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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.
Although this quietly elegant Brazil didn't attract the sort of raves the highest-rated Guatemala elicited in our July 1997 cupping, it did stimulate admiring comment and the highest rating in the cupping. "Excellent overall. Stands by itself as an estate coffee." "This coffee is the best of the lot." Admiration centered on a smoothly substantial body and a deeply nuanced flavor. Three reviewers identified the grace notes as chocolate, a term that came up only occasionally with other coffees. One even qualified chocolate by category: "bittersweet chocolate, not sweet!" .
We couldn't make up our collective mind about this wet-processed coffee. I found it light and pleasantly bright -- appropriate to a good wet-processed coffee from lower altitudes. Several agreed, finding the acidity fruity and sweet. Others, however, reacted critically to the delicate profile: "Washed ... blah!" exclaimed one. Assessments of body were surprisingly varied, ranging from thin to buttery and full. Finally, two reviewers found flat-out fault with the profile: "dirty," complained one; "baggy" (flat, ropey taste), accused the other.
This coffee was roasted so darkly and probably at such high temperatures that little was left to taste except overwhelming carbon plus a hint of high, singing sweetness that emerged in aroma and finish. The green coffee the roastmaster started with may well have been excellent, but the roast certainly wasn't.
Once again, a rather flat astringency, a sort of strident monotone, dominates the center of the profile, abetted in this case by a touch of carbony sharpness. Some fruit and sweetness, though the grace notes tend toward the tobacco and herb.
Not much in the way of grace notes or fruit, but a very full body and an impressive range and dimension. The finish is rich and deep-toned. Only a trace of Red-Sea wildness from the Yemen.
A clean but slightly oppressive hardness or astringency dampens the fruity Mocha-Java richness. A touch of carbon. The background fruitiness pleasantly hints at chocolate in the finish.
A rather complex dark-roast cup. Clear carbon, but the roast was conducted with enough deliberation to preserve some richness and a touch of sweetness. The most engaging complication was in the dry center of the profile: a pruny, complex pungency that read as chocolate in the aroma. The carbon reasserted itself in the aftertaste.
The strength of this excellent Mocha-Java is in the full, rich body and complex bottom. The low notes remain alive, complicating and deepening through the finish. Not much lift or sweetness at the top, however. The only grace notes I detected were a touch of carbon and some heavy pruniness.
Clean and decisive profile, but a bit too much wallop and not quite enough tickle. Little sweetness or nuance. Some dimension, but a rather hard, winy (not fruity) acidity dominates, sitting on the rest of the profile.
A rather rough ride. The first impression is complex, but not entirely pleasantly so: a hard, ropey sensation sits on the profile. Behind and around the hard center a bracing, fruity richness opens, but we never get completely out from under the hardness, which, among other things, seems to depress the sweetness in the fruit.
One of the most successful Mocha-Javas in the cupping, this one opens with a shiver of rank Red Sea wildness, which almost immediately gives way to a swelling, lyrical fruitiness that persists sweetly and richly through the high-toned finish. A hint of the rankness resurfaces in the aftertaste. The pleasure here is almost entirely in the complex top of the profile; the bottom is a bit weak and underpowered.
Everything happens in the higher registers here, and a lot does. A wonderful, dry/sweet complex, almost effervescent, lifts the heart of this light, bright coffee. An amazing range of grace notes shimmer in the higher registers: dry chocolate, herb, even a suggestion of vanilla in the finish. I had to strain to find a hint of Red Sea gaminess amid all the aromatic action; it may have shown up in the long, subtly complex aftertaste. Hard to believe so much complexity made it through the decaffeination process. Perhaps a good Yemen coffee is so intense that the muting effect of decaffeination actually helps by mellowing it a bit.
Solid, full-bodied dark-roast cup. Carbon tones dominate the sweet side of the dark-roast equation, and only the hints of prune and chocolate relieve the ultimately rather austere profile.
Dominated by a pruny, rather heavy pungency at the heart of the profile, livened by only a faint shimmer of acidity. Not quite enough sweetness to balance the pungency or acidity to brighten it. The grace notes tend toward the dry and herbal.
Bean-size aside, everything in this coffee walks the middle, from the subdued vanilla-nut complex in the aroma, through the clear but unemphatic acidity in the cup, to the clean aftertaste. Unfortunately, no resonance at the bottom of the profile, no shimmers at the top, no development in the finish. Satisfying but limited.
The elements of the dark-roast complex -- sweetness, pungency and carbon -- all work together smoothly here until the aftertaste, when carbon tones linger past any memory of sweetness. Until that moment, this coffee achieves an unassuming dark-roast completeness.
A dark-roast on the dry side. Preserves some of the bright, acidy tones of lighter roasts, balancing them with prune and tobacco in the mid ranges. No carbon, but not much sweetness either. Good range from top to middle of the profile, but short on depth and dimension.
Hints of carbon mar an otherwise expansive profile: Sweet, light nuance at the top with a touch of wine in the acidity; suggestions of dark-roast pungency near the bottom. The complexity fades and carbon dominates in the aftertaste.
A solid, balanced dark-roast profile. A hint of wine-toned acidity, perhaps even some wildness, teases from inside the fundamental dark-roast bittersweetness. Some carbon, but overall good range and structure.
No carbon and lots of sweetness here, smoothing and rounding the dark-roast pungency. A pleasing smokiness turns sweet and ambiguously chocolate in the aftertaste.
