LATEST REVIEWS

Lush, sweetly overripe Harrar fruit notes are shadowed by salty and bitter tones. Dry chocolate in the finish.

This very dark-roasted coffee reveals almost nothing about the potentially interesting green coffee itself except its ability to stand up to a severe degree of roast and still taste quite agreeable. The profile is roasty and charred, but pleasantly free of bitterness and haloed by sweetness.

"Bright, acidy, but luxuriously sweet -- high-toned, citrusy fruit suggests grapefruit. Slightly astringent in the finish but richly so (rating 88)." Chris really liked this coffee, awarding it a rating of 96: "Started things off right with a mouthwatering floral and citrus aroma. Very much the lone wolf of the cupping owing to its winey Yirgacheffe/Kenya character."

Ken's favorite in the cupping: "Superb balance of dry and sweet tones. Crisp fruit notes suggest temperate fruit, perhaps pears. Slight but not entirely unpleasant bitterness in the finish" (rating 90). Chris: "The other stand-alone in the cupping, owing to its medium-intensity East-Africa-style acidity. Begins with suggestions of mandarin orange and dips toward a floral wine finish" (rating 89).

Both Ken and Chris find the aromatics and body of this dark roast impressive but the finish distracting. Ken: "Superb aroma, intense, sweet dark-roast character with shimmers of tart grapefruit and milk chocolate. The roast taste pleasantly dominates in the cup but turns charred in the finish" (rating 84). Chris: "Opens with nutty, caramel candy; smooth body in the cup. Cools to a touch of earthy, metallic flavor" (rating 87).

Issues of roast rather than green coffee dominated reactions to this dark roast, with Ken leaning to the critical side and Chris to the positive. Ken: "Impressively full-bodied, but bitterly monotoned and heavy rather than round" (rating 83). Chris acknowledges that "most of the [attractive] India sweet pepper flavor has been roasted out of this one. However," he continues, "it deserves merit for a skillful roast that brings out sweet creamy coconut tones without contributing a smoky flavor" (rating 86).

Ken: "Round, balanced, quietly agreeable. A subdued roastiness is nicely enveloped in gently sweet fruit tones" (rating 86). Chris also appreciates the sweet, round fruit, but objects to the notes Ken calls roasty, condemning them as "woody": "Fragrant honey butter with a hint of a citric bite. However, the sweet creamy character gets lost in the woody nut tones of the finish" (rating 83).

Ken: "Fine balance of sweet, acidy and roasty tones, with a hint of flowers and bittersweet chocolate. The balance breaks up a bit in the rather bitter finish" (rating 86). Chris: "Slight pipe tobacco sweetness in the aroma. Smooth, fresh milk chocolate flavor with a hint of sweet jalapeno" (rating 84).

Ken admires this coffee's "almost chewy dry chocolate or cocoa notes" and its "sweet, rich balance and well-integrated acidity," though he had reservations centering on "a slight flatly potatoey, bitter mustiness" (rating 85). Chris finds a positive and colorful way of describing the sample's unorthodox aromatics: "Impressive variety of aroma in the cup, from honey baked bread to a sweet green-pepper spice, which caught me off guard at first. Finishes with smooth banana-muffin-like notes" (rating 84).

Ken admires this blend's "rich, powerful, low-toned acidity, fullish body, and dry chocolate nuance," but is distracted by "a hint of bitter peanut tones and a cloying background flatness" (rating 86). Chris is both more specific -- "dark roast beans blended with very light roast, which hides the borderline past-crop flavor" -- and more metaphoric: "This coffee is hanging on for dear life with a shot of sweet wine adrenaline" (rating 82).

Considerable disagreement surfaced between Ken and Chris over this blend's odd character contributed by seldom-used coffees like India Monsooned Malabar and wet-processed robusta. Ken rather defiantly settled on a rating of 85, admiring what he called the blend's "sweet, complexly opulent nose and odd, overripe apricot and bittersweet chocolate notes" but admitting he found its "background musty tones disturbing." Chris (rating 77) didn't buy into the exotic character at all, concluding that the musty (his term is "earthy") tones dominated: "Off the mark, it strides toward a nutty baked bread aroma. The body and acidity tire down to earthy notes midway, but regain some sweet strength in the aftertaste."

Masterpiece of understated balance and completeness: sweetly acidy with a slight edge of crisp roastiness. Some chocolate-toned fruit, but the main appeal of this coffee is its resounding depth and flawless balance of roast and coffee. The finish is as long, rich and quietly complex as any I can remember.

Sweet floral and lemon tones shimmer above rather bitterly pungent bottom notes. The combination of juicy sweetness and pungent bitterness nets a sensation almost pineapple-like in its bracing contradiction. The pungent bottom notes, always present in Sidamos, are heavier than usual here, perhaps owing to the vicissitudes of decaffeination, though they settle and soften as the cup cools.

This extreme light-roasted coffee displays the nutty, brisk character of light to medium roasts, but adds an impressive sweetness and richness that less skillfully executed light roasts fail to deliver. Intensely but sweetly acidy; chocolate and nut notes in the aroma, dry fruit and pipe tobacco in the finish.

Wonderfully robust balance of sweet, roasty, and roundly acidy tones, with sweetness in the ascendancy. Some fruity complication, but the main appeal is pure, classic Latin-America coffee expression. The dark roast rounds and sweetens the acidity but leaves little bitterness behind.

Dryly acidy but sweet, expansively fruity, distinctly floral. A crisp roastiness turns the fruit toward chocolate. Only a very slight bitter astringency mars this otherwise luxuriously exotic cup.

Rich, almost disconcertingly distinct peanut tones dominate from aroma to finish. Supporting sweetness turns the peanut character agreeably fruity and chocolaty in the cup.

Intense, rich, straightforward. The aroma is deep-toned bittersweet chocolate with a slight roasty edge. Simplifies in the cup, perhaps under the impact of the roast, but expands again in the finish, with chocolate and hints of flowers.

Simple in terms of nuance but splendid structure: rich and pleasing balance of sweet and roasty tones with a pleasant shimmer of acidity and suggestions of citrus and pineapple. The roast tones are rather heavily bitter when the cup is hot, but soften and round beautifully as it cools.

Rich, round and balanced, with a sweetly understated acidity. Not a lot of nuance, but a hint of mustiness reads as an agreeably peppery chocolate. The finish is smooth, clean and long.