LATEST REVIEWS

Almost sugary sweet throughout the profile. Flowers and cedar in the aroma; the floral notes give way to a more pungent, tomatoey fruit and hints of cocoa in the cup. The sweetness carries straight into a rich short finish, fading to a mild astringency in the long.

A strikingly distinctive coffee that suffers a bit in the finish. Splendid aroma: sweetly and deeply pungent, with floral, chocolate and pipe tobacco notes. In the cup low-toned but vibrant acidity, crisply nut-like with distinct orange notes. The nut notes turn very slightly stiff and dusty in the finish.

More Sumatra than Java: pungent, sweet earth notes dominate with distinct chocolate and tomato leanings. The earthy chocolate notes carry into a sweet short finish, slightly astringent long.

A wonderfully sweet coffee whose lush character is balanced (or opposed) by a sharply musty earthiness. Taken together these tendencies read as a pungent citrus, grapefruit perhaps. Full body, very syrupy mouthfeel. Rich and very sweet in the short finish; in the long the musty tones introduce a mild astringency.

A delicate - perhaps overly so - coffee that nevertheless rewards attentiveness to its subtle, complex aromatics: floral tones and a pungent note suggesting the fresh odor of tomato vines, with background suggestions of cocoa and white wine. A heavy astringency lurks in the mouthfeel that unfortunately dominates in the long finish as the heady aromatics fade.

A quiet coffee. A subtle aromatic complex runs pleasantly through the profile from aroma through cup, so subtle it's hard to pin down with specific associations: milk chocolate and banana I wrote for the aroma; switched to butterscotch for the cup, with a stiffening hint of walnut. The acidity is gently lively; the finish surprisingly rich given the quietness of the cup.

Deep, rich, opulently sweet-toned aroma: cedar, hints of honey and orange. Heavy body and robustly rough mouthfeel in the cup, with a pungently earthy character that reads persuasively as a sort of dry but raisin-toned chocolate. The rich depth extends to the short finish, though astringency nags in the long.

Sweet-toned, mildly pungent aroma: cedar, molasses, a hint of milk chocolate. Very sweet in the cup and very delicate, with wispy walnut and continued milk chocolate notes. Surprisingly robust persistence of sweetness and flavor in the short finish; some astringency in the long.

An extreme version of the traditional musty/earthy coffees of Indonesia, with the musty notes so intense that they seem to push the profile into a realm completely outside ordinary expectations associated with coffee. The earthy mildew character is sharply pungent but sweet throughout, with associations with other pungently sweet sensations, like grapefruit and the fresh smell of tomato vine.

Sweet, rich, deep, pungently juicy aroma: cedar, oranges, banana, a hint of flowers. In the cup lean-bodied with a brightly pungent acidity, intensified floral notes, and a cocoa-chocolate cast to the fruit. The slightly dominating acidity softens in the finish, allowing the juicy orange and banana notes to bloom in a long, complex finale.

Sweet-toned, deep aroma with gingery cedar and banana- and cherry-toned fruit notes and a hint of lemon at the top. In the cup big bodied, softly acidy, with very sweet, pungent fruit notes - grapefruit perhaps, and a spicy cedar. This deeply complex, quite attractive 90+ profile was marred by one bad cup: rubbery herb notes. I decided not to push down the rating too severely, given the originality and charm of the other four cups.

The aroma is shifting, complex: sweet, smoky candied fruit suggests lemon drop at one moment, butterscotch the next; hints of flowers, fresh-fallen wet leaves, even milk chocolate. The influence of the sweet musty/earthy notes on the tart fruit becomes more explicit in the rich, gently pungent cup, reading as a sort of earthy lemon and fresh leather. Medium-bodied, syrupy mouthfeel. Sweetly rich finish.

A simple but sweet, deeply resonant coffee with a big, smooth body and chocolate-toned fruit notes that read as a round, banana-inclined milk chocolate in the aroma. In the cup the chocolate turns toward cocoa and the fruit toward a gently tart, cherryish coffee fruit. Rich, straightforward finish with a very slight hint of astringency.

Superb aroma: Richly and deeply fruity with floral top notes. In the small cup leanish but smooth mouthfeel, salty sweet, crisp, deeply cedary, with an apricot-toned semi-sweet chocolate. Rich but slightly astringent finish. Masters milk with dry power but without opulence.

Sweet-toned, deeply pungent aroma with cedar and butter notes and a suggestion of bittersweet chocolate. In the cup rather lean-bodied, delicately and cleanly roasty, but with limited nuance: butter, hints of chocolate and flowers. The chocolate implicit throughout the profile emerges with surprising and pleasing clarity in the finish, outlasting even a slight astringency.

The ultra-dark roast turns mouthfeel lean, but spares us astringency and leaves us with a gently pungent, delicately rich cup with a shimmer of cardamom-toned spice and scorched cedar complication.

A quiet but interesting coffee: soft, low-toned, with hints of cedar, warm spice, chocolate, and a low-acid fruit that suggests banana. The chocolate notes become more explicit in the impressively long, resonant finish.

A deeply floral-toned coffee. The floral tones are rich and rose-like in both aroma and cup, with caramelly, almost custard-like support and hints of cedar and cocoa. The finish is sweet, deep and long.

Delicate, gently bright coffee with distinct, cedar-toned dry berry notes (the kind often called black currant) carrying from aroma to cup, support by cocoa, orange (perhaps better, tangerine) and floral nuance. The body is rather light, but the mouthfeel is gently lively, almost effervescent. Clean, rich finish with impressive flavor persistence, particularly of the orange/cocoa notes.

A powerful, fruitily complex, syrupy-bodied espresso. Candied fruit and distinct chocolate in the aroma. In the small cup heavy bodied; cedar and orangy fruit notes dominate, with a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. At its best in milk, where it is rich, smooth-bodied and balanced, while maintaining a remarkable complexity and a distinct chocolate and spicy orange fruit character.