Organic Reviews

A quiet but distinctive Ethiopia wet-processed profile. Distinct orange blossom and honeyed orange notes in the aroma, with hints of nut and caramel. In the cup delicate, balanced acidity, silky mouthfeel, continued honeyed orange and orange blossom with a balancing, slightly pungent nut note, walnut perhaps. Sweet, flavor saturated finish. The cup stiffens and simplifies slightly as it cools.

Assessed as espresso. Sweetly wood in the aroma, with a hint of dark chocolate and a savory, almost salty note. The same aromatic complex carries into the cup, though the wood warms toward cedar and the dark chocolate intensifies. Medium to full body. Heavy but sweet finish with a continuing chocolate note. In milk softens and sweetens appropriately but the shadow savory salt note continues to haunt the chocolate.

Sweet-toned and balanced in the aroma, with a slight smoky character and a muted complexity that extends into the cup: raisins, honey, cedar, flowers. In the cup still balanced, slightly tart, delicate. The chocolate persists into the rich, simple finish.

This coffee declares its essential Yirgacheffe character immediately: perfumy and pungently menthol-toned in the aroma, shimmering with floral and lemon notes. The aromatic drama carries without loss or simplification into a gently bright cup, light-bodied but silky in mouthfeel. The finish is thinnish but long, sweet, and flower-saturated.

Quiet aroma with walnut and hints of cedar and dark chocolate. In the cup heavy body with a slightly rough mouthfeel, an almost syrupy sweet structure, and dominating musty/earthy notes that can be read as a sort of robust, walnut-toned dark chocolate. The sweetness carries into a rich, slightly tight, continued walnut-toned finish.

Sweetly balanced in aroma and cup: butter, flowers, orange, dark chocolate. The orangy chocolate notes dominate in the gently acidy, silky-bodied cup. Fine finish: rich, sweet, flavor-saturated. A very slight hint of astringency emerges as the cup cools.

Sweet-toned, delicately complex aroma: flowers, hints of honey, cedar and tart cherry, perhaps chocolate. In the cup very gently acidy, light in body but buoyant and silky in mouthfeel, and giddily floral- and honey-toned with complicating hints of chocolate, tart coffee fruit and Riesling-like white wine. Fades rather quickly in the finish but exquisitely clean with memories of chocolate and flowers. An exceptionally pure and balanced coffee.

The surprise here is how well this blend performs in longer milk drinks. As a straight espresso it is agreeable enough, dominated in the aromatics by low-toned, musty notes that read as a raisiny semi-sweet chocolate or perhaps a spicy, cantaloupe-like fruit. The body is medium to full, the finish simple and rich with a slight astringent edge. The blend exerted a powerful though heavy dark-chocolate presence in short milk, but with more latte-like quantities of milk it bloomed with great sweetness and vivacity.

Both co-cupper Miguel Meza (88) and Ken (89) agreed that this coffee was low-toned, but for Ken it displayed a quietly resonant depth whereas apparently for Miguel it was simply quiet. Miguel found chocolate and citrus in the aroma, Ken chocolate and a distinct ginger note. Miguel read "blueberry, over-ripe fruit and toast" in the crisply fruity cup, Ken dry chocolate, brandy, blueberries, apricot, flowers. Both noted a persistence of berryish fruit in an otherwise rather thinnish finish.

Rather simple aromatically, but sweet-toned, balanced and rich. In the aroma butter, cedar and a hint of white wine. In the cup gentle, deep acidity, round mouthfeel, continued cedar and white wine notes with a hint of flowers.

Soft, gently balanced aroma with muted but deep orange, chocolate and honey notes. In the cup the mouthfeel is round, full and almost chewily present, the flavor dominated by a simple, dense, cherry-toned chocolate.

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.

Soft aroma with a quiet, tightly-knit complexity: cocoa, cedar, hints of honey and melon. In the cup light-bodied, delicate, with sustaining hints of honey, cocoa, sweet flowering grass. Short but clean, honeyed finish.

Deep, sweet-toned aroma with cedar and muted hints of flowers, orange and semi-sweet chocolate. In the cup softly acidy, rather full-bodied, with continued hints of flowers and orange- and peach-toned fruit. Rich finish.

A lucidly pure, deeply sweet coffee. In aroma and cup lavish floral notes and gently tart coffee fruit complicate molasses and honey tones that sail with gentle voluptuousness into a long finish.

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.

Very sweet-toned aroma, intense though simple: hints of potato, orange and nut. As straight espresso medium body but syrupy mouthfeel with a smoothly pungent character and a quiet complexity: molasses, orange, nut and a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Full, deep, slightly salty finish. In milk displays a rich semi-sweet chocolate, but a bit light on sweetness and presence.

Very rich aroma: tartly sweet, round-toned, with cherry- and orange-toned fruit. In the cup syrupy mouthfeel, sweet, with continued orangy fruit and a hint of moist leaves.

(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a serving size of 6 ounces): Rather subdued aroma, caramelly, with hints of flowers and chocolate. In the cup medium-bodied but silky in mouthfeel, simple and bittersweet, with distant hints of flowers, walnut, chocolate perhaps. Simple, rich, rather short finish.

Very sweet, almost sugary, with raisiny fruit notes and hints of orange and chocolate carrying with rich stateliness from aroma to cup. Syrupy body, deep, resonant finish.