LATEST REVIEWS

Either pleasantly subdued or disappointingly flat, depending on expectation. Roasty and mildly bittersweet, complicated by slight dry, brisk cocoa notes and perhaps some spice tones. The best of the four Perus submitted for this cupping.

Clear, sweet ferment tones are turned cherryish chocolate by the darkish roast. Clean, bittersweet chocolate finish. The winy ferment tones, giddy and buoyant when the cup is hot, flatten just a bit as the cup cools.

Lovely, floral top notes float on a sturdy bittersweet structure. Gently bright, light- to medium-bodied. The finish leans toward the bitter side.

Musty tones are softened by sweetness, and read variously as spicy, smoky, and dryly fruity in the cup, then hint at cocoa in the finish.

The aggressive roast agreeably dominates the coffee here. A delicate, floral-toned, buoyant sweetness sings over a pungently charred center. The sweetness fades and the charred tones dominate in the finish.

Rich, sweet, with a gentle lift from the acidity, complicated by pronounced chocolate fruit tones (think chocolate-covered cherries). The body reads as bigger than it is owing to the general richness of the cup. Not much range or complexity, but a fundamentally pleasing cup.

A richly expansive, deeply dimensioned coffee, caramelly, smooth, with an elegant balance of slightly bitter roasty notes, sweetness, and a gently fruity acidity.

A full-bodied, richly acidy morning blend laced with dry fruit tones. A slight astringency haunts the cup, masked by rich aromatics when the cup is hot, but a bit puckerish as the coffee cools.

The virtue here is a round and gentle sweetness, the weakness simplicity. The sweetness fades a bit in the finish.

A breakfast blend with a good deal of character but little balance or coherence. The sweet front end with its pleasingly exotic edge of floral notes and ferment-toned fruit (Ethiopia Harrars?) is precariously supported by a smoky, pungent dark-roast bottom. Eventually, however, the roasty bitterness prevails in a rather severe finish.

A pleasingly balanced American cup. Nut and vanilla tones shimmer in the nose and a comfortable sweetness predominates in the cup, lifted by a discreet acidity. Bitter undertones confer authority to the cup but tend to dominate in the rather flat aftertaste.

Here the whole is more than the parts. A balanced structure of sweetness and bitterness and a plump, smooth body compensate for a relative lack of nuance. For some coffee drinkers, the bitterness may assert itself a bit too strongly in the aftertaste.

The clean nut-like notes and undertone of spice are unusual for a moderately dark-roasted coffee like this one. The body is impressively full, the finish roasty and pungent with a mild but pleasing bitterness.

Powered by the earthy, slightly musty, forest-floor notes of (I assume) Sulawesi or Sumatra coffees, with an added touch of acidy brightness and sweetness. The earthy notes hint pleasantly at chocolate. Marred by a slight metallic note as the cup cools.

Complex and exotic, this moderately dark-roasted blend sits sharply but sweetly on the palate. Floral notes and faintly ferment-toned fruit complicate the cup, but both nuance and sweetness fade in the finish, leaving behind a roasty bitterness some coffee drinkers may find pleasingly pungent, others a touch overbearing.

An impressively full-bodied and deeply dimensioned darker-roasted blend. Richly spicy, bitter but round, with a hint of dry, prune-like fruit. The spice and prune tones complicate the bitter but rich finish.

The rich, grapey, slightly fermented fruit taste Guatemalans call avinatado or winyness dominates the profile of this medium-dark-roasted blend, together with the intensely and fleetingly sweet innuendoes we associate with dusk flowers like jasmine or honeysuckle. The finish is sweet, almost juicy.

Smooth, balanced, with excellent range, from floral top notes through a bright, juicy, acidy middle to a roasty, bitterish bottom. The most impressive aspect of this coffee is its pleasing natural sweetness, which persists from aroma through cup to light-footed but authoritative finish.

A classic American breakfast coffee: intensely and brightly acidy but juicily sweet, deeply dimensioned, with meadowy hints of flowers that deepen toward fruit in the finish. As the finish fades, we 're left again with a shimmer of flowers.

A splendidly pure, clear, ringing profile, with a sweet floral acidity some jurors compared to the great Kenya coffees. A hint of deeper, pruny fruit gave the profile ballast and authority. My initial score almost perfectly matched the collective score, but as the cup cooled it seemed to simplify and to allow the acidity to dominate. Hence my mildly dissenting score.