The notion of reviewing coffee isn’t novel, but what appears to be a rising trend from my vantage point, is a growing desire to provide consumers with a numerical score which they can use to judge the quality of a particular coffee.

As someone who has been in the high end specialty market for the last 5 years, I have resisted the urge to provide our customers with a review score as I think that they are inherently dangerous and often mislead the consumer. While I know that many will disagree with me, I think we can go to school with what has happened in the wine industry, namely, the Robert Parker effect.

I went to an informative, eye-opening and bewildering session on carbon (dioxide that is) and coffee at the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) symposium in Anaheim.

I’ve discovered that there are a lot of individuals and companies that are concerned with, and working hard to measure the carbon impact of the coffee industry. I heard from folks at Counter Culture Coffee, Sustainable Harvest, Climate Path and others. All were informative. All passionate. All working to make a difference and take better care of our planet.

But I found myself walking out of the session with probably more questions about carbon footprints, offsetting, volunteer carbon marketplaces than I had when I walked in.

Our shiny new website has been up for about two weeks now, and all seems stable and happy. So, it's time to celebrate and spread the word. We're going to run a simple retweet promotion. Here's what to do:

1. Follow us on twitter.
2. Be one of the first 50 people to tweet this message:

Spread the word about the new http://transcendcoffee.com and get $5 off your coffee order. Details: http://ow.ly/1sR4x

And we'll DM you with a special discount code for $5 off a coffee order over $30 (that usually means two pounds) on transcendcoffee.com. The only restriction is that you must be a resident of Canada or the USA to participate.

Happy tweeting!

Visited Strait Coffee in Wilson Creek. Had a double made on the Nova Yatch Club, who knew? Truth be told, the espresso wasn't terrible and it was kind of funky. Always trying new things.