Roast Ratings

19/11/2021

🎅 NEXT RATING 🎅

That's right folks! It's time for our annual holiday rating!! For this one we're looking for:

⛄ Those tried and true holiday blends - coffees designed for EVERYONE

🦄 and those magical gift coffees, those truly special lots for the coffee nerds in our lives 🤓 ☕

Coffees are due on Friday, December 3 🤙

If you would like to reserve your spot(s), click on this link
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oBrSqCZpf4MWQE8zSrqxVRG5Grx3xVN73fGZsj2kYAE/edit?usp=drivesdk&chromeless=1

🥳 We're excited to see what y'all have cooked up this year!!

Take care out there 🕊️

09/11/2021

🤤DELICIOUS DECAF🤤

In days gone by, decafs have had a bad rap to many folks out there. And, for a long time, there’s been pretty good reason for that. Decaf is something that has long been more of an afterthought for many coffee roasters out there. Frankly there hasn’t historical been a ton of great options to choose from.

🥳But (🙏 thankfully 🙏) the times, they are a changin’! 🥳

After sipping our way through our last rating, we’ve got some fantastic decaffeinated options for y’all! Without further do, we’ve got coffee from:

Bassline Coffee

Blueprint Coffee Delmar

Brio Coffeeworks

Little Waves Coffee Roasters

Oddly Correct

ONYX Coffee Lab

Repetition Coffee

Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters

Each of these featured coffees scored 4+ Stars! Huge gratitude to the roasters that sent in their coffees 🙏💜 We are seriously impressed with the level of decaffeination going on in the world today!

For access to the full ratings, follow this link-
http://www.roastratings.com/ratings/

05/11/2021

⚡️☕BACK TO NORMAL☕⚡

After 29 days without caffeine, Holly brews and sips her first regular coffee while taking about her experience. the biggest takeaways include:

🧃⚡ While there are some delightful decafs to be had, the process usually creates some lack clarity in flavor

😴💭 Sleep included memorable dreams- every night (which is new)

😳🙅🏼‍♀️ Little to no anxiety over the last month

🧘‍♀️🙏 Daily energy felt 'even' and body felt more relaxed

Thoughts?
Questions?

Holly says "Bring 'em on!"

📺☕ STAY TUNED - we will be releasing our favorite Decafs from the rating soon!!

Music - Back To Normal
Musician - Judson Crane

07/10/2021

A little report from Holly’s first day of decaffeination 💀☕️

Reminder - Decafs are due next Friday, October 15! Want to submit coffee? Check out the link below. Take care out there ✌️💜

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8TdbKlRcwbare4d86H6WPXfRYIJt58oJi8G8DBB_dTdAK5A/viewform

30/09/2021

☕ DECAF BEFORE DEATH💀

Holly here 👋

Decaf time is finally nigh 😳 To clarify, I'm not doing this for any specific reason. I'm doing this because I am curious. Curious how different I will feel without caffeine and what there is to learn about myself and this often maligned style in this process 🐇

This past week I've been preparing myself - going 'half-caff' on my daily consumption in the hopes of mitigating some of the withdrawal symptoms. I'm rounding up some decaf to get me started, hitting up my local folks to see what kind of beans they're cooking up! The experiment is officially starting on Thursday ✌️

My questions for y'all:

Have any of you done this before?

Am I an anomaly in the coffee business - having not tried this before?

If you did do it, what did you find out?

And, if you're a roaster with some tasty decaf, have we got a rating for you!! Our October Rating will be decaf only! Coffees are due October 15 in Kansas City 🌆

Link to sign up in our linktree 🔗🌳- https://linktr.ee/Roastratings

Music - Extra Jolly
Musician

21/09/2021

AGEISM IN COFFEE 🐣➡️👵

Earlier this year we published an article originally titled "Ageism in Coffee". While we previously talked about bias against coffee based on its age, we wanted to turn our attention to a much more serious topic - bias against people in coffee based on their age. Here is an article our own Holly Bastin wrote a while ago that we have been sitting on for far too long. After more than 20 years in the coffee industry, Holly has seen it, experienced it, and done it herself. In this article, she delves into her own experiences with ageism and how it permeates the industry.

Here are a few of the stereotypes she helps dissect - Baristas are young and fanciful, lacking in wisdom that comes with real world experience. Roasters are grumpy old hermits that can't handle change or young hipster disciples of . Owners are middle aged and out of touch with what's actually cool.

If you have a chance to read the article, we would love to hear from you - how have you seen and experienced ageism in coffee? How have you created your own stereotypes for people based on their age? We know that we probably all do it, and it will always be a problem when we don’t talk about it. Share your thoughts below or feel free to DM us.

Link to full article below ✌️

  Earlier this year we published a post originally titled “Ageism in Coffee”, using the term metaphorically to discuss bias with regard to roasted coffee aging. While it was intended to be playful, in hindsight and with some friendly feedback we can now easily see that it makes light of a real ...

