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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.
Gritty, smoky, low-toned and ponderous. Some sweetness peers out from under the rather bitter heaviness.
Balanced but subdued. Acidy brightness and hints of fruit and chocolate are dampened by a bitter pungency. For the patient, a hint of lavender in the finish.
Pleasantly dry, brisk, slightly pungent, with an intriguing twist to the fruit -- spice perhaps, cocoa definitely.
Rich, grapy fruit lifts off pleasantly from a smoke-toned, rather sharply bitter base. Wonderful aspiration in this blend, but to my palate the bitterness contradicts rather than complements the luxury of the fruit.
Medium bodied but light-footed; smooth, sweet, and buoyant with exhilarating lemon and chocolate tones. A slight pungency balances the cup.
Light-footed but discreetly smooth, almost creamy, with a lovely balance of acidy and sweet tones. Hints of fruit turn cocoaish toward the finish. Limited but elegant.
Powerfully, richly, uncompromisingly acidy. Some cocoa or chocolate tones in the finish, but otherwise simply big, dry, and robust.
Subdued, low-toned, smooth, full, round. Very little at the top of the profile, but a rich, fat fruitiness in the middle. Giddy suggestions of guava darkened toward cocoa and cherry as the cup cooled.
The smoky tones are sweet and floral in the nose, but rather sharply pungent in the demitasse, where the flowers transform to pruny dry fruit with a hint of burned tones. Excellent in milk, which softens and sweetens the sharpness.
The demitasse confirms the bag copy: This is an intense blend. Intensely sweet, but even more intensely bitter; a strong gesture but a simple one. Softens and rounds a bit in milk, but maintains its bitter edge.
Superb aroma: rich, sweet, opulent with cocoa, flowers, and vanilla. A touch disappointing in the demitasse, however; the body is rather lean and the flavor acidy and sharp. But the sharpness rounds beautifully in milk with a lovely balance of dry cocoa tones and sweetness.
A balanced, straightforward West-Coast American espresso. In the demitasse bittersweet with a slant toward the bitter side, complicated by brisk cocoa tones. Medium-bodied but smooth. The cocoa tones turn agreeably fruity in milk, where the shot softens without losing character.
This espresso, dominated by a musty flavor, showed best at a rather quick extraction, which encouraged the mustiness to read as crisply effervescent, exhilaratingly spicy cocoa. Extremely heavy body and rich crema. Carries very well in milk.
Clean, elegant, balanced. Fragrant with toast, nut, and caramel notes in aroma, suave in body. The straightforward balance of bitter and sweet tones in the demitasse is complicated by the slightest edge of floral acidity and dry fruit. Light, bright and sweet in milk.
The aroma is clean and high-toned with innuendo of fresh leather. The demitasse is complex but controlled, with a classic balance of sweetness and bitterness embellished by cocoa and nut notes and a crisp shimmer of acidity. In discreet amounts of milk seductive with caramel and cocoa tones.
Impressive complexity: high, sweet notes, caramel in the middle, crisp, edge-of-burned tones, a touch of floral acidity. Excellent body. Pungent, bitter tones propose sugar for the demitasse, but give this blend tremendous staying power in milk, where it blossoms with little loss of range or complexity.
The rather aggressive roast drives off nuance and sweetness, but the cup stays on the pleasantly pungent side of charred. A twist of acidity, some flowers and a hint of dry, pruny fruit survive the roast.
The essence of brisk: a light, bright, acidy cup. Dry tones dominate the sweet undercurrents. A shimmer of flowers, a wisp of smoke, a hint of tart, winey fruit. Pleasant but thinly dimensioned.
A coffee that requires patience. The aroma is rather flat, the cup smoothly full but inert. A pleasant chocolate sensation surprises in the finish, however, and the aftertaste is sweet, rich and long.
Agreeably balances roast pungency and classic high-grown acidity. The roast rounds the acidity and turns the fruit richly dry.
