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.
Delicate, sweet-toned aroma: butter, flowers, the barest hints of chocolate and cedar. In the small cup medium-bodied, smooth in texture, gently and sweetly pungent in flavor with caramel and cedar notes. Simple but deep presence in milk, with pronounced semi-sweet chocolate tones and a clear hint of flowers.
In the aroma distinct semi-sweet chocolate notes and cherryish or raisiny fruit with a lush twist of ferment. Crisp cedar and toast notes complicate the cherry-toned chocolate in the small cup. The fruity chocolate persists in the splendid short finish, though a shadow astringency barely implied in the cup eventually dominates in the long. In milk a slightly lean body is more than made up for by crisp toasted rice notes and a voluptuous, milk-softened version of the fruity-fermented chocolate.
Simple but deep aroma with distinct berry notes - blueberry or blackberry - and a hint of milk chocolate. In the small cup substantial body with a lively, effervescent mouthfeel and toast, cedar and continuing berryish fruit notes. The berry notes persist in the very slightly astringent finish. In milk the berry notes round and soften toward a lush banana-toned chocolate.
Balanced but subdued aroma: smoke, flowers, a hint of peach-toned fruit. In the small cup heavy-bodied with rounded cedar and raisiny fruit notes and hints of flowers, red wine and chocolate. Resonant finish with excellent flavor persistence. Distinct and pleasing milk chocolate presence in milk.
Sweet-toned, round, caramelly aroma with hints of flowers and pears or peach. In the small cup full-bodied with a dominating sweet, cedary pungency complicated by raisiny fruit and dark chocolate with a slight whiff of brandyish ferment. In milk balanced and rich, with continued semi-sweet chocolate, richly grapy ferment and even a surprising resurfacing of flowers.
Roundly delicate aroma: chocolate and caramel notes with suggestions of flowers and ripe tomato. In the cup silky mouthfeel and a classic profile: tart fruitiness enveloped in a giddy sweetness that harbors continued hints of chocolate and flowers. Clean, sweet - almost sugary - finish.
A pungent, sweetly tart, tight-knit complexity - cedar, orange, semi-sweet chocolate - runs through the profile from aroma through the long, rich finish. Magisterial and consistent when hot; stiffens and simplifies just slightly as the cup cools.
Rich aroma: semi-sweet chocolate and suggestions of apple, with floral notes at the top. In the cup rather big-bodied and rich, with continuing distinct floral top notes and a rather dominating, roundly tart acidity that nearly overwhelms but still allows further suggestions of chocolate, ripe tomato, orange and cedar.
Classic aroma: cleanly high-toned, slightly acidy, with flowers, peach, and a hint of milk chocolate. In the cup sweetly and brightly acidy, with continued floral, peach and black currant notes. The flavor drops off in a rather disappointing finish.
Simple, rather subdued aroma: cherry and chocolate notes. In the cup rich, pungent and sweet, but aromatically simple: dried cherries, a hint of chocolate, perhaps suggestions of merlot-like red wine.
High-toned, delicate (almost too) aroma: flowers, caramel, pipe tobacco. A bit sharp and astringent in the cup, but with a richly rounding caramel character and fine floral top notes. The caramel settles toward chocolate in the finish.
Fine aroma: delicate but deep, with milk chocolate, floral and caramelly fruit notes, apple perhaps. In the cup softly acidy, velvety in mouthfeel; the chocolate turns toward sweet cocoa with a richly tart floral twist. Surprisingly long finish, but also surprisingly heavy and even astringent. Cups were slightly uneven with occasional very faint musty fermented suggestions as they cooled, so a rating that started at 90 ended at an ambivalent 87.
Sweetly roasty throughout the profile: fresh-cut cedar and hints of cardamom and flowers in the aroma; in the cup silky in mouthfeel, very sweet, with continuing cedar and intensified floral notes. Slightly astringent, almost turpenny in the long finish.
Fermented fruit contributes to a glorious aroma dominated by a sort of dry, nutty chocolate. In the cup very sweet and floral but also quite astringent, netting a wildly ambiguous profile with intriguing fruit notes too astringent to call chocolate and too explosively fermented to call winy. Unorthodox palates might assign high ratings to this unusual coffee, while purists surely would choke and dismiss it. We compromised at 85 - buyers beware.
A contradictory coffee, with sweetly buoyant flowering grass and vanilla notes shimmering above a pungent heaviness in both aroma and cup. The pungent notes hint at semi-sweet chocolate in the aroma but turn rather bitter in the cup, compromising the continuing agreeable floral character.
Pungent, spicy or perhaps smoky aroma, with caramel notes and a hint of apple. In the cup rather sharply acidy with very distinct caramel notes and not much else. A bright, simple, limited coffee.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): A coffee either pleasingly subtle and delicate or disappointingly subdued and shallow depending on taste and expectation. Caramel, flowers and a hint of smoke or perhaps cinnamon in the aroma. In the cup gently acidy, light-bodied but silky in mouthfeel and mild in flavor, with hints of caramel, cocoa, pear and sweet flowering grass. Very sweet but simple finish.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Mild but complex aroma: distinct caramel notes and hints of butter (perhaps butterscotch), vanilla and chocolate. Gentle, wine-toned acidity and sweet, delicate flavor with grapey red wine and floral notes and a hint of chocolate. Shallow but quietly persistent finish.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Very mild, sweet, smokily cedar-toned aroma. In the cup simple, relatively rich for a K-cup brewed coffee, with dried fruit notes - raisins, cherries - that verge on a dark chocolate. Sweet, mildly astringent finish.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): A complex and rather exotic profile. Round, low-acid fruit (apple?) in the aroma, leaning toward chocolate, with a hint of flowers. In the cup lively, wine-like acidity, with apple, floral, chocolate, nutmeg-like spice notes. Chocolate and apple resurface in the long, quietly rich finish.
