How I Taste

Every score I give is filtered through one palate: mine. Before you weigh any of my reviews, here is what is actually doing the tasting. This is not a credential. It is a starting point. If your taste runs opposite to mine, that is useful information too, not a disagreement to resolve.

Medium to dark. I lean toward roasts with body and depth, more than bright, light-roast clarity. Fruity, quietly. I enjoy fruit in a cup, but I like it subtle, not loud or shouting for attention. Acidity-averse. Sharp, high acidity usually reads as a detractor for me before it reads as lively. Black, most of the time. I drink coffee black roughly 80 to 90 percent of the time. Milk drinks get judged on a different curve than my everyday cup.

A bias, declared: this is one person’s opinions, shaped by one palate. If a review calls something too bright and that is exactly your sweet spot, flip my note and trust yourself.

Why I’m telling you this

Everyday Beans has never been about handing down the right way to taste coffee. It’s a playground, mine, that you’re welcome to watch, learn from, and disagree with. Telling you how I taste before I tell you what I think is just honesty done up front instead of left for you to guess at.

Out for Coffee: the Houston Review Series

I’m starting to review coffee shops. Houston is my city, and this is part of a bigger, national project, not the whole of it, so think of this as a local layer sprinkled into everything else I’m doing here.

Every visit is the same three drinks, ordered the same way: a macchiato, judged on balance and milk craft, never the shot; a black coffee or pour-over, how I drink coffee almost all the time; and whatever the shop is proudest of. Each one gets its own score, and the three average into one honest number for the shop.

Ratings are never a weapon here. If a review is critical, it’s because that’s what I tasted, not because I’m settling anything. And credibility comes first: I review honestly, then invite the shop to tell their own story, if they want one.

First up: Fellowship Coffee in Missouri City. It’s close to home, which felt like the right way to start, reviewing the shops in my own backyard before working outward.