Dark Roasts Reviews

Intense, simple aroma: sweet scorched wood, hint of dark chocolate. More complex in the cup: nut and dark chocolate dominate, with a distinct herb note, somewhere between rosemary and peppermint. Smooth, sweet finish, only slightly heavy in the long.

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule to produce a 6-ounce serving size): Delicate, gently exotic, faintly smoky, with cocoa, cedar, floral and caramel notes in both aroma and cup. Lightly syrupy and bittersweet in structure. The short finish is sweet and cocoa-toned, the long mildly astringent.

Simple, roasty aroma, with smoke, toast, butter, cedar, a hint of bananaish fruit. In the cup heavily astringent but rich and sweet-toned with gently scorched cedar and dark chocolate notes and a surprising hint of night flowers. The rich sweetness dominates the astringency in the finish.

Intense, deep aroma: distinct dark chocolate, spicy cedar and hints of orange and nut. In the cup low in acidity but rather astringent, with a rich, attractive cocoaish chocolate. Both chocolate and astringency carry into the finish, where the shadow nut tones turn (to my palate) slightly cloying.

Evaluated as espresso. As a drip coffee fell quite short of 80. As espresso revealed some virtues. In the aroma sweet-toned with distinct chocolate and butter notes. In the small cup medium bodied, round-toned and sweet, with earth, aromatic wood and herbal notes (I read fennel) and hints of nut and chocolate. The finish was simple in the short and mildly astringent in the long. Surprisingly disappointing in milk: leanish in mouthfeel with banana and chocolate in front but a slight though disturbing note toward the finish that for me suggested salted meat.

The ultra-dark roast turns mouthfeel lean, but spares us astringency and leaves us with a gently pungent, delicately rich cup with a shimmer of cardamom-toned spice and scorched cedar complication.

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Sweet, round, toasty caramel aroma with a hint of flowers. In the cup very balanced: sweet, toasty, rich, with a hint of green apply tartness and pruny fruit edging toward chocolate. Sweet and rich in the short finish; turns slightly woody in the long.

Intense, deeply rich aroma dominated by cedar notes with hints of plum or prune that lean toward semi-sweet chocolate. In the cup smooth and substantial in mouthfeel, powerful and balanced, but limited in nuance. Like the cup, the finish is structurally impressive (rich, clean) but simple.

For both Ken (81) and co-taster Ted Lingle (79) the aroma was muted and burned. Ted found the body in the small cup light; Ken (81) found it fuller but rough in mouthfeel. Nor did Ken or Ted have much positive to say about flavor: pungent and rough for Ted, burned and sharp for Ken. In milk pleasantly sweet but thin-bodied for Ted; Ken was more positive here, finding that the milk smoothed out the sharply roasty character of the coffee, turning it toward a pleasing fresh leather and a clove-toned spice. The reader who nominated this blend found it "exceptional, that's all."

A coffee seen from the far end of the taste telescope, intriguing but shrunk and diminished. The aroma is lushly sweet with a hint of grapefruit. The cup is sweet as well, but complicated only by an agreeable but simple acidity. Once past the aroma little nuance of any kind. Slightly astringent in the finish.

The roast turns the fruit high-toned and dryly pungent: cedar and spice in the aroma, sweet grapefruit in the cup. As the cup cools the fruit softens toward pear. Fine balance of sweet and dry tones in the cup, though the finish is rather heavily astringent.

The balanced dark roast is so tactful that even some acidity survives. Shimmering inside the dominant roastiness are tantalizing shimmers of flowers, a gentle, generalized fruit, and rounded citrus notes, grapefruit perhaps. A slight astringency in the long, rich finish reduced the rating for me, but other coffee drinkers may find this sensation bracing.

A dark-roast presentation with a splendid aroma: intense, crisply dry and fruity. In the cup, however, the roast dominates, though patient drinkers will feel a sweet, lush fruitiness behind the roasty bitterness. The halo of fruit persists in the cleanly roasty finish.

Medium-bodied but smooth, sweet, chocolaty, with a glint of dry acidity to animate the sweetness. The roast taste is backgrounded and unobtrusive, wrapped in the chocolate-toned sweetness.

When hot, understated but pleasantly sweet, with a hint of spicy fruit complicating the mildly burned, pungent tones. The aftertaste is unyieldingly bitter, however, and when the cup cools the coffee lands on the palate with a flat, unrelieved, carbon-toned thud.

Just enough sweetness to make the smoky, burned tones bittersweet and cocoa-like rather than simply bitter. And just enough lightness and lift to keep the burned tones from smothering the palate.

This blend expresses the usual bitter-but-sweet paradox of dark-roast coffees with particular intensity. The sweetness is almost sugary and the burned bitterness dramatically sharp. Not much range, development or weight, but the cup does offer a pleasant tickle of fruit and lavender. The bitterness outlasts the sweetness in the aftertaste.

Dry acidy tones combine nicely with a restrained roasty pungency. Good, deep dimension, but little sweetness to support the deeply tart fruit notes.

A big-bodied darkish blend with hints of sweet fruit that doesn 't quite get off the ground. The heart of the coffee remains sweet and full but rather inert. Perhaps best in the long aftertaste, when the sweet tones are freed of the gritty encumbrances of body and texture.

A dry but lively dark roast with a nutty, spicy twist at its pungently roasty heart. Rather light, roast-attenuated body, but the finish is buoyant, almost effervescent, with a subliminal hint of chocolate.