LATEST REVIEWS

This blend expresses the usual bitter-but-sweet paradox of dark-roast coffees with particular intensity. The sweetness is almost sugary and the burned bitterness dramatically sharp. Not much range, development or weight, but the cup does offer a pleasant tickle of fruit and lavender. The bitterness outlasts the sweetness in the aftertaste.

Overwhelmingly musty. If you don 't understand musty, imagine the smell (or taste) of old shoes at the bottom of a damp closet. The mustiness is haloed with sweetness when the cup is hot, but as the coffee cools nothing remains except mustiness: flat and oppressive.

The aroma is faint and faintly sweet. The cup displays a pruny fruitiness that plays peek-a-boo with a distinctly unpleasant rubbery taste. In the finish the sweetness prevails, though barely.

I 'd call this heavy-bodied coffee rich if there was anything to be rich. The aroma is pleasantly sweet, but the cup displays -- quite literally -- no flavor whatsoever, only primary taste sensation, a sort of heavy emptiness with insinuations of bitterness and sweetness.

Sweet yet dryly bright, lightly acidy with shimmers of wine and flowers. As the coffee cools the grace notes settle toward chocolate. Not much body, dimension or staying power, but a lively, balanced cup.

A subdued cup, but pleasantly balanced with pungent and sweet tones that together read as prunes, dried fruit or, in a bit of a stretch, chocolate.

Low-toned but solid, with a nice balance of understated acidy tones and sweetness. Some muted dry fruit notes contribute a throaty murmur in the background. Lacks intensity and range, but sound, round and satisfying.

Floral, sweet, high-toned and as giddy as a field of flowers, with some pungent richness and substance underneath. Ramps down toward clean cocoa tones in the finish.

A pleasant, if slight, hazelnut sweetness hovers in the aroma. The cup is vaguely sweet but essentially tasteless except for a hint of pungency probably deriving from hard or musty blend components.

Absolutely neutral. I kept telling myself that I had to be tasting something, but I couldn 't say what: a vague heaviness with a hint of sweetness, perhaps.

When hot, understated but pleasantly sweet, with a hint of spicy fruit complicating the mildly burned, pungent tones. The aftertaste is unyieldingly bitter, however, and when the cup cools the coffee lands on the palate with a flat, unrelieved, carbon-toned thud.

Remarkably sweet, and rather heavy-bodied. The sweetness here is purely a taste sensation, however. No fruity or other aromatic nuances complicate it. The only intrigue is provided by a hint of hardness or mustiness.

An understated dark-roast profile: distinctly bitter, but with a hint of elevating sweetness and an elegant little shimmer of fruit and flowers.

A very clean, bright version of the fruity Yemen cup: the wine tones are rich and smooth, with only a hint of sweet ferment near the finish. Surprising floral notes at the top and a long, clean, sweet, chocolate-toned aftertaste.

Pungently rich and round in the nose. In the cup the signature hard mustiness is balanced by sweetness, particularly in the finish.

The cup is redolent with the fresh, sweet perfume of clay. Slightly musty tones give a dry, pungent edge to aroma and aftertaste, framing the sweetness in the cup.

Smooth, subtle, and above all, sweet. Buoyantly soft rather than bright or brisk, with sweet nut tones in the aroma and sweet chocolate in the finish.

Metaphor fails. This is a coffee that refers to nothing except what it is: a superb coffee, grand yet elegant, dry yet sweet, balanced, full-bodied, complete.

Rich, deep, intense, with the dry fruit robustness of a cabernet and the tartly sweet black currant notes so cherished by lovers of Kenya. In the finish swoons into a ringing, almost sugary sweetness.

Animated by an almost effervescently dry, winy fruit elevated by hints of flowers. Sweetens slightly in the shimmers of the fruity finish.