Cooperative Reviews

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.

A balanced, quietly complete cup. Simple but harmonious aroma: chocolate-toned with a hint of cedar. In the cup gently rich acidity, smooth mouthfeel, muted night flowers, milk chocolate, tart cherry. Resonant finish.

A slight musty fruit ferment serendipitously complicates this richly low-key coffee, reading as cocoa and cedar-toned ripe orange in both aroma and cup. A very slight astringency smoothes out in the long, sweet finish.

A rich and vividly fermented fruit dominates. The cherry-toned ferment is overlaid by a cedary roastiness in the aroma. In the cup the ferment deepens toward a dark chocolate and brandied cherry, but also displays a distracting pine or rosemary pungency. Smoothes out toward a cleanly rich chocolate in the short finish, though slightly astringent in the long.

Low-toned fruit (peach?), semi-sweet chocolate and fresh-cut cedar notes in the aroma. The cup is delicate but lush, enlivened by a softly tart acidity and complicated by continued fruit (cherry, peach) and semi-sweet chocolate notes. The finish is simple but sweetly clean.

The roast dominates the coffee in this extreme dark-roast profile. Intensely but roundly and sweetly charred in the aroma, with a gingery, cedarish complication. The cup is dominated by charred tones that remain just on the pleasantly rich, aromatic cedar side of flat-out burned.

In the aroma richly low-toned: cedar, sweet spice, with a hint of milk chocolate. In the cup the acidity is muted, the flavor sweet with a balancing touch of bitterness, while the milk chocolate blooms opulently. The chocolate persists in the resonant finish.

A balanced, sweet, endearingly simple cup, refreshing and direct without drama or complexity. Low-toned fruit, prune perhaps, and a hint of flowers. Slight astringency in the otherwise long, agreeable finish.

A touch of fruit ferment both pleasantly complicates and slightly mars this interesting coffee. In the cup the ferment turns the acidity pleasantly winy and bends the fruit toward a rich, brandied chocolate with raisin and caramel innuendo. The long finish is marred by a troublesome bitterness, however, probably owing to the same ferment.

Delicately rich in aroma and cup. The clean, elegant fruit suggests peach in the aroma and cherry in the cup, with a little swoon toward chocolate. The refined acidity rounds and sweetens beautifully as the cup cools, deepening toward wine.

A striking and distinctive coffee. Co-cupper Christy Thorns (89) admired its complex aromatics: "dried apricot, orange zest, clove, citronella." Ken (90) found a gingery chocolate and lemon that for him was unusual and surprising, which may be why he was slightly more willing than Christy to forgive a slight, shadow salty cling as the cup cooled.

Co-cupper Christy Thorns reduced her score to 89 for this Kenya because she felt its chocolate and spice inclinations were not characteristic of the origin. Ken started at 88 and stayed there. He had no problem admiring the chocolate-inclining sweet citrus character he read in aroma and cup, but felt that ultimately the cup was a bit too simple for a top rating.

High-toned, sweet, light-footed and delicate, yet rich and deeply dimensioned. Lemon and red-wine notes in the aroma, in the cup red wine, cherry and a shimmer of flowers. Long, complex finish.

The moderately dark-roast style mutes the Kenya fruit and gives it a roasty, tart pineapple twist that softens toward a toasty chocolate in the finish. The darkish roast may transform the Kenya character, but the transformation is quite pleasurable in its own right.

A rather aggressive roast contributes distinct charred notes, but they are richly charred notes, with a leathery twist and a tickle of dry fruit. The astringent finish is pleasantly complicated by dry chocolate.

This very dark-roasted coffee reveals almost nothing about the potentially interesting green coffee itself except its ability to stand up to a severe degree of roast and still taste quite agreeable. The profile is roasty and charred, but pleasantly free of bitterness and haloed by sweetness.

The aggressive dark roast simplifies this naturally sweet, chocolaty coffee and turns it a bit monolithic. A deep-toned, dry, chocolate-nuanced roastiness dominates, relieved by only a tickle of sweetness. The finish is richly bittersweet, but hints at rubber as the cup cools.

Roasty, sweet, and round in the nose. In the cup the roastiness reveals a sharp bitterness, brightened by a hint of floral sweetness that softens toward burned chocolate in the finish. A full body offsets the bitterness.

Deep-toned roasty sweetness in the aroma; in the cup low-toned, rich yet crisp, laced with sweetly roasty nuance: nuts, dried fruit, and a suggestion of round, milky chocolate in the finish.

In the nose sweet, round, full, nutty, with hints of something that could be called spice. In the cup pleasantly light-bodied, high-toned, with an elegant balance of acidity and gentle sweetness. Long, bright but smooth finish.