffee recently became a sponsor of the Coffee Compass (you may have noticed their snazzy banner add in the right hand column) and we’ve been looking forward to our first shipment like children waiting for Christmas.

Think Inside the Box

This month’s box includes selections from Australia/Brooklyn-based roaster Tobey’s Estate, Seattle’s indie darlings Kuma Coffee, and specialty coffee veterans Barrington Coffee Company.

First we brewed the Costa Rica Finca Salaca from Tobey’s Estate. We’ve read about how Tobey’s Estate goes to great lengths to source great coffees, and this honey-processed Typica was no exception. This coffee had a wonderful sweetness with a balanced acidity.

Photo by Tim Harris

Kuma’s Nyeri, Kenya, produced by the Mugaga Farmer’s Cooperative,was next. Craft claims it’s “a classic Kenyan coffee, intense and proud.” We couldn’t agree more. Prominent tart grapefruit flavors were balanced by  a pleasant sweetness and a syrupy body. Just one of many reasons we love coffee from Kenya.

Although Barrington Coffee Company has been around for a couple of decades- an eternity in specialty coffee circles – this is the first time we’ve sampled their wares. Third-wave coffee drinkers are notoriously iconoclastic, often viewing more established companies with suspicion, but this incredible Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere will quickly silence any naysayers. This coffee was all honey and hibiscus in the cup, with the prominent perfume aromatics one expects from Yirgacheffe. We’ve had a lot of amazing coffees from Ethiopia this year, but this one was truly exceptional.

Photo by Ben Willis

Our conclusion after our first shipment: Craft Coffee is a fantastic way to sample some of the best coffees being roasted in North America. When we make coffee we usually use 20-24 g of coffee, which means each Craft Coffee Box will last us about 15 days (assuming we can restrict ourselves to 1 brew a day!). In other words, if you make a lot of coffee, you’ll probably have to supplement your Craft Coffee subscription. But if you’re interested in sampling some of the best coffee on this side of the Atlantic, look no further.