LATEST REVIEWS
We have published thousands of coffee reviews and espresso reviews since 1997. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee. To search for a specific roaster, origin or coffee use the Advanced Search Function.
Sweet, low-toned aroma: toast, banana-like fruit. In the small cup medium-bodied with a leanish, slightly rough mouthfeel and toast and gently scorched cedar notes. Simple, rich short finish with a heavy saltiness in the long. In milk simple, with little sweetness; the usual chocolate turns up dry and salty.
Sweet, deep aroma with chocolaty fruit and a hint of flowers. Silky mouthfeel, smooth in the cup with semi-sweet chocolate and orange peel notes. Rich and sweet in the short finish; a recurring hint of flowers and a slight astringency in the long. As the cup cools the orange-toned chocolate persists sweetly but the body thins.
Lushly complex aroma: flowers, honey, molasses and sweetly tart fruit notes that suggest grapefruit. In the cup moderate in acidity, medium in body, with an opulent candyish, molasses-toned floral character and continued tart fruit notes enriched by a slight, brandy-like ferment. Clean, rich finish. The cup flattens very slightly as it cools.
A superb example of its type, though not a coffee for the conventional. Wood and musty earth notes in the aroma are enriched by butter and orange that together read persuasively as a sort of butterscotch. Rather lean-bodied but very sweet in the cup with orange, pipe tobacco and continued butterscotch notes. In the finish suddenly blossoms and soars, with altogether new and surprising chocolate and even some giddy floral notes.
Intense aroma: nut, mint, brandied cherry chocolate. In the cup rich acidity, silky body and a continuing aromatic profile so deeply and explosively complex that a world of coffee sensation can be found in it: cocoaish chocolate, raisin, flowers, lemon, brandy, orange peel. Very sweet and flavor-saturated short finish, though in the long a very slight salty astringency shadows the fine aromatic echoes.
Deep, sweet-toned aroma with distinct floral top notes and hints of butter and cedar. Simplifies slightly in the cup, but remains deep, balanced and big-bodied, with semi-sweet chocolate notes that carry into a richly clean finish.
No hints here: The aromatics are direct, inescapable, lavish. Lushly intense blueberry, chocolate, and floral-toned honey in the aroma. In the cup the incendiary aromatics are influenced by a wine-like acidity that turns the berry and chocolate notes crisp and richly dry. The fundamental berry and floral notes linger with surprising clarity in the finish, although they are outlasted by a slight but forgivable astringency.
Sweet-toned, soft, very delicate aroma with orange, floral and pungently buttery (butterscotch?) notes. In the cup light to medium bodied but silky in mouthfeel, with a gently bittersweet character and crisp chocolate and orange peel notes. As the cup cools an attractive mint-like note also emerges. The chocolate and orange notes linger impressively in the long, clean finish.
Very sweet-toned, very deeply dimensioned aroma, with lush cedary chocolate notes and hints of banana and molasses. In the cup plush in mouthfeel, roundly resonant, chocolate-toned. Rich but simple finish.
Sweet-toned, deep aroma with distinct orange notes and hints of nut and semi-sweet chocolate. The cup is dominated by a plush orange- and wine-toned acidity, sweet and richly balanced, with continued hints of dry chocolate that carry into a richly astringent finish.
Crisp, rather limited aroma: caramel and milk chocolate. In the cup sweet, delicate, rather shallow and lean, with a pleasant dry nutty chocolate character. Unexpectedly, the finish stretches out splendidly, rich and chocolate-toned.
Soft aroma, with floral top notes, and prune- or apricot-toned fruit and a hint of chocolate. Simplifies in the cup, turning gently bittersweet. The deep-toned, prune-like fruit grows more pungent, the chocolate hints drier. Smoothes out again in the impressively sweet, finish.
Sweet-toned, delicately rich aroma: hints of flowers, milk chocolate, orange, molasses. In the cup the mouthfeel is lean to the point of watery, with aromatics so delicate they almost don't register: orange, molasses, pipe tobacco, and nut-like notes that hint at chocolate. Impressively clean, sweet finish.
Opens well: Very sweet-toned, deep aroma with a hint of mustiness that merely complicates a tight-knit, delicate complexity: cedar, semi-sweet chocolate, dry berry, orange. In the cup remains sweet, but the musty character dominates, narrowing the aromatics toward a sort of rough, cedary chocolate. Rather tight, salty finish.
Pure, balanced, quietly complete. Sweet-toned, deep aroma with rounded fruit notes, butter, milk chocolate, a hint of flowers and lemon. In the cup rich acidity, silky mouthfeel and continued understated milk chocolate, butter and tart-cherry coffee-fruit notes. Sweet, consistent finish.
A grandly classic coffee, very sweet and deep in the aroma, with berry- and cherry-toned fruit and a balancing hint of crisp lemon and cedar. The cup is dominated by a full, lush acidity: gently tart yet almost sugary sweet. The dry berry and cherry notes persist in the rich finish.
In the aroma delicately complex: berries, flowers, sweet lemon, honey. In the cup opulent: syrupy mouthfeel, sweet acidity, crisply powerful berry notes, continued hints of honey and flowers. Only a rich but simple finish prevents this coffee from rating in the high 90s.
Lushly sweet cherry-brandy and chocolate-toned aroma with hints of cedar and banana. Continued hints of buttery-textured tropical fruit in the cup supporting continued rich, grapey brandy and cherryish chocolate notes that turn toward blueberry as the cup cools. The complex fruit persists in the finish, though shadowed by a slight salty astringency.
An extreme dark roast that preserves impressive depth and complexity. Intense, deeply pungent aroma: toast, smoky cedar, rosemary, lemon notes. In the cup, medium body, smooth mouthfeel, sweetly roasty, with continued hints of lemon and herb and a smoky semi-sweet chocolate. In the finish rich sweetness upstages a hint of heavy astringency.
Very sweet-toned aroma, intense though simple: hints of potato, orange and nut. As straight espresso medium body but syrupy mouthfeel with a smoothly pungent character and a quiet complexity: molasses, orange, nut and a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Full, deep, slightly salty finish. In milk displays a rich semi-sweet chocolate, but a bit light on sweetness and presence.
