LATEST REVIEWS

Simple but deeply rich aroma, with a distinct raisin/prune complication. The cup displays a gentle acidity wrapped in a deep, fundamental sweetness, with muted notes of dusk-blooming flowers, papaya, caramel, raisins. Simple but long, clean finish.

Richly and deeply roasty in the aroma with some fruit complication - fresh plum perhaps. The roast gently dominates in the cup, bittersweet, with undercurrents of fresh plum and hints of chocolate and flowers. Richly roasty in the short finish, slightly astringent in the long.

Smoothly pungent, roasty presentation. Cedar, prune and raisin notes contribute to a pleasingly complex aroma, but the roast dominates the aromatics in the cup, relieved mainly by subtle but distinct floral top notes. Astringent though rich in the short finish, floral-toned in the long.

A potentially fine coffee compromised by mild mildew tones probably picked up during storage. The aroma is flat, potatoey and faded. In the cup, however, sweet, lushly winy tones compete with the musty hardness, a combination that some coffee drinkers may find attractive. The finish is rich and clean.

Complex but balanced. The acidity is sweet and winy, the body medium but round in mouthfeel, the general impression delicate but rich. Milk chocolate, fruit (lemon, apricot, papaya) and a slight cedar pungency run through the profile from aroma to the pleasingly light-footed finish.

This unusually light roasted Sumatra is very sweet and richly high-toned, and exceptional in its lush but delicate expression of the natural character of coffee fruit and flower. The fruit suggests cherry leaning toward unsweetened chocolate, but those who have visited coffee farms will recognize it as the taste of the coffee fruit itself, with shimmers of jasmine-like coffee flower. The short finish is cherryish and rich, though the long leaves us with just the slightest hint of astringency.

Powerful and complex. Extraordinary aroma: spice, a fresh, nostril-tingling cedar, low-toned tropical fruit, bananas perhaps. In the cup a tingle of sweet acidity, more cedar, and fruit that turns sweetly and richly tart - grapefruit, tamarind. Memories of this complexity persist in the finish, softening a mild astringency. Reader Amy Bowser nominated this coffee, calling it "clean but with huge depth and character."

Deeply and opulently sweet, big-bodied, with a bracing, bitter edge of spice, herb and cedar. The cup reveals undercurrents of wine-toned fruit. The short finish is rich, the long leaves us with a slight astringent saltiness.

Delicately rich and comfortably round, dominated by a winy ferment that reads as spice, mango, chocolate and cedar in the aroma, cocoa and spice in the cup. Rich finish with only the slightest tickle of astringency.

Lushly high-toned, remarkably complex aroma: flowers (tea-rose?), temperate fruit (pear perhaps), milk chocolate. Slumps toward a lower-key bittersweet character in the cup with only occasional glimpses of chocolate, but the giddy floral top notes persist. Slightly shallow finish.

In the aroma cedar, spice, papaya, and a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Delicate in the cup, with very sweet citrus notes, pink grapefruit perhaps, and a distinct cedar character with a continuing hint of chocolate. Rather heavy finish for such a light-footed coffee.

Rich, low-key, smoky, with an agreeably mild musty ferment that reads in aroma and cup as raisins and semi-sweet chocolate. In the aroma complex, in the cup balanced but a bit simple; surprisingly clean, soft finish.

At its best in the aroma: rich, deep, smoky, cedary, with undercurrents of sweet dark chocolate. Crisply bittersweet in the cup, with rich, slightly charred cedar and hints of spice-toned cherry. Sweet and chocolaty in the short finish, though rather sharply astringent in the long.

Agreeably dominated by the roast. Deeply and gently charred cedar in aroma and cup, with hints of low-key fruit ? banana or papaya ? and chocolate. The astringency in the finish is nicely wrapped in a rich memory of fruit and chocolate.

Agreeable but a bit lazy in the aroma: spice, cedar, with the barest hint of apricot-toned chocolate. In the cup sweet, balanced gently rich, still dominated by cedar and smoke, but the chocolate-toned fruit, barely perceptible in the aroma, opens and blooms nicely.

Muted aroma with roasty pine and spice notes and a hint of low-key fruit. Delicate in the cup, with distinct and explicit spice notes ? cinnamon, nutmeg perhaps, with a continuing hint of apricot-toned fruit.

Intensely musty, aka "earthy." In the aroma, the musty tones read as a sort of ripe apricot rolled in earth and chocolate, but in the cup the mustiness flattens, simplifies, and dominates before softening slightly in the rather salty finish.

In the aroma low-toned, with cedar and papaya notes leaning toward chocolate. In the small cup the body is heavy with a pleasantly rough mouthfeel, the flavor rich with continuing suggestions of cedar and papaya-toned chocolate. The short finish maintains the chocolaty richness, but the long concludes with a hint of saltiness and astringency. The generally heavy profile softens nicely in milk while maintaining a pleasing depth and power, though the woody cedar tones seem to hinder the chocolate from fully sweetening and blooming.

Delicate but deeply dimensioned aroma: distinct milk chocolate, hints of aromatic cedar and low-toned, temperate fruit: peach, perhaps, or apricot. Almost sugary sweet in the cup, light-bodied, with a tight-knit complexity centered on peach- or cherry-toned milk chocolate. The finish is short but refreshing.

A coffee that demonstrates the virtue of a dash of cleanly and sweetly fermented fruit taste in a blend. The aroma is low-toned and caramelly, with smoky and raisiny chocolate suggestions. The cup is roundly rich with a tingle of fermented fruit that reads as a raisin- or brandied-cherry-toned chocolate.