Dark Reviews

Willem found this sample of the Starbucks staple blend "balanced throughout with no major high [positive] or low [negative] notes in aroma, flavor and aftertaste. [In the demitasse] some sweetness with a bitter end note. With milk, sweet, spicy, [with] a mild, pungent aftertaste." (85) Ken was less impressed. For him the aroma was "smoky, sweet and subdued," the body lean, the small cup "smoky and simple." He was most taken with this ubiquitous blend's impact in milk: "sweetens and rounds, prune fruit softens toward chocolate in the finish." (83)

Ken found this espresso matched its name: A straightforwardly roasty, simple espresso of the kind pumped out of roadside espresso carts and kiosks all over the Northwest: "Dark-roasted with a smoky bite and a low-toned papaya-like fruit that turns vaguely chocolate in the finish. Smoky and a little flat in milk." (84) Willem, however, acknowledges only the negative side of the aggressive roast with its limited range: "Burned, dull aroma with unpleasant carbony and cardboard flavor." (78)

Richly melodic coffee in which wine and apple notes carry from aroma through cup to finish. A tactful dark roast preserves a shimmer of acidity in the cup while contributing a slight herbal twist to the dominating apple-cider-like notes.

In the aroma explosively sweet and exquisitely balanced, with chocolate and a gently gingery spice. In the cup complex and wide in range: roasty, pungent, with a tickle of lemony sweet acidity and a hint of musty earth. An underlying astringent heaviness weighs slightly on the finish.

Sweetly balanced and gently roasty. Little distinguishable nuance, though the cup is pleasantly alive with an almost subliminal range of fruity sensation. Slight astringency in the finish.

In the aroma roasty, sweet, slightly burned, complicated by a prune-toned fruit just on the dry side of chocolate. In the cup the chocolate inclination of the fruit clearly declares itself, particularly as the coffee cools. The roasty tones turn a bit astringent in the finish.

A gently roasty, light-bodied blend: sweet, balanced, with fresh leather, grapefruit and sweet herb notes, lemon thyme perhaps. Slightly astringent in the finish.

Straightforward, simple but satisfying dark-roast: cleanly roasty, pleasantly smoky but without burned or excessive bitterness. In cup and finish the roastiness takes on a toasty, campfire chocolate character.

Massively roasty in the aroma: sweetly pungent with a sort of lush bar-b-qued apricot-toned fruit. Less impressive in the cup, where the main impression is simply the roast, heavy and burned but not rubbery. Given the weighty intensity of the roast sensation, surprisingly sweet and rich in the finish, with only a slight astringency.

Cleanly smoky and rather richly roasty, complicated by shimmers of sweetly tart, high-toned fruit - pineapple perhaps.

The aroma doesn't provoke much anticipation: roasty, edge of burned, midtoned, without range or nuance. Softens and complicates in the cup, displaying a pleasantly wine-toned balance of sweet acidity and a discreetly bittersweet roastiness. Simplifies again in the rather sharp finish.

Sweetly roasty in the aroma, thin-bodied and sharply roasty in the cup. Almost disembodied floral top notes float above a bittersweet, prune-toned chocolate.

Roasty, sweet and balanced in the aroma, with shimmers of pineapple. In the cup a light-bodied buoyancy and a continuing tickle of pineapple lifts the dominating sharp, edge-of-burned roastiness. Mildly astringent in the finish.

When hot, a robust, full-bodied dark roast with a pleasantly rough character: chocolate and wine tones in the aroma, in the cup a hint of fruity ferment and musty earth. As the coffee cools, however, the musty earth tones turn bitter and weigh oppressively on the cup.

Sweet, low-key, expansive aroma. In the cup rich and cleanly roasty, with an agreeable bittersweet balance complicated by fresh leather, chocolate and a shimmer of sweet grapefruit. The grapefruit persists in the rich but astringent finish.

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.

A sweet, lyric coffee with remarkable complexity, starting with the aroma -- distinct leather notes, winy fruit, milk chocolate -- to the cup, where the wine tones deepen and take on an almost smoky edge. Clean, sweet, grape-like finish.

The aroma is subdued but complex with leather, chocolate and apricot. In the cup a fine balance of bitter bite and seductive sweetness, complicated by an apricot-almond-toned fruit and a crisp bittersweet chocolate. Medium-bodied, gently rich.

A big-bodied, massively roasty coffee. Intense musty tones read as rosemary, cardamom perhaps, with a shimmer of chocolate. The intense, monumental character fades a bit as the cup cools.

A delicate acidity is gently rounded though not obscured by a marvelously tactful dark roast, which also turns the fruit richly chocolate-toned. The chocolate nuance weaves through the profile consistently from aroma through finish.