South America Reviews

Sweet-toned aroma with delicate floral-, cherry- and chocolate-toned fruit notes. In the cup more striking for its superb body and balanced structure than for its agreeable but limited nuance, a dry cherry-chocolate. The long, deep finish stays just on the rich side of astringent.

Intense aroma vivid with tart cherry notes and hints of chocolate and tomato. Big, giddily sweet acidity with continued pie cherry notes with a lush lean toward chocolate. Very slightly astringent in the long finish.

A deep, spicy floral character - dusk flowers, tea rose - leads in aroma and cup, supported by low-acid fruit notes - peach, cherry - and hints of milk chocolate and leather. The acidity is deep-toned and round, the finish rich and clean.

Cherry notes dominate in the very sweet-toned, pungently acidy aroma. Relatively light-bodied in the cup, but sweetly and buoyantly acidy, with striking and complex aromatic notes: cherry, tea rose, Meyer Lemon, orange, honey. Honey in particular persists in the rich, sweet, though slightly astringent finish.

Very deep, resonant aroma, with distinct floral and cherry-toned coffee fruit notes, buttery chocolate, and a slight, bracing suggestion of fresh-cut cedar. In the cup giddily and sweetly acidy, with continued clear, intense floral notes and a Chardonnay-like fruit. A hint of butter and, as the cup cools, ripe tomato. The cleanly rich finish stiffens just slightly as the cup cools.

Flowers dominate in the lush, buttery, apple- and cherry-toned aroma. Gently and sweetly acidy in the cup, light-bodied, delicately rich, with more giddy floral notes, a sweet, orangy citrus, and an underlying roundly chocolaty fruit. Richly delicate finish.

Pure yet extravagant notes of coffee fruit and flowers themselves carry with breathtaking simplicity from aroma into the sweetly acidy cup. I don't recall having experienced the taste of the coffee fruit (think sweetly tart cherries) and the voluptuous scent of the coffee flower (jasmine) so distinctly and so intensely. The slightly astringent finish and turn toward ripe tomato as the cup cools reveals that, at this writing, the coffee is perhaps a bit young, but drink it now because tomorrow it will be out the roaster door. Nominated by reader Herman Reichold who calls it "one of - if not the - best coffees I have had the pleasure to drink."

Lushly complex but delicate aroma, alive with floral and low-acid fruit notes: apple perhaps, even banana, leaning toward chocolate. In the cup displays a simplifying sharpness when hot, but softens and sweetens as the cup cools. The seductively low-acid fruit notes persist from aroma into cup, reading as red wine and chocolate. The finish is long and rich with a slight astringent edge.

In the small cup deeply sweet, with a heavy, buttery mouthfeel and carnal fruit tones: papaya, mango, bittersweet chocolate. Exceptional in milk: very sweet with chocolate-toned fruit of almost lyric lift and complexity balanced by a dry, authoritative finish.

A gently austere cup: balanced, lightly acidy, crisply and quietly complex: dried apricot, bittersweet chocolate, perhaps a twist of fresh-cut cedar. Softens and sweetens engagingly as it cools. Reader Maria Rueda from Washington, D.C. finds "It's the best coffee I've every tried!"

A vastly rich, balanced medium-dark roast, distinctly nuanced from nose to finish with a deep, bittersweet, raisin-toned chocolate. As is often the case with deeply fruit-toned coffees, some of the lush richness may derive from a fortuitous edge of sweet ferment.

In the nose intensely roasty and intensely alive with pungently sweet fruit - passion fruit, or sweet grapefruit. In the cup the powerful coupling of sweet fruit and bitterish roast tones persists. Patient palates may read a raisin-toned dark chocolate in the roasty fruit.

The aroma is subtly rich and crisp with dry cocoa tones. In the cup a sweetly balanced, delicately floral, cherry-toned coffee wants to emerge, but something is shadowing the profile, perhaps a very slight but flavor-dampening mildew.

Sweet, richly low-toned, luxuriously fruity, but distinctly musty. The mustiness is the almost effervescent kind that can be charitably read as spice. Cleans up a bit in a long, rather satisfying finish.

The authoritative aroma is dominated by low-toned fruit: apricot or papaya. In the cup the fruit brightens, lifts and intensifies, suggesting a tartly sweet temperate fruit like green apples. Light-to-medium-bodied but roundly smooth in mouthfeel; sweetly acidy.

A coffee in which a mild processing taint - sweet fermented fruit for Ken, a hint of mustiness for co-taster Willem Boot - turns toward chocolate under the influence of the dark roast. Subtle but substantial in milk: "lingering balance" in milk for Willem, "delicately complex" for Ken. Ken awarded this coffee a considerably higher rating (90) than did Willem (86), probably owing to Ken's openness to sweet, flirt-with-ferment coffees.

What coffee people call acidity, the dry yet sweet sensation characteristic of high-grown coffees, is the main event here: rich, dominating, toned by black-cherry fruit with a slight cabernet-like twist.

The rich, grapey, slightly fermented fruit taste Guatemalans call avinatado or winyness dominates the profile of this medium-dark-roasted blend, together with the intensely and fleetingly sweet innuendoes we associate with dusk flowers like jasmine or honeysuckle. The finish is sweet, almost juicy.

Crisp rather than bright, dry rather than acidy, bittersweet, cocoaish, elegant but limited. From a well-run farm in the relatively new growing region of Cerrado. Martinez Fine Coffees is known for its elegant packaging and respectful presentation of single-origin coffees.

Nicely balanced sweetness and chocolate-toned roast pungency, complicated by a touch of pruny fruit. A bit simple and monotoned, but pleasantly and deeply so, like good minimalist music.