Top-Rated Coffees (94+ points)

Beautifully structured coffee: rich, tart, wine-toned acidity and syrupy mouthfeel. Ripe lemon, table grape and vanilla-toned nut are expressed with great depth and resonance in aroma and cup. Balanced finish.

Complex and distinctive in aroma and cup: fresh-cut fir, sweet flowers, berry, multidimensioned citrus, cocoa. Intense floral-toned acidity; delicately silky mouthfeel. Flavor persists deep into a smoothly balanced finish.

Very sweet, ripe lemon, rich cocoa, backgrounded lush flowers in aroma and cup. Vivacious acidity and a mouthfeel almost effervescent in its buoyancy and liveliness. Sweet, deep, flavor-saturated finish.

Deeply sweet and deeply pungent with round, complexly rich Kenya fruit: grapefruit, black currant, strawberry, supported by an undercurrent of fresh-cut fir. Ringing, resonant acidity, syrupy mouthfeel, flavor-saturated finish.

Intense and deep yet delicately balanced, saturated from aroma through finish with famous, sweetly tart Kenya black currant sensation, a layering of ripe lemon, honey, fresh-cut fir, blackberry, flowers and, depending on one’s memory bank, probably much more. Gently rich acidity, lightly silky mouthfeel. The black currant note rings on far into the finish.

Intense, complex, inimitably distinctive aromatics and flavor: crisp cocoa, cherryish fruit, brandy, spicy tea rose, fresh pipe tobacco. Rich, fruit-toned acidity; syrupy mouthfeel; long finish with an exquisite balance of dry cocoa and sweet fruit notes.

Evaluated as espresso. Great depth and range of sensation. Between Ken (94) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) about a dozen aroma/flavor descriptors surfaced, most circling around fruit (stone fruit, wine grape, berry) and nut-toned dark chocolate. Medium to full body; silky/syrupy mouthfeel; crisply dry, flavor-saturated finish. Balanced, chocolaty and berryish in two parts milk.

Evaluated as espresso. Co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) and Ken (94) both admired this sample’s refined complexity and chocolate-toned depth. Ken cited crisp fir and lemon complication, whereas Sean’s reading of nuance inclined more toward berry and wine. Both found the sample slightly more impressive in the small cup than in milk, but nevertheless honored its sweet chocolaty balance in two parts milk, nuanced (for Ken) by hints of flowers and lemon.

Evaluated as espresso. Both Ken (94) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) remarked on and enjoyed distinct and subtly unusual roasted nut and fudgy (Sean’s term) chocolate notes in aroma and small cup. Also some fruit complication (orange for Ken, berry for Sean). Medium to full body, smooth mouthfeel, and a superb finish that just keeps coming, carrying subtly transforming flavor notes far into the reaches of sensory memory. Fades just a bit in two parts milk, but remains pleasing and balanced.

Complex and almost giddily sweet-toned. Flowers, crisp black currant, lemon, blackberry, roasted nut carry from aroma to cup. Sweetly tart, refined acidity; light body but very smooth, silky mouthfeel. Resonant, flavor-saturated short finish simplifies just a bit in the long.

Aromatics expand and deepen in subtle but extraordinary flavor and finish: buttery milk chocolate; sweet, lily-like flowers; ripe orange, all resonating in a long, impeccably clean but rich finish. Round, vibrant acidity; syrupy mouthfeel.

Quiet introduction: soft notes of fir, flowers and milk chocolate in the aroma. All of this soars in the cup, intense yet perfectly balanced. The floral notes, which take back seat to the milk chocolate and gently pungent fir in the cup, move forward again in a very sweet, clean finish. Delicately tart acidity, silky mouthfeel.

Big, deep, syrupy. The aroma and flavor express the complexity of the pure coffee fruit: sweetly tart, lemon- and cherry-toned, with a crisp, backgrounded nut and fresh-cut fir, all of which soften in a long, resonant finish.

Deep, intense, pungently fruity aroma; think grapefruit. Rich, balanced acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Continued complexly sweet yet pungent fruit dominates in the cup: grapefruit, lemon, blackberry, black currant. Rich, flavor-saturated finish.

Complex and unusual. Flowers, lemon, cocoaish nut, with a very distinctive pungent, stewed fruit note, sweet yet savory. Rich acidity, syrupy mouthfeel. Long, flavor-saturated finish.

Delicate hints of orange, flowers and roasted nut in the aroma. Gently bright-toned acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel with juicy suggestions of lemon, orange, stone fruit and more flowers with a pungent hint of fresh-cut fir. Superb finish: Long, sweet, complex, fruit-toned.

Bright, balanced, delicate. Tart cherry, peach, black currant, rose-like flowers in aroma and cup. Giddily and sweetly bright acidity; light, silky-textured mouthfeel. Sweet, gently rich finish deeply saturated with flavor.

Delicate, sweet-toned, giddily bright. Honey and rose-like flowers dominate in aroma in cup, with hints of ripe orange and moist pipe tobacco. Fruit-saturated acidity, light but very smooth mouthfeel, richly resonant finish in which the honey and floral notes turn vaguely but pleasingly toward milk chocolate.

Grandly pure and sweetly acidy. Symphonic citrus notes range from ripe orange to tart lemon to pungent bergamot, with a softening hint of flowers and a rounding hint of cocoaish nut. Lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The cocoa note turns decisively chocolate in a richly dry finish.

Depth and syrupy opulence in an extravagant aromatic profile: heavy-scented dusk flowers, rich, almost carnal fruit (apricot, plum, cherry), a brightening hint of lemon, crisp cocoa intensifying toward a resonantly flavor-saturated finish.