Blend Reviews

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.

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.

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."

"Great crema - best espresso I've ever had," writes Mandy Elion of Pasadena,California, who rates Supreme Bean espressos 90 - 94. This all-organic espresso blend isbalanced, richly and roundly roasty in the demitasse, with undertones of fruity chocolate. Atingle of astringency in the finish is invigorating rather than rough. In small milk comes acrossheavy with fruity chocolate tones; in large milk sweetly and roundly fruity.

Reader Liz Snyder of Newark, Ohio rates this blend 95 - 100 on the basis of an evaluation thatmakes up in enthusiasm for what it may lack in technical detail: "I love [this coffee]. It tastes SOgood." I evaluated the Wiener Melange as espresso. In the demitasse I found it full and round inbody and heavily bittersweet in flavor, complicated by dry chocolate tones. In small milk itremained dry, smoky, chocolaty and rather heavy. In larger milk it came fully into its own,softening but still dominating with fruit- and chocolate-nuanced authority.

Reader "Siehata" nominated a "morning blend" from Seattle's Best Coffee,testifying that SBC "has been a favorite of mine for years. Better than Millstone or even theover-priced burnt Starbucks." I couldn't find a Seattle's Best morning blend, so I pickedSaturday's Blend, figuring that Saturdays have mornings, maybe better mornings than the otherdays of the week. I found it crisply roasty (though most definitely not burned), with pleasantlydry, bittersweet chocolate tones. For me it hit the sweet spot of dark roasted coffees, butdisplayed a limited range of aromatics and a lean body. Perhaps it had sat in its bag too long.

This very dark-roasted blend teeters on the edge of burned, but backs off nicely to stay on the agreeably sweet side of bittersweet. Fruit and fruit-toned chocolate notes, a suggestion of flowers, with only a shadow astringency. The Seattle-based reader who nominated this blend describes it as his (or her) "favorite local coffee. And as I am from Seattle, that's saying something."

Rich, almost disconcertingly distinct peanut tones dominate from aroma to finish. Supporting sweetness turns the peanut character agreeably fruity and chocolaty in the cup.

Simple in terms of nuance but splendid structure: rich and pleasing balance of sweet and roasty tones with a pleasant shimmer of acidity and suggestions of citrus and pineapple. The roast tones are rather heavily bitter when the cup is hot, but soften and round beautifully as it cools.

Rich, round and balanced, with a sweetly understated acidity. Not a lot of nuance, but a hint of mustiness reads as an agreeably peppery chocolate. The finish is smooth, clean and long.

Dark roast in the classic bittersweet style, complicated by delicate floral, dry fruit and pipe tobacco notes. A distracting astringency dampens an otherwise balanced, complex dark-roast cup.

Dryly acidy but sweet, expansively fruity, distinctly floral. A crisp roastiness turns the fruit toward chocolate. Only a very slight bitter astringency mars this otherwise luxuriously exotic cup.

Very soft, round, gentle cup with luxurious chocolate notes and a pleasant hint of sweet fermented fruit.

Fermented, wine-like fruit notes agreeably dominate the small cup, though they are shadowed by bitterness, particularly in the finish. The bitterness turns pleasantly bittersweet in cappuccino-sized milk, and flat-out gloriously sweet and chocolate-fruit-toned in big milk. (86 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

In the small cup intense and rather lean-bodied but richly sweet, complicated by dry fruit notes and shimmers of flowers and chocolate. In milk smooth, sweet and toasty with a lushly chocolate-toned finish. (87 straight espresso, 88 w/milk)

An appealing combination of orange, chocolate, and floral notes shimmer in the small cup, though shadowed by a roasty sharpness. Milk rounds the cup nicely, however, turning the citrus and floral notes into a crisp, toasty chocolate. Fades slightly in big milk. (87 straight espresso, 89 w/milk)

Citrus and floral notes float atop pungent fermented fruit tones in the small cup; nut and chocolate notes complicate the finish. Maintains its leathery, spicy complexity in milk, adding a rounder and softer chocolate finish. 88 straight espresso, 89 w/milk)

Heavy, rich, a touch sharp, but balanced in the small cup, complicated nicely by dry fruit and cocoa. Maintains balance and authority in small milk, where the cocoa sweetens toward a voluptuous hazelnut-toned chocolate. Fades a bit in big milk, though still round and chocolaty. (89 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

Complex and exotic, this moderately dark-roasted blend sits sharply but sweetly on the palate. Floral notes and faintly ferment-toned fruit complicate the cup, but both nuance and sweetness fade in the finish, leaving behind a roasty bitterness some coffee drinkers may find pleasingly pungent, others a touch overbearing.

Impressive complexity: high, sweet notes, caramel in the middle, crisp, edge-of-burned tones, a touch of floral acidity. Excellent body. Pungent, bitter tones propose sugar for the demitasse, but give this blend tremendous staying power in milk, where it blossoms with little loss of range or complexity.