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Nut, prune, cedar and citrus, perhaps grapefruit, in the rich, low-toned aroma. Very sweet in the cup, pungent, with continued walnut and citrus notes and suggestions of earth or moist leaves. Everything settles toward chocolate in the rich finish. The cup roughens very slightly as it cools.

A sweet fruit ferment contributes to an intense aromatic complexity that carries from nose to cup: Spicy, rose-like flowers, honey, blueberry, ripe peach, a hint of chocolate. The finish is rich and blueberry-toned, but cup and finish both stiffen just a bit as the coffee cools, revealing a hint of heavy astringency.

Orange, raisiny chocolate, and pungent herbal notes in the aroma. Delicate in the cup, with continued orange-chocolate and pungent herb notes. Slightly bitter in the short finish, but smoothes out and sweetens nicely in the long.

Hints of banana-toned fruit, chocolate, fresh-baked bread in the complex but rather listless aroma. Thin though silky mouthfeel. Pungent, gently burned cedar character in the cup, with floral and caramelly chocolate suggestions. Nicely malty finish, but a hint of burned building rubber.

Roses, milk chocolate and a hint of aromatic wood in the aroma. Crisp and richly delicate in the cup, with continued hints of aromatic wood, spicy rose and a sweet chocolate. The finish is simple but clean and rich.

In the aroma richly pungent with low-toned, rather subdued nuance: hints of banana, cedar, date perhaps. In the cup quiet, balanced, bittersweet, with faint whispers of nutmeg, raw date, butter, aromatic wood, all persisting into the rich finish.

Both Ken (92) and co-cupper Danny O'Neill (90) admired this coffee's classic completeness. "Smooth body ...Clean, fruity and well-balanced ...the whole package" for Danny. Ken was particularly impressed by the cup's "lushly sweet" acidity and complexity that for him suggested caramel, chocolate, molasses and a hint of flowers at the top. Ken was sufficiently impressed by the virtues of the cup to overlook a very slight astringency in the long finish.

Co-cupper Danny O'Neill and Ken both admired this coffee's sweet floral- and chocolate-toned aroma, cleanly bright (Danny) acidity and silky body. Danny (89) cited its quintessential balance, Ken (90) a "delicate, restrained giddiness" animated by floral, apple and pear notes.

Co-cupper Danny O'Neill read "rich chocolaty pudding" in the superb aroma. Ken's reading was more conventional though just as positive: flowers, oranges, chocolate, cherry. Both admired the complex fruity character of the cup: "bouquet of fruity melon and apple" for Danny (88); "tart but rich cherry, hints of plum and orange" for Ken (91). "Finishes clean with lingering hints of late summer" (Danny).

Complex aromatics: flowers, pear, hints of brandy and cherry in the aroma. In the cup delicately acidy, roundly supple in mouthfeel, with a continued complex fruit that co-cupper Danny O'Neill (87) read as sweet raisin and Ken (more elaborately at 91) as dried cherry, fresh pear, brandy and flowers. Rich though surprisingly short-lived finish.

Superb aroma: "sultry and exotic" for co-cupper Danny O'Neill; "richly complex" for Ken, with "milk chocolate, sweet tomato, apricot and cedar" notes. Both Danny (87) and Ken (88) admired the quiet complexity and balance of the cup; "gently bittersweet and chocolaty" for Ken, "dark and smoky" for Danny. Both noted a slight hardening of the cup as it cooled.

An exciting coffee that disappoints in the finish. Ken (88) was more forgiving than co-cupper Danny O'Neill (83), who sums up: "Bright and clean in the nose, this coffee's lusciously thick and smooth body rounds its slightly fruity, almost wine-like, acidity. Sweet honey and fruit flavors become sharp and ... astringent in the long finish." Perhaps the dry-processed Ethiopias in this blend are last year's crop, with their explosive aromatics too faded to compensate for an underlying mildly astringent structure.

Both co-cupper Danny O'Neill (85) and Ken (87) read foresty notes in the aroma: "fresh greenery and earth" for Danny, "cacao and tree bark" for Ken. The cup was both balanced and quite complex, with fruit notes ("cherry toned" for Ken, "ripe apple and berry" for Danny) combining with continued forest notes that suggested dried flowers or herbs.

A sweet musty character that can read anywhere from malty chocolate to damp basement depending on context and cupper animated this blend. Co-cupper Danny O'Neill (86) was more positive than Ken (83), citing "the sweet chocolaty aroma of fresh brownies" in the aroma and "a delicate balance of mild acidity and smooth buttery body" in the cup with "lingering fruity nuances" in the finish. Ken felt the cup was fundamentally sweet and rather rich, but objected to a "woody, baggy" character nuanced by only "the barest hints of raisins and chocolate" in the cup.

Both co-cupper Danny O'Neill (83) and Ken (87) admired an aroma that was "sweet and spicy" for Danny, "rich, deep and sweetly smoky" for Ken. For Danny the cup was "muddled" and woody, for Ken slightly astringent in structure but nevertheless pleasantly bittersweet with a rich cocoa character that strengthened as the coffee cooled.

Co-cupper Danny O'Neill calls this coffee "a solid cup, well-balanced ... fruity up the middle" (84). Ken found it balanced as well, though he reads the fruit as "a dry, fruit-toned chocolate that wants to be rich but is a bit too lean and simple" (85). Both were disappointed by a mildly astringent finish.

The attraction of this coffee is a structure both powerful and elegant: richly and roundly acidy, with silky-verging-on-syrupy mouthfeel, fundamental sweetness, and ringing depth of sensation. The wispy hints of chocolate, cherry and cedar are a bonus. Reader Mike Venditto's nomination of a Counter Culture coffee was not available, so we substituted this rather similar Bolivia.

Simple but classically appealing coffee. High-toned, sweetly spicy aroma with tight-knit suggestions of flowers, chocolate and sweet tomato that amplify in the richly acidy cup. The finish stays on the roundly hearty side of astringent.

Opulently complex aroma: cherry, blueberry, dry semi-sweet chocolate, brandy. In the cup very sweet, gently rich; the chocolate grows rounder and more distinct with continued blueberry and brandy complication. The rich, dry brandy notes dominate a slight astringency in the finish.

The aroma is intense and complex: cherry, blueberry, brandy, chocolate, with an underlying edge of pungently spicy cedar. All carry richly into the cup with an excitement a bit too edgy for elegance. A slight shadow of astringency lurking in the cup emerges clearly in the long finish.