Opens with a very sweet, very intense but balanced aroma complicated by apples and flowers. In the cup the gentle acidity subordinates itself to a melodic sweetness and a rich, deeply dimensioned chocolate- and apple-toned fruit. Lyric and seductive.
REVIEWS FOR:
Fragrance and Weight: Winter Coffees from the Pacific
By Kenneth Davids
December 5th, 2003
The aroma is high-toned but pungent, laced with caramel, cantaloupe and leather. In the cup a sweet, wine-toned fruit leads, with richly malty, bracingly bitter tones opening up behind. The bitterness dissolves in the long, clean, chocolate-toned finish.
A sweet, lyric coffee with remarkable complexity, starting with the aroma -- distinct leather notes, winy fruit, milk chocolate -- to the cup, where the wine tones deepen and take on an almost smoky edge. Clean, sweet, grape-like finish.
Delicate apple, leather, and milk chocolate notes in the sweet, mid-toned aroma. The cup is explicit in its clear chocolate notes, complicated by dry fruit tones that suggest raisins or dates. Substantial body and a sweet, clean finish.
The aroma is subdued but complex with leather, chocolate and apricot. In the cup a fine balance of bitter bite and seductive sweetness, complicated by an apricot-almond-toned fruit and a crisp bittersweet chocolate. Medium-bodied, gently rich.
Cinnamon, pumpkin, chocolate smeared on leather in the aroma. In the cup overripe, lush, half-rotting fruit and carnal melon tones eventually suggest chocolate, which sweetens and rounds in the long, surprisingly clean finish.
Low-key, pungent aroma laced with cocoa and caramel. Sweet in the cup with enveloping bottom notes of overripe fruit and sweet humus. Surprising floral notes in the finish.
Crisp, wine- and cherry-toned fruit dominate in both aroma and cup. A delicate mustiness reads as leather and sweet pipe tobacco. The rather heavy finish lightens and sweetens as the cup cools.
The aroma is subdued and gently roasty. Clear, dry, deep-toned chocolate-fruit notes carry from aroma through cup to a slightly bitter but rich finish.
A big-bodied, massively roasty coffee. Intense musty tones read as rosemary, cardamom perhaps, with a shimmer of chocolate. The intense, monumental character fades a bit as the cup cools.
The sweet musty tones that run from aroma into cup read as distinctly nut-like -- walnuts perhaps -- with an edge of low-toned fruit: pumpkin and papaya. All of that detail fades in the finish, which is long, lush, and sweetly clean.