16/09/2021

💀 CONTENT WARNING☕:
The following video will be discussing death and decaf, not necessarily in that order. Coffee viewer discretion is advised 🙏

Our very own Holly Bastin will soon be embarking on an experimental journey into the unknown. After over 20 years of experience in the global coffee business, there is one frontier that she has skillfully avoided. But it's time...

In her own words, "I'm thinking it's time for a little Decaf before Death." ☠️

Yes, things around here are about to get a little more decaffeinated for a spell. In the spirit of supporting our fearless founder as she shares with us about her experiment, our first rating after our break will be a call for - your tastiest decaf coffees 📯🗣️

Decaf is something of a taboo amongst industry folk &, for many roasters and coffee professionals, we know this request might catch y'all a bit off guard. The thing is, over the last two decades, decaf has shown some remarkable improvements in flavor and processing. And, being the curious cats that we are, we can't resist a good rabbit hole 🐇

Decafs will be due on Friday, October 15th, giving everyone a whole month to select their coffees and get them ready for our 👨‍🎤Decaf Thunderdome👩‍🎤

🔗🌳 See our linktree to reserve your spot in the rating!!

Questions? Thoughts? Opinions? Drop a comment below👇 We're here for it 🤘

In the meantime, buckle up 😜 A lot of decaffeinated content is about to come your way!

Music: Fox In The Field
Musician: Mark Mothersbaugh · Official Music

26/02/2021

Y'all ready for a Tasting Party??🎉🎈
Looking for a safe and fun activity to do with staff or friends? Our Covid-friendly Tasting Party Box is perfect from 3-10 people to explore and discover new coffee faves!
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Covid times have been hard, to say the least. We at Roast Ratings feel you - it's strange times. Many of the things we might ordinarily do together are a challenge or just plain impossible. But, we believe enjoying coffee together shouldn't be one of them! The Tasting Party Box was designed with caf...

24/02/2021

Hey y'all! :D

February's rating theme is an open call - this means the box could have any coffee from any roaster, anywhere! All coffees in the box will be recently rate 5 Star Coffees - it's a great way to discover new favorites and stay on top of the latest roasting trends!

22/01/2021

😋 African Tasting Box and January Rating Results!!

After 5 years of tasting coffees from roasters around the world, we have long been thinking about how to tell more people about all the things we’ve learned over time. Then it hit us - What better way than to share the actual experience with you?

Whether you are interested in developing your tasting abilities or simply curious to try these coffees for yourself, we’re excited to offer our first whole bean Tasting Boxes!

To make it more accessible, we’re offering it in two sizes -the “Tasting Box” ($25) for individuals and small groups & the “Tasting Party Box” ($50), designed for cafe teams (with Covid safety in mind)! All boxes includes

Three 5 star coffees from last week’s African Tasting, coded for mystery tasting and reveal!

Tools from the Roast Ratings Tasting System, including scoresheets and our preferred tasting terms

A different surprise gift every month, from us to you!

Boxes are estimated to ship on February 1! Preorders are open through Monday, January 25 - very soon! Click the link below to reserve yours today!

View Full Newsletter Here - https://mailchi.mp/d9579929f158/african-tasting-box-and-january-rating-results

04/12/2020

🗣 We have a big announcement today! We are launching our first ever Tasting Box. And it's not just any tasting box! It's a blind tasting experience curated for fun, learning, and - of course! - extreme levels of deliciousness.

When we rated instant coffees recently, we were so impressed that we really wanted to share the experience with others. Some of these coffees absolutely blew us away. So we are launching our very first Tasting Box with three of our top instant coffees!

The Tasting Box is designed so you can easily set up a blind tasting and rate each coffee yourself, using our unique scoring system. What's in the box?

☕️☕️☕️ Three freshly rated 5 Star Coffees, encoded to prevent bias (this round there's enough for 3 tastings of each)

📝📝 Roast Ratings Scoring Guide so you can host your own mini-rating (along with digital copies so you can print out more scoring materials whenever you like)

🔮🔮🔮 Collectable "Coffee Reveal" cards, with deeper info of the coffee and roaster

🎁 A limited edition gift in every box - this one is a handmade, hand-printed face mask, created by our Ops wizard !

The Tasting Box is an awesome training activity and palate development tool. It's a great way to discover new favorites and keep in touch with roasting trends. And it's FUN!

This experience is designed to give you an “At-Home” version of the Roast Ratings experience. Like us, you can get caught up in the excitement of guessing roasters and origins, only to find out that coffee can still surprise you.

Questions? Leave us a comment or DM! We love to chat and we are so excited about this. If you'd like to purchase our very first Tasting Box, just click the bio link. We hope you enjoy!