Blind Assessment

Intense, dynamic, richly sweet-savory. Passionfruit jam, baker’s chocolate, aromatic orchid, sandalwood, almond in aroma and cup. Bright, sweetly tart in structure; full, velvety mouthfeel. The resonant finish is crisply sweet, with layers of complex fruit and floral notes in the short, consolidating to baker’s chocolate and almond in the long.

Notes

Produced by smallholding farmers from trees of the Ruiru 11, Batian, SL28 and SL34 varieties of Arabica. Despite grower discontent and urban encroachment on prime coffee lands, Kenya continues to produce some of the world’s most elegant and distinctive coffees. This particular sample consists entirely of peaberries, a kind of bean that results when the coffee fruit develops only a single, oval bean rather than the usual pair of flat-sided beans. Peaberries produce a somewhat different (often better) cup than normal beans from the same crop, from which they may or may not be separated during grading. Speckled Ax is a roaster based in Portland, Maine, specializing in high-quality certified organic and small-lot coffees. The company roasts in a vintage wood-fired Petroncini roaster with the goal of highlighting each coffee’s best attributes. Visit www.speckledax.com for more information.

Bottom Line

A classic Kenya cup: richly sweet-savory, with a complex array of fruit, floral, chocolate and aromatic wood notes at its intense and inviting heart.

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