Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Okay, I am not from Portland, I am in San Diego. San Diego has it share of premium roasters, but Stumptown makes these guys here look like Folgers. Stumptown not only has the best coffee I have ever had, it's principal is right on as well. I know there seems to be confusions on Fair Trade and Direct Trade and Happy Trade or whatever other trades are out there. Do your research to form your opinion on what actually is best for the world in general. You can just taste the passion in a cup of Stumptown, Comparing Stumptown to Peet's or (GULP) Starbucks is like comparing (here comes the wine reference again) Sutter Home or Gallo to a premium wine. Yes Sutter Home and Gallo are palatable, but not what I would consider good or desirable. I am not going to say that all of Stumptown's coffees are my favorite. There are a few that I will not purchase again. Just like any company, they are trying to suit the needs to all coffee connoisseurs. As far as strong, any coffee geek knows that the coffee that is roasted to burntness losses it's caffeine. The milder coffees are typically stronger. The "Flavors" that seemed to have been mentioned a few times are what coffee tastes like un-burnt. The long and short of it is in my opinion to coin a similar phrase "Life is to short to drink mediocre coffee" Now if we could just get Stumptown to carbonate their brew with a little hops and malted barley I would be a happy man! Thank you Stumptown.