Africa Reviews

Intensely floral and cherry-toned aroma with rounding hints of chocolate and pipe tobacco. In the cup balanced acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel, and almost sugary berry-toned sweetness, balanced by a crisp, slightly vegetal dry edge, think cacao or (if you know it) tamarind. Long, opulently rich finish.

Flowers and tropical fruit in the sweet-toned aroma. For co-taster Heather Perry (88), "Floral notes turned to orange, berry, spice and cocoa, complex yet balanced and sweet" in the small cup. Ken (91) agreed. However, Heather found the shot in milk "very rough" whereas Ken liked it: "sweet, balanced, with a banana-toned chocolate."

Both Ken (89) and co-taster Heather Perry (87) admired the aroma: "creamy berry" for Heather, "bananaish fruit with floral top notes" for Ken. But for both the mouthfeel was a bit lean in the small cup and the flavor a bit sharp, though Ken admired the continued floral notes. For both tasters the profile smoothed in the long finish, with a sweet flavor persistence that suggested chocolate for Ken, "blackberry pie" for Heather. Heather found it lost sweetness in milk but Ken was pleased, finding it crisp with "true chocolate" notes.

Symphonically rich coffee of extraordinary elegance. Crisp dry berry notes of the kind often characterized as black currant, orange, nut, dusk flowers run through the profile from aroma to cup. Powerful acidity enveloped in sweetness, lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The black currant notes in particular carry into a long, pure, sweet-toned finish.

A quiet but distinctive Ethiopia wet-processed profile. Distinct orange blossom and honeyed orange notes in the aroma, with hints of nut and caramel. In the cup delicate, balanced acidity, silky mouthfeel, continued honeyed orange and orange blossom with a balancing, slightly pungent nut note, walnut perhaps. Sweet, flavor saturated finish. The cup stiffens and simplifies slightly as it cools.

Intense aroma: ripe, fallen fruit, flowers, flowering grass, honey, pungent cedar. In the cup fruit-deepened acidity, syrupy mouthfeel, roundly sweet with a mild, balancing bitterness and tremendous aromatic complexity: honey, night flowers, and above all a brandyish, fruity chocolate that carries deep into the finish.

Grand-gestured, complete coffee. Intense, rose-like floral notes dominate the aroma, with lush honey, molasses and coffee fruit. In the cup the mouthfeel has honeyish depth, the acidity is sweetly powerful, the flavor dominated by tart berry notes both dryly austere yet utterly and voluptuously juicy, complicated by continued honey, molasses and flowers. Smooth, balanced, flower-saturated finish.

Delicate, gently exotic, complex profile: faintly smoky in aroma and cup, with cocoa, cedar, floral and caramel notes. Lightly syrupy in mouthfeel and bittersweet in structure. The short finish is sweetly cocoa-toned; the long gently astringent.

This coffee declares its essential Yirgacheffe character immediately: perfumy and pungently menthol-toned in the aroma, shimmering with floral and lemon notes. The aromatic drama carries without loss or simplification into a gently bright cup, light-bodied but silky in mouthfeel. The finish is thinnish but long, sweet, and flower-saturated.

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.

Crisp, intense, yet sweetly lyric coffee. In both aroma and cup black currant, blackberry, orange, cherry; in the cup hints of cocoaish chocolate and merlot-like red wine as well. Long, sweet finish just on the rich side of astringent.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (94): "Intensely fragrant: strawberry, kiwi, cherry, amaretto. The cup is powerful, well-structured and dynamic, [progressively revealing] a whole universe of fruit flavor. Only a lingering sharp astringency, perhaps a side effect of he same process that developed the incredible range of flavors ..., limits this coffee from near perfection." Ken (92) found the lavish aroma and rich acidity particularly impressive, but like Miguel he found a slight nagging astringency in the finish, a shadow to this coffee's monumental yet seductive aromatics.

Miguel Meza (94) found only purity and ripeness in this opulent coffee; Ken (92) was impressed as well but felt just slightly let down by a limiting simplicity once past the aroma. Miguel Meza: "Vibrant, pure and ripe ... Creamy mouthfeel with vanilla-like floral notes. Full and balanced with a juicy acidity that hints of peach, orange and berries in the long, clean finish." Ken (92) admired the ripe, lush aroma every bit as much as Miguel for its "true dark chocolate, mint, floral and berry" notes, but observed that once past the aroma the cup simplified despite remaining "rich and berry-toned." Miguel and Ken diverged most strongly over the finish, where Ken detected a shadow astringency amid the memories of aromatic complexity where Miguel found only clean flavor.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (89) was rather faint in his praise of this coffee, finding a "floral and tropical citrus" character he associates with the more familiar washed or wet-processed Ethiopia profile, with added "chocolate and berry" nuance derived from dry-processing. Ken (91) wrestles with the detail a bit more, admiring a wine or brandy nuance to the chocolate and berry character, which he finds "lush but crisp."

Both co-cupper Miguel Meza (88) and Ken (89) agreed that this coffee was low-toned, but for Ken it displayed a quietly resonant depth whereas apparently for Miguel it was simply quiet. Miguel found chocolate and citrus in the aroma, Ken chocolate and a distinct ginger note. Miguel read "blueberry, over-ripe fruit and toast" in the crisply fruity cup, Ken dry chocolate, brandy, blueberries, apricot, flowers. Both noted a persistence of berryish fruit in an otherwise rather thinnish finish.

The aroma is very deep and sweet-toned with lush references to banana, coconut, dusk flowers. In the cup the acidity is extraordinarily rich and round-toned, the mouthfeel supple, the nuance opulent with coconut, red wine, chocolate and floral notes. Rich, long, flavor-saturated finish.

In the aroma deep, sweet, with exhilarating floral top notes and a fruit ferment that reads persuasively as raisiny chocolate with a hint of cedar. In the full-bodied cup the dark, raisin-toned chocolate and the floral notes sustain, while the pungent tendencies in the aroma intensify, contributing a cedary, herby, rather salty character to the profile. The fine aromatics regain the upper hand in the floral- and chocolate-toned finish.

In the aroma pungent black cherry and berry notes with lush undercurrents of orange and honey. The cedary berry notes carry richly into the cup with a continued sweet envelopment of orange and honey. Deep, long finish.

Very sweet-toned aroma with distinct floral and fresh coffee fruit notes. In the cup sustains its sweetness with a delicate intensity and continued floral and fresh coffee fruit (tart cherry) notes that carry into a long, richly bright finish.

Floral-toned, intense aroma dominated by the elegantly crisp, dry berry note coffee tasters are fond of calling black currant. In the cup richly acidy. The black currant note softens toward cherry under the influence of a sweet, deeply honeyed richness. The black currant revives in the flavor-saturated finish.