Reviews for Kaldi's Coffee Roasting

Crisply dry chocolate, dusk flowers, pungent fresh-cut fir and a hint of lemon in both aroma and cup. Quietly penetrating acidity, silky mouthfeel. The complex, heady aromatics fade somewhat in the finish.

Sweet-toned fruit in aroma and cup, complemented by complex layers of citrus, butterscotch and pungent aromatic wood. Gently bright acidity, silky mouthfeel. Simplifies in the finish, though hints of nut and chocolate persist.

In aroma and cup soft, honey-like sweetness with round fruit tones and a hint of flowers. Bright acidity, medium body, silky mouthfeel, continued softly stated fruit and floral notes with an added hint of lemon. Finishes cleanly with a muted but rich pungency.

Co-cupper Jim Reynolds (95): "This coffee scored well in every category. I especially liked the floral acidity - a nice vanilla and chocolate aspect to the flavor complemented the smooth - very smooth - mouthfeel." Ken's praise (94) was nearly identical, though he added "spicy fruit" and a hint of lemon to his descriptors. Impressive flavor persistence in a long, rich finish.

The heavily syrupy body of this espresso particularly impressed both Ken (90) and co-taster Byron Holcomb (93) who for his part associated it with the fruity heaviness of mango nectar. The tropical fruit theme also surfaced in Ken's description of flavor and finish, where he found "bananaish fruit" along with cedar and anise. Byron also admired the "subtle, nutty, light nose" that turned to honey and whiskey in his characterization of flavor. In milk a distinct chocolate was complicated by fruit and floral notes for Ken, berry and agave for Byron.

Richly pungent aroma with notes of gently charred wood, floral-toned fruit, hints of citrus and butter. The roasty notes recede in the cup, allowing the delicate floral and orange top notes and cocoa and dry berry to move forward. Gentle acidity, light body but silky mouthfeel. Some flavor carries into a short, slightly rough finish.

Simple aroma, bittersweet without much complication - a shimmer of fruit perhaps. In the cup turns from simple to gently classic: sweet, nutlike, temperate fruit notes reading as milk chocolate. Nominated by Deborah Ciangura of Wilmington, North Carolina.