Reviews for Paradise Roasters

Rich, juicy and tartly sweet. Complex floral and fruit notes in aroma and cup: dusk flowers, black currant, dried berries, stone fruit. Sustained fruit-laced and bright-toned acidity that does not overwhelm or distract. Flavors soften and simplify in the finish.

Evaluated as espresso. Rich, sweet aroma with toast and caramel notes and a smoky suggestion. In the small cup syrupy body and deep, softly pungent flavors of dark chocolate, raisin and aromatic wood. The chocolate turns bittersweet in a slightly astringent finish, but the flavors soften again in two parts milk, blooming nicely while maintaining their complexity and authority.

A deep natural sweetness sustains every aspect of this coffee, from aroma through finish. Distinct fresh-cut fir in the aroma with hints of molasses and flowering grass. In the cup sweetly bright acidity, silky mouthfeel, and a complex set of flavors: brandyish fruit (grapefruit, ripe lemon, berry), cocoaish milk chocolate, molasses. Settles into a lemony chocolate in the long, rich finish.

Evaluated as espresso. Honey-sweet aroma with notes of aromatic wood, dark chocolate, raisin. In the small cup full mouthfeel and a deeper rendition of dark chocolate and raisin; hints of floral and citrus brightness. Long, resonant, flavor-saturated finish. Unusually complex in two parts milk, with notes ranging from milk chocolate to dry walnut.

High-toned aroma combining elements of juicy, almost floral fruit with more pungent nuance of grapefruit, raisin and brandy. In the cup, distinctly lively acidity with continued sweetly pungent fruit, particularly a floral-edged white grape. Sweet finishing; hints of flavor reemerge in the long.

Fruit-nectar-like aroma with suggestions of peach, flowers, honey and perhaps sweet white wines such as Gewurztraminer. Lush acidity, medium to full body, silky mouthfeel and juicy, fermenty fruit flavors carrying from aroma into cup: lemon, dried berries, tangerine, cherry, balanced by a pungent hint of aromatic wood. Flavors soften in the finish but linger with a complex balance of sweet and savory.

Rich aroma: flowers, nut, a hint of citrus. In the cup crisply sweet acidity, silky mouthfeel, deep floral flavor complicated by pungent dry berry and grapefruit-like citrus. Pure finish: very sweet, very long.

Intense aromatically; notes suggesting baking bread, blueberry, sour cherry, prune. In the cup tangy bright-toned acidity, silky mouthfeel and elegantly round, sugary sweet suggestions of flowers, complex fruit, honey, toast. The sweet toast note lingers long into the finish.

Crisp, sweetly pungent aroma: tart berry, lemon, nut, aromatic wood. In the cup delicately rich acidity, silky mouthfeel. Continued tart yet lushly sweet berry notes with a hint of earth complicate the aromatic wood notes. Long, flavor-saturated finish.

A rich, balanced lighter-roasted cup. Complex aroma: tart, cherryish coffee fruit, milk chocolate, honey, a hint of flowers. In the cup wine-like acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The coffee fruit notes are complicated by a slightly savory, spice-like nuance. Simplifies slightly in a cleanly rich finish.

Sweetly pungent fruit and fresh earth notes throughout the profile. Crisp and grapefruit-like in the aroma, in the cup rich with moist, just decaying fallen leaves and deeper fruit notes; tart cherry perhaps. Leanish but silky mouthfeel. Very sweet, almost sugary in the flavor-saturated finish.

Balanced aromatically: notes of toast and black currant supported by pungent fir and herb. In the cup intense, penetrating flavors: deep fruit, dusk flowers, baker's chocolate, aromatic wood. The pungent hints of black currant and herb reemerge in the long, dry finish.

Sweet aroma combining notes of nut, aromatic wood, and molasses. In the small cup, full body, thick, syrupy mouthfeel, and a complex range of flavors including toast, nut and concentrated fruitiness suggesting raisins and dried cherries. Intense bittersweet chocolate in the finish. The flavor notes persist in two parts milk, sweetening and broadening, turning toward creamy caramel and milk chocolate.

Round, fruit-forward aroma, with suggestions of berries, desert wine and flowers. Crisp in the small cup, showing intense flavors of apricot, peaches and citrus. The fruity flavors merge and linger in the long, tartly-sweet finish. In two parts milk the complex layers of fruit persist, more nuanced but sweet and distinct.

Intense flavor and aroma. Rich acidity, silky body, flavor combining sweet grapefruit and tart lime with aromatic wood and flowers. The flavor notes stretch into the long, dry finish.

Explosive aroma of tangerine and flowers. In the cup smooth mouthfeel, bright-toned yet balanced acidity and an extravagant fruit character with shifting cherry, stone fruit, floral and berry nuance. The fruit and sweetness prevail over a hint of salty astringency in the finish.

Intensely sweet aroma of caramel, peanut and roasted corn. Heavy body, syrupy mouthfeel, soft acidity, and big, thick flavors of malt, toasted grain and nut with a faint halo of fruit. Long, peanut-buttery sweetness in the finish, turning slightly astringent as the cup cools.

Co-cupper Andy Newbom (94) admired this pungent yet lushly sweet Bourbon slightly more than Ken (92) did. Certainly Andy found more ways to describe its engaging contrast of lush sweetness and almost savory spice. For Andy "root beer, lemon peel" in the aroma, "fruit leather" in the acidity; a "complex blend of tangerine and cinnamon oil, clarified butter and sweet red pepper rounding into guava and gooseberry" in the cup, plus "hints of cocoa nib." The finish impressively resolved the pungent/sweet paradox running through the profile: "astoundingly clear and bell-toned" for Andy; "long, sweetly flavor-saturated" for Ken.

For co-cupper Jim Reynolds (89) a smooth and essentially complete cup but too subdued, with "unassertive acidity." Ken (90) found the cup quiet as well, but enjoyed floral, apricot, chocolate, possibly butter notes in aroma and cup, with an acidity that was richly red-wine-like.

A balanced, gently rich espresso. For co-taster Byron Holcomb (91) "red wine" in the aroma and tart jam and boysenberry in the flavor. Ken (89) read the sweetness as caramelly rather than fruit-toned and the dry notes as aromatic wood and leather. Both found the body on the light side but the mouthfeel pleasingly smooth. Rich finishing; Byron picked up lavender as the mouthfeel faded. Four parts milk plumped up the body; Byron read "granola with fruit, cranberry in particular."