Espresso Evaluation’s listing of the High 30 Coffees of 2021 represents our ninth annual rating of probably the most thrilling coffees we examined over the course of the yr. This annual effort helps our mission of serving to shoppers establish and buy superior high quality coffees and, within the course of, serving to drive demand and improve costs to reward farmers and roasters who make investments time, ardour and capital in producing high-quality espresso. The High 30 celebrates and promotes espresso roasters, farmers, mill operators, importers, and different espresso trade professionals who make an additional effort to provide coffees that aren’t solely very good in high quality but in addition distinctive in character.
In 2021, we tasted greater than 2,000 espresso samples and printed greater than 500 opinions. These opinions focus totally on the highest-rated coffees, that are of most curiosity to our readers. This yr, roughly one out of 4 of the greater than 2,000 coffees we examined scored 90 factors or greater, and over 200 of them, a powerful 10% of the entire, rated 94 or greater, a tribute to the ever-intensifying innovation and dedication of the world’s main espresso producers and roasters.
Nevertheless, you will need to remind our readers that the coffees that seem within the opinions on our web site characterize the tip of the iceberg when it comes to distinction and high quality. Do not forget that we cup blind; we decide rankings and fundamental descriptors for a espresso earlier than we study the place it got here from and who roasted it. For these inquisitive about how we conduct our testing and score processes at Espresso Evaluation, see How Espresso Evaluation Works. For what scores imply in respect to the wide selection of espresso kinds and qualities, see Decoding Evaluations.
Nevertheless, regardless of our efforts to make our rankings constant and significant, numbers taken alone have limitations. It’s possible you’ll nicely take extra pleasure in a lower-rated espresso that matches your style preferences than a higher-scoring espresso that isn’t your fashion. We do our greatest to characterize a espresso’s character within the “Blind Evaluation” paragraph of our opinions and much more succinctly within the “Backside Line” paragraph that concludes every evaluation.
Exhausting Decisions: Narrowing Down the Checklist
All the coffees that rated 94 factors or greater in 2021 are notably worthy of celebrating, as are the distinctive coffees that hovered simply behind them. Clearly, not all the greater than 200 coffees incomes 94 factors or extra in 2021 can seem within the High 30. We compelled ourselves to pick the 30 we felt had been probably the most thrilling and distinctive.
As in previous years, we chosen and ranked our High 30 coffees and espressos based mostly on high quality and distinctiveness (represented by general score), worth (mirrored by most inexpensive value per pound), and consideration of different components that embrace uniqueness of origin or tree selection, certifications resembling Honest Commerce and natural, and normal rarity.
High 30 Origins: Panama Tops the Checklist Once more
Miguel Meza of Paradise Roasters, roaster of No. 1 Panama Mama Cata Mokkita, proven in Kona, Hawaii. Courtesy of Miguel Meza.
In every of the 9 years that we’ve got printed our High 30 listing, our high choose has been a single-origin espresso—that means a espresso from a single nation and area (and often from a single farm or cooperative). This yr, we chosen the 97-point Mama Cata Mokkita produced by the Garrido household of Mama Cata farm in Boquete, Panama, and roasted by Paradise Roasters in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Mokkita, one in every of two coffees that achieved a 97 score this yr, displayed an distinctive, basically flawless construction—juicy, full, balanced, deep—along with hanging, tropical-themed aroma and taste notes the evaluation summarizes as “different worldly.” The Mokkita selection is outwardly a particular pressure of the already uncommon Mokka (additionally spelled Moka, Mocca) selection that was selectively cultivated by Mama Cata.
José David Garrido, producer of the No. 1 Mama Cata Mokkita, with Mokkita tree on Mama Cata farm in Panama. Courtesy of Miguel Meza.
Our alternative of the Paradise Mama Cata Mokkita signifies that, for the third yr in a row, a espresso grown in Panama topped our listing. In 2020, it was the GW01 Finca Sophia Olympus Geisha roasted by GK Espresso in Taiwan. In 2019, the Elida Property Geisha Inexperienced-Tip Pure roasted by Dragonfly Espresso Roasters. Earlier No. 1 coffees had been produced in Hawaii (2018), Yemen (2017), Kenya (2016) and Ethiopia (2013). Panama additionally scored firsts in 2014 and 2015.
With 5 appearances, Ethiopia was probably the most continuously cited origin in our 2021 listing, together with the 97-rated Barrington Testi Ayla Double Ethiopia, this yr’s second-ranked choice. Hawaii was second in variety of placements this yr with 4. Panama and Colombia every had three coffees on the listing, and Yemen two, the one different origin with a couple of. Filling out the listing had been 13 origins represented by one espresso every, along with one mix.
Coffees from Ethiopia appeared 5 instances on this yr’s High 30. A picker from southern Ethiopia harvesting ripe fruit. Courtesy Kenneth Davids.
High 30 Statistics
Common Scores. The typical general score of the coffees on the High 30 listing for 2021 was 95.3 out of a attainable 100, consistent with previous averages.
Price per Pound: From Very Excessive to Affordable. In 2021, the typical value of the coffees on our High 30 listing was $124.83 per pound. This very excessive common was pushed by a handful of extraordinarily costly coffees. For instance, the top-rated, notably uncommon Mama Cata Mokkita value an adjusted $600 per pound. Alternatively, the second-ranked espresso, the Barrington Testi Ayla Double Ethiopia, value an adjusted $73.27 per pound, and the No. 7 Simon Hsieh Bull Demon King an inexpensive $33.00 per pound.
