Exotic Reviews

Intense, heady blueberry and lush, lily-like flowers with deepening suggestions of cedar and brandy in aroma and cup, and a savory hint in the cup. Impressive structure: sweet-toned acidity; full syrupy mouthfeel. The finish is sweet and blueberry-toned with a continuing savory edge.

Achieves a fine balance of chocolate-toned coffee notes with deep, resonant wine-associated notes – grapy fruit, oak – that presumably reflect the influence of the wine-barrel conditioning of the green coffee. The sensory depth and complexity achieved by this interaction takes this coffee far beyond novelty to something quite original and authentic. Balanced, rich acidity; syrupy mouthfeel. The complex flavor if anything deepens in a finish that balances sweetness with a pleasantly drying hint.

Bittersweet, sharply pungent, earthy. Pungent fir, overripe plum, sweet earth that collectively leans toward chocolate in aroma and cup. Heavy, bitter-toned acidity; heavy mouthfeel. The overripe fruit and earth notes hint at chocolate in the short finish, but turn astringent and composty in the long.

Complex, brandy-like fruit. Distinct lychee and ripe grape notes in aroma and cup, rounded with dark chocolate and sandalwood. Roundly bright acidity; full, syrupy mouthfeel. The finish is flavor-saturated and sweet, with a faint clove-like crispness.

Balanced, sweetly crisp. Floral-toned peach and a tart, mandarin orange dominate, rounded by a backgrounded nut-toned chocolate. Brisk, sweet-toned acidity; silky mouthfeel. The chocolate suggestion carries into a clean finish.

Rich, brandy-like fruit dominates the profile: cherry, blueberry, cocoaish dark chocolate in aroma and cup. Round, fruit-influenced acidity; syrupy mouthfeel. Flavor carries richly into the finish, where a very slight over-ripe note emerges as the cup cools.

Sweetly tart, soft, balanced, aromatically complex. Orange, black cherry, black currant in aroma and cup, with a faint, backgrounded hint of milk chocolate. Rich, wine-like acidity, lightish body but silky mouthfeel. Sweet, full finish with considerable flavor persistence.

Crisply balanced, fresh and meadowy. Honey, flowers, fresh-cut fir, molasses leaning toward chocolate in aroma and cup. Rich acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Deep, molassesy finish with a continued hint of flowers.

Dominated by a woody note, but an engaging, quietly spicy woody note reminiscent perhaps of sassafras tea, complicated by hints of dark chocolate and a banana-like low-acid fruit. Soft, round acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Rich in the short finish, fades a bit in the long.

"An absolutely mind-blowing coffee" for co-cupper Andy Newbom (93). "Utterly pure yet soaringly intense," for Ken (97). "Say fruit ten times," Andy reports, and then he does, mainly variations of grapefruit, apricot and melon with green apple and Bartlett pear thrown in for the finish. For Ken that entire nuance is wrapped up in the extraordinary, singular explosion of cedary, pungently sweet berry, the quintessential Bourbon character. The acidity is enveloped in sweetness; in Andy's colorful language it "startles and snuggles all at once." For mouthfeel Andy suggests "crème fraîche Meyer lemon chiffon"; Ken sticks with a pedestrian "syrupy." Ken awarded a perfect 10 to the long, balanced, deeply flavor-saturated finish.

Intense, low-toned aroma with semi-sweet chocolate, crisp nut (walnut?) and hints of cedar and clay. In the cup fullish body, muted acidity, and a continued intense presence with complex chocolate, walnut and earth notes. A rather heavy astringency when the cup is hot softens as it cools.

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.

Extraordinarily sweet-toned, lyrically delicate coffee, softly acidy, with orange, molasses, flowering grass and white wine notes. Clean, sweet, rich finish. Only a slight stiffening in the finish as the coffee cools holds this coffee back from an even higher rating.

A quiet but interesting coffee: soft, low-toned, with hints of cedar, warm spice, chocolate, and a low-acid fruit that suggests banana. The chocolate notes become more explicit in the impressively long, resonant finish.

Lushly high-toned, remarkably complex aroma: flowers (tea-rose?), temperate fruit (pear perhaps), milk chocolate. Slumps toward a lower-key bittersweet character in the cup with only occasional glimpses of chocolate, but the giddy floral top notes persist. Slightly shallow finish.

Superb aroma: rich, deep, pungently chocolate. The chocolate turns more intensely pungent, almost pine-toned in the cup, balanced by sweet, lush undercurrents of fruit.

Complexly fruity and richly floral coffee - papaya, lemon, coffee fruit, hints of dusk-blooming flowers and chocolate, all ride a strong, balanced structure: good body, smooth mouthfeel, supple, sweet acidity.

Very sweet aroma with fresh peach and chocolate mid tones and balancing cedar bottom notes. Delicate in the cup with a gently tart acidity wrapped in a rather giddy sweetness. The fruit notes are cleanly wine-like.

Luxuriously sweet, delicately pungent, with tart but lush tropical fruit notes, tamarind perhaps, running through the profile from aroma to finish. The tamarind fruit notes incline toward a richly raisin-toned chocolate in the long finish.

Sweet and fruity in the aroma with raisin and chocolate complication. In the cup delicate in mouthfeel, tartly sweet, and richly and roundly fruity. Cleanly sweet and rich in the short finish, though a slight but not unpleasurable astringency lingers in the long.