Indonesian Reviews

Delicate apple, leather, and milk chocolate notes in the sweet, mid-toned aroma. The cup is explicit in its clear chocolate notes, complicated by dry fruit tones that suggest raisins or dates. Substantial body and a sweet, clean finish.

Opens with a very sweet, very intense but balanced aroma complicated by apples and flowers. In the cup the gentle acidity subordinates itself to a melodic sweetness and a rich, deeply dimensioned chocolate- and apple-toned fruit. Lyric and seductive.

The aroma is high-toned but pungent, laced with caramel, cantaloupe and leather. In the cup a sweet, wine-toned fruit leads, with richly malty, bracingly bitter tones opening up behind. The bitterness dissolves in the long, clean, chocolate-toned finish.

Crisp, wine- and cherry-toned fruit dominate in both aroma and cup. A delicate mustiness reads as leather and sweet pipe tobacco. The rather heavy finish lightens and sweetens as the cup cools.

This coffee provides about half the virtue of a great Sumatra: the full body and low-toned profile are here, but the vibrant dimension and complex nuance are missing. The cup is a bit monotoned and heavy rather than rich. Some bittersweet chocolate in the finish.

Exquisitely balanced cup. Delicately acidy and sweet with clean, high-toned fruit that nods gently at chocolate. Restrained yet complex; precious. Green buyer Carl Leonard finds this coffee "exhibits all the best attributes [that this] origin should deliver."

Reader Ben Anderson calls this coffee "fantastic." That familiar adjectivefreshens up when applied to Sulawesi coffees, whose unexpected forest and fruit notes often doseem to express a sort of adventurous coffee fantasy. When hot, this Sulawesi displayed a richcup with a fine balance of acidity, sweetness and roastiness plus - the Sulawesi factor - carnally rich fruit notes reminiscent of cantaloupe. I started with a rating of over 90, but as the cup cooleda slight salty astringency in the finish lowered my assessment.

Lindsey Bolger: "A coffee with some interesting twists and turns. While dominated by a less desirable woody flavor, a sweet and chocolaty aroma and clean finish redeems what may be an otherwise ordinary coffee" (82). Ken: "Bittersweet, with dry chocolate and nut tones. A little too bitter and not quite sweet enough for me. The finish is astringent but rich." (83)

Lindsey Bolger: "Fantastic! Sweet, floral aroma accented with cinnamon and just a suggestion of earthiness. Cools to a sweet and clean display of balance and harmony" (88). Ken read Lindsey's "earthiness" as a touch of musty ferment, but he nevertheless liked the way the ferment worked in the darkish roast, describing the outcome as "pungent, bittersweet fruit that suggests dark chocolate with a little mild, brandy-like ferment." Like Lindsey, he was impressed with how elegantly the coffee cooled, to a "long, sweet, clean chocolate finish" (90).

Lindsey Bolger: "Intense aroma of fresh-from-oven brownies. Flavors of dark chocolate and sweet caramel compliment the rather dark roast. I added points to acknowledge the roaster's skill in pairing the roast so appropriately to the coffee" (85). Ken also was impressed by the aroma: "richly low-toned, chocolaty, malty, spicy, complex. In the cup gently roasty, complicated by dry fruit and malt notes. A slightly astringent finish lowered my score" (84).

Lindsey Bolger: "One of my favorites of the darker roasts in the cupping, largely owing to an aromatic note that always gets my attention. I describe it as "zatar," a mix of spices (sumac, thyme, marjoram and salt) used in Middle Eastern cooking. An odd pairing with coffee, but at the right roast and with other complementary flavors, it can contribute to a truly distinctive cup" (83). Ken: "Most cups were dominated by sweetly and pleasantly fermented tones, the kind that suggest wine- or fruit-toned chocolate. In other cups, additional smoky, spicy tones edged toward a soapy bitterness" (84)

A typical shape-shifting Sumatra that gives us something different in every cup. Lindsey Bolger: "Characteristic of a Sumatra prone to schizophrenia, with multiple personalities ranging from toasted grains and nuts to chocolate and spice. This confusing, sometimes combative complexity seems to improve and stabilize as the coffee cools" (82). Ken: "Some cups rich, sweet, fruity chocolate with an utterly clean finish; others still sweetly chocolaty but with leathery, spicy undertones and a heavy finish" (84).

John: "Light bodied, simple profile. Slightly earthy, good looking roast. Nice cover with little inside" (80). Ken also notes the thinnish mouthfeel and light body, but finds the flavor contrasts interesting and worth rewarding: "Sharply burned yet sweet and fruity. Dry chocolate in the finish" (83)

The darkish roast turns the fruit tones dry and crisply grapefruity. Some charred and perhaps musty notes, but when juxtaposed with the sweet fruit they read as a sort of pleasantly burned chocolate.

Masterpiece of understated balance and completeness: sweetly acidy with a slight edge of crisp roastiness. Some chocolate-toned fruit, but the main appeal of this coffee is its resounding depth and flawless balance of roast and coffee. The finish is as long, rich and quietly complex as any I can remember.

Superb range: delicate floral top notes, sweet cherryish middle, bitter, muskily animal bottom. A full but subtle sweetness prevails in the cup, a rich bitterness in the aftertaste. As exotic and complex as a gamelon performance.

A superb Sulawesi: rich, big-bodied but smooth, with a shimmer of acidity animating its heart. Elegant balance of bitter and sweet tones, fine range from middle to bottom of the profile, a hint of flowers, and deep, dry plum-wine fruitiness.

Rich, sweet and clean throughout, with a chewy fullness and a tickle of acidity in the cup, an excellent balance of sweetness and bitterness in underlying structure, and a gentle fade toward chocolate in aftertaste.

A hint of cinnamon in the nose and cocoa in the finish, but the main pleasure here is the underlying structure: low-toned, rich, dry, balanced, and opulently, almost meatily, full-bodied.

Very low-toned, smooth, with a dry, fruity bittersweetness that, with slow drinking, settles toward chocolate. A slight, musty astringency shows up in the aftertaste, but the pleasantly pruny bittersweetness prevails.