Reviewers Starting to Notice Conscious Cup

Crystal Lake's Conscious Cup is starting to make its mark in the coffee world.

Coffee Review, a well-respected reviewer and online coffee buying guide, recently rated one of coffees and the review came back sparkling.

Coffee Review tasted the Cup's Ethiopia Harrar, and it rated a 94 out of 100.

"Intense aroma and flavor dominated by deep, jasmine-like flowers and tartly sweet fruit: pomegranate, bergamot, raspberry. Rich, complexly expressed acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The finish is lemony, sweet, and very long," the review said of the Cup's Ethiopia Harrar.

In the categories of Aroma, Acidity, Flavor and Aftertaste, the Ethiopia Harrar got 9 out of 10. It got an 8 in the Body category.

Taking a page from wine reviews, Coffee Review let's their readers know what type of coffee drinker should be trying each flavor. In the case of the Cup's Ethiopia Harrar, the review suggested:

"Those looking for excitement. Almost startling intensity and complexity in this unusually clean, bright Harrar."

Conscious Cup is owned by the Shipley family, run every day by brothers Michael and Jason and their parents Jack and Roseanna.

Conscious Cup’s name is a double entendre, meaning the coffee keeps you awake but it also means that the owners and customers are aware of where the coffee comes from and how it is grown, certainly not on a plantation in a recently denuded rainforest by slave labor.

Jason Shipley said his coffee is “traceable.” They can verify every hand that touched their coffee.

“We don’t get our coffee from a commodity trader,” he said.