Central America Reviews
We found 1272 reviews for Central America. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee.
The clean nut-like notes and undertone of spice are unusual for a moderately dark-roasted coffee like this one. The body is impressively full, the finish roasty and pungent with a mild but pleasing bitterness.
Smooth, balanced, with excellent range, from floral top notes through a bright, juicy, acidy middle to a roasty, bitterish bottom. The most impressive aspect of this coffee is its pleasing natural sweetness, which persists from aroma through cup to light-footed but authoritative finish.
Here the whole is more than the parts. A balanced structure of sweetness and bitterness and a plump, smooth body compensate for a relative lack of nuance. For some coffee drinkers, the bitterness may assert itself a bit too strongly in the aftertaste.
A sturdy if simple Latin-American cup: Little nuance but substantial body and bright acidity. High-toned, balanced, clean, direct.
A powerfully understated, slow-developing cup with an acidity enveloped in sweetness, low-toned wine and cherry notes, a silky body, and a long, clear finish. The cup rounded and strengthened impressively as it cooled.
This deeply dimensioned coffee rewarded patience. My initial score was the same as the jury 's, but as the cup cooled I found myself adding points as a slight bitterness dropped away and a seductive fruit- and floral-toned sweetness prevailed.
Elegant rather than authoritative, with a clear, bell-like, but not overpowering acidity, delicate, flower-toned aromatics, and a smooth, sweet finish.
A classic, high-toned, vanilla-laced aroma; in the cup subtle, rich, resonant, with pronounced chocolate tones that carry straight through from cup to finish.
A hint of flowers and perhaps chocolate in the finish were the only complications in this straightforward but sweetly ingratiating cup. The chocolate tones may have revealed a slight twist of sweet ferment as the cup cooled.
Medium bodied but light-footed; smooth, sweet, and buoyant with exhilarating lemon and chocolate tones. A slight pungency balances the cup.
Light-footed but discreetly smooth, almost creamy, with a lovely balance of acidy and sweet tones. Hints of fruit turn cocoaish toward the finish. Limited but elegant.
Powerfully, richly, uncompromisingly acidy. Some cocoa or chocolate tones in the finish, but otherwise simply big, dry, and robust.
Subdued, low-toned, smooth, full, round. Very little at the top of the profile, but a rich, fat fruitiness in the middle. Giddy suggestions of guava darkened toward cocoa and cherry as the cup cooled.
A luxuriously sweet, full, suavely rounded cup enlivened by nut and spice tones and a tickle of flowers. "Rich, saturated butter," exclaimed one panelist. Slightly sharp when hot, but as the cup cools the bitter edge swoons into the enveloping sweetness.
Winner in the 2000 Specialty Coffee Association of Panama Cupping Event. Gently lively acidity rides a full, buttery body toward a splendid, complex, wine-toned finish.
An intensely contradictory coffee. On one hand: full, smooth body, expressively and deeply sweet, long, vibrant finish. On the downside: grassy undertones and an odd edginess to the fruit that grew more obvious as the cup cooled. Some panelists went exclusively with the upside, others only with the down, while a few celebrated the paradox, sometimes in rather unconventional language: "bold, rough, strong -- Neanderthal ancestors," wrote one. One thing is certain: This coffee is considerably more interesting than its rating suggests.
Soft, sweetly brisk, balanced, but edging on bland. "No flaws, but not many grace notes. Good, inoffensive cup," wrote one panelist. "Nice combo of sweet & floral ... just missing intensity," offered another.
The panel put this light-bodied coffee somewhere between bland and defective. Four panelists reported at least one cup of the several they sampled displayed defective aromatics, their descriptions ranging from soapy to beefy to sour. Apparently I was lucky: all of my cups were light-footed but sweetly acidy and agreeable.
Soft, low-key coffee with a twisty undercurrent of dark vegetative notes: wood or grass at worst; at best spice, tobacco or smoke. I found that, as the cup cooled, these notes sweetened pleasantly toward cocoa and cedar.
"Very pleasant, sweet, solid cup -- milk chocolate," reported one panelist. Another pursued the same theme with more enthusiasm: "sweet; soft, creamy, beautiful to behold, subtle yet complete, ... understated." Apparently too understated for the majority of the panelists, who felt the virtues of this coffee stopped with the impressive sweetness.