Reviews for Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co.
A cup either pleasingly delicate or disappointingly simple depending on taste and expectation. Balanced, gentle aroma with a very fresh, foresty cedar and a suggestion of pear-toned fruit. In the cup the cedar and fruit tones finally settle into a sweet, raisin-toned chocolate. Reader Laura Cheng nominated another Central American coffee from Caffe Vita that was not available, so we took the liberty of ordering this one instead.
Roasty and sweetly and gently charred, with a hint of fermented fruit that under the influence of the roast suggests a spicily aromatic chocolate - imagine bittersweet chocolate stored in charred cedar. Rich finish with a tingle of astringency.
Both Ken and Willem liked this blend, but Willem really liked it: "Floral aroma, buttery, smooth body, sweet flavor with berry and prune notes. Lingering aftertaste with resonant sweetness. Fantastic and complete as milk drink, with chocolate and caramel notes." (93) Ken honored and enjoyed the fruit notes, which he found complex but rather tart once past the aroma ("tart berry and pineapple, dry chocolate" in the small cup, "tart fruit with a floral finish" in milk). In the end Ken found the cup just a bit short on sweetness and depth of sensation, both with milk and without (87).
Only a touch of sweetness survives to balance the sharp tones of a very dark roast, but the sharpness is complicated (perhaps rounded) by chocolaty, pruny tones. The aroma is crisp, alive, even elegant, but the profile tends to simplify in the cup and trail off into dimensionless astringency in the aftertaste. At best medium body. Turns sweet and smooth in milk but remains underpowered.
In the demitasse this blend is complexly crisp and pungent; richly dry chocolate notes are supported by an understated sweetness. Perhaps the heavy, smoothly balanced body accounts for the splendid impact this coffee makes in milk. The dairy relaxes the crisp chocolate notes and the coffee richly suffuses the milk rather than penetrating it.