Baggage of 96-point Simon Hsieh Bull Demon King, the No. 7 espresso of 2021. Courtesy of Ron Walters.
What this implies is that one can’t meaningfully evaluate the typical value of High 30 coffees from yr to yr as a result of the combo of espresso costs varies enormously. A handful of very costly coffees can dramatically skew a mean. However, as in previous years, greater scoring coffees in our 2021 High 30 tended to value greater than decrease scoring coffees:
| 97-point coffees (2) | $336.63/pound |
| 95-96-point coffees (21) | $138.00/pound |
| 92-94-point coffees (7) | $23.66/pound |
One of many choice standards for the High 30 coffees is worth, measured by value per pound relative to coffees of comparable high quality. Lots of the coffees on our listing are priced consistent with comparable, although often much less distinguished, specialty coffees within the market. Eight of the coffees on the listing value $30 or much less per pound. See our full listing of the Finest Worth Coffees.
Roasters within the High 30
5 roasting firms positioned two coffees every on this yr’s High-30 listing: Paradise Roasters (No. 1 and No. 16 ); Hula Daddy Kona Espresso (No. 5 and No. 20 ); JBC Espresso Roasters (No. 14 and No. 28); Kakalove Café, Taiwan (No. 4 and No. 15), and Purple Rooster Espresso Roaster (No. 10 and No. 17). This focus of coffees from sure roasters is definitely not by design. Actually, we make a deliberate effort to extend the quantity and number of roasters that seem within the High 30.
Karen Patterson planting Kona Mocca® seedlings at Hula Daddy, producer and roaster of the No. 5 espresso of 2021. Photograph courtesy of Hula Daddy Kona Espresso.
To that finish, this yr we consciously restricted appearances within the High 30 to a most of two coffees per roaster, no matter what number of high-rated coffees that roaster produced. Whereas that will appear to be an arbitrary restrict—and it’s—it’s vital to keep in mind that our listing represents our rendering of probably the most “thrilling” coffees of the yr, not essentially the highest-rated. We felt that it wouldn’t be very thrilling (to us or others) if the High 30 listing had been an excessive amount of dominated by a handful of roasting firms that produced a very giant variety of extremely rated coffees over the course of the yr. As an alternative, we felt readers is perhaps extra enthusiastic about an incredible espresso from a roaster that wasn’t already on the listing, quite than a equally unbelievable espresso from a roaster that already had two on the listing.
That mentioned, Espresso Evaluation has been, from its inception, dedicated to beginning with what we really expertise within the cup, not with product classes or advertising concerns or trend. It’s true that we have in mind extrinsic components like worth, rarity and sustainable intentions into consideration after we slender the variety of candidates from a pair hundred to simply 30. However, finally, sensory high quality and distinction within the cup, as decided by blind-tasting and as mirrored in score, is the entry level for consideration and one of many major components that influences the place coffees land on the listing.
Roasting Firm Geography
Of the 30 coffees on the listing, 20 had been roasted by firms in the US. A record-breaking eight coffees had been roasted in Taiwan. For the primary time, a espresso roasted in Japan and one other roasted in Peru appeared within the High 30. SOT Espresso Roaster from Osaka, Japan, roasted the No. 3 Colombia Wush Wush Dynamic Pure and Finca Tasta from Peru each produced and roasted the No. 25 Coral.
Tree Selection and the High 30
Distinctive tree selection continues to look to play an vital function within the success of 2021’s High 30 coffees. There are stars and superstars among the many lots of of sorts of Arabica grown on this planet immediately, and coffees from these distinguished varieties proceed to dominate the very highest rankings at Espresso Evaluation. They embrace the still-rare and costly Geisha/Gesha selection (six examples on the 2021 listing); the traditional heirloom Bourbon (three), and the indigenous landrace sorts of Ethiopia (three). Wush Wush, like Geisha an Ethiopia selection gone on the street, exhibits up twice (as soon as as grown in its homeland Ethiopia and as soon as as grown in Colombia). Two strains of the tiny-beaned Mocca/Mokkita seem within the high 5 coffees of 2021.
On the left, the tiny beans of the uncommon Mocca selection; heart, beans of the traditional Bourbon selection; and proper, the considerably elongated beans of the Geisha/Gesha selection. Courtesy of Kenneth Davids.
Processing Methodology and the High 30
The quantity and number of processing strategies (how the pores and skin and fruit flesh are faraway from the beans and the way they’re dried) has exploded previously a number of years, as producers search new methods to distinguish their coffees and make them extra distinctive within the cup. This yr, 29 of the 30 coffees making the listing arrived with a clearly recognized processing methodology. Of these, over half had been processed utilizing strategies aside from the standard washed methodology.
Ten had been processed utilizing variants of the dry or “pure” methodology, that means the beans had been dried contained in the fruit quite than after the fruit has been eliminated, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. Three had been processed utilizing some type of anaerobic (sealed vessel, limited-oxygen) fermentation. One was processed by the honey methodology (skins are eliminated, however the beans are dried nonetheless enveloped in all or among the fruit flesh). This exhibiting is proof of the persevering with pattern towards use of processing methodology as a inventive device for crafting distinctive cup profiles.
Please take pleasure in our listing of the High 30 Coffees of 2021.
All the very best from Espresso Evaluation for a cheerful and affluent new yr, filled with each espresso surprises and the reassurance of the advantageous and acquainted.
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