Exquisitely balanced cup. Delicately acidy and sweet with clean, high-toned fruit that nods gently at chocolate. Restrained yet complex; precious. Green buyer Carl Leonard finds this coffee "exhibits all the best attributes [that this] origin should deliver."
Deeply, richly acidy, but without any edge unblunted by an enveloping, buffering sweetness. Surprisingly heavy body; a shimmering cocktail of pineapple, pear, citrus and floral notes in the nose. Neighbors green buyer and quality assurance manager Chris Palmer tags these elusive notes "apricot-like ... with a hint of spice."
A sweet Kenya, seductive rather than severe with its balanced acidity and delicate, quietly complex citrus and floral tones.
Intense but balanced acidity, medium body, and tartly sweet fruit notes --berry and citrus -- that soften toward chocolate in the finish. Director of Coffee Geoff Watts praises this coffee's "grace and completeness."
An almost impossibly sweet, smooth dark roast, cleanly roasty, without bitterness. Complex but almost subliminal hints of meaty fruit, apricot perhaps, with patience suggest chocolate.
Powerfully but sweetly acidy, rich, with distinct red wine and cherry tones. Seductive but challenging.
Relatively light roasted but deep toned, with big body, rich, cabernet-like acidity, and a black-cherry fruit that saturates the profile from bottom notes to top. Timothy's Director of Coffee Bill Herne praises its "complex flavor and sweet finish."
Relatively light bodied but intensely dry and richly astringent, with an austere pineapple- and grapefruit-toned fruit. The finish, like the cup, is astringent but exhilarating. Director of Coffee Geoff Watts admires this Kenya's "pristine character" and its "dynamic and elegant acidity."
Rich and dryly acidy with a deep, backgrounded sweetness. Mildly fermented wine tones turn maraschino cherry chocolate in the long, complex finish. The ferment tones contribute splendidly in this blend, which improves as it cools.
A rich, low-key, satisfying cup dominated by an unusual complex of flavor notes associated with coffee from trees of the heirloom Bourbon variety. This is a dry fruit character that suggests wine at one moment, at another tart berries, at another pipe tobacco, at still another a roasty but sweet chocolate. Owner and green buyer Philip Anacker cites its "gentle acidity and distinct flavors."
The balanced dark roast is so tactful that even some acidity survives. Shimmering inside the dominant roastiness are tantalizing shimmers of flowers, a gentle, generalized fruit, and rounded citrus notes, grapefruit perhaps. A slight astringency in the long, rich finish reduced the rating for me, but other coffee drinkers may find this sensation bracing.
The roast nicely develops the clean, classically simple Costa Rica profile, rounding the sweet but authoritative acidity and turning a hint of fruit tartly pineapple-toned. Torreo owner Eric Patrick finds "floral [and] rich Burgundy" notes in this versatile cup.
Sweetly and robustly roasty. Musty tones, probably from the Sulawesi, hover between a sort of spice and a pleasantly dry chocolate, contributing an edge of intrigue to the pleasant balance of roastiness and rounded acidity. Roastmaster Brandon Riggs cites this blend's "tangy brightness and ... smooth body."
Sweet, round, balanced, with a striking complex of aromatics that reads as wine or spicy fruit, figs perhaps. The finish is rich, winy, and slightly astringent.