Big Bags from the Big Boxes: Value All-Arabicas from the Discount Chains

In the aroma sweet, intense: molasses, dry berry, butter, earth. In the cup gently acidy, delicate but - again - intense, with continued molasses and cocoa-toned earth notes. A coffee both wild and elegant. Slight heaviness in the finish and slightly uneven cups.

Sweet, crisp, simple with walnut and minty dark chocolate notes in the aroma that consolidate as a distinct, pleasing cocoa in the quietly balanced cup. The long, rich, cocoa-toned finish is particularly impressive.

A low-key but still distinctive cup: crisp, lean-bodied, with sweet blackberry, dry black currant and pungently orange, nut and cedar notes. If it were not for a flavor-dampening undercurrent of wood this would be a 90-point coffee.

Simple, rather shallow aroma but agreeably chocolate- and nut-toned. In the cup low in acidity, syrupy in mouthfeel, sweet-toned with continued nut and crisply cocoaish chocolate notes. In the finish fades rather quickly but on the way out remains cocoaish and rich.

Sweet-toned, softly acidy, dominated by fresh-cut wood notes, with a second wave of sensation suggesting a sort of herb-toned dark chocolate. The chocolate notes carry directly into an impressively sweet, round finish.

Softly bittersweet with molasses and woody nut notes that with imagination could suggest chocolate. Silky to syrupy mouthfeel and a simple, woody but rich finish without distracting astringency. The woody flatness intensifies a bit as the cup cools and the aromatics fade, but still a remarkably balanced and satisfying blend at a remarkably low price.

Intense, roundly balanced aroma with mildly pungent roast character and orange, nut and cedary chocolate notes. In the cup low in acidity, medium in body and agreeable but rather simple aromatically: bittersweet, woody, with only a hint of cedary, perhaps earthy, chocolate. Not a long finish, but sweet and rich.

Low in acidity, with a sweet, mildly fermented fruit that struck me as a bit too cloyingly sweet (banana-ish fruit, cut flowers past their prime) in the aroma, but cleaner and more attractive in the cup (banana, slightly fresher flowers, syrupy mouthfeel) and especially in a rich, fruity, if mildly astringent finish.

Sweet-toned, softly pungent aroma with wood and molasses notes. In the cup syrupy body and very sweet in structure, with continuing distinct molasses notes and some woody underpinnings. In the finish fades almost immediately.

Decent but flawed ultra-dark-roast. Begins well: Roundly and gently charred in the aroma with hints of dark chocolate and butter. In the cup medium body and a simple but richly, buttery charred character with a continued slight suggestion of chocolate. A rather rich astringency in the short finish grows more insistent in the long. As the cup cools the hints of chocolate regrettably give way to hints of rubber.