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We have published thousands of coffee reviews and espresso reviews since 1997. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee. To search for a specific roaster, origin or coffee use the Advanced Search Function.
Very deep, richly fruity aroma: banana, raisin perhaps, hints of chocolate and rose-like flowers. In the small cup the body is full and syrupy, the flavor simple, deep-toned, with cedar and tart fruit notes - tamarind perhaps - the finish rich and long. Masters milk with an understated balance and a soft persistence of banana, cedar and chocolate notes.
Crisp, lemon- and chocolate-toned aroma with a hint of flowers. In the small cup medium in body and slightly lean but effervescent in mouthfeel. Sweet, balanced and lively in flavor, with a cedar-toned dry chocolate. Masters milk with a deep, simple authority and a sneakily lush, minty chocolate.
Superb fruity, caramelly aroma with distinct brandy and chocolate notes. In the small cup medium body, dominated by caramel and cedar notes with only a hint of cherryish brandy intrigue. The fruity brandy tones intensify in the finish, though with a very slight bitterish edge. They reach their apotheosis in milk, however, where they finally free themselves from their slight bitter shadow and bloom with lush, powerful expressiveness.
Delicately soft aroma: dusk-blooming flowers, lemon, a hint of milk chocolate and caramel. In the small cup medium to light in body but smooth in mouthfeel, with continued lemon and floral top notes working above gently pungent cedar and semi-sweet chocolate mid-tones. Sweet, long, roundly lemony finish. In milk just on the edge of thin-bodied, but the lemony chocolate flavor notes are distinctive and superb.
Delicate but deep aroma: flowers, orange, peach, with a suggestion of chocolate. In the small cup smooth, substantial mouthfeel, sweetly crisp in flavor with hints of cedar, lemon, and dry-toned peach. Resonant, impeccably clean finish. Chocolate and fresh leather in milk, with continued complicating hints of peach and orange.
Vivid, sweet-toned aroma: flowers, pear, apple, shimmering over a deeper-toned chocolaty base. In the small cup smooth, full mouthfeel, but rather simple in flavor: gentle, pungent cedar with a hint of chocolate. Great presence and fine balance in milk: fresh leather, milk chocolate, a hint of flowers.
Deep, very sweet-toned aroma, with chocolate, flowers, walnut, and a hint of carnal fruit - peach or papaya. In the small cup very full body, but not heavy - the mouthfeel is lively, almost effervescent. In flavor very sweet, very deep, with cedar and a gently spicy semi-sweet chocolate. Superb finish: long, caramelly, rich. Exerts a simple but powerful presence in milk: sweet milk chocolate with perhaps a shimmer of flowers.
Intense aroma: brandy, chocolate, caramel. In the small cup medium in body but smooth in mouthfeel, crisply pungent yet caramelly sweet, with a tightly knit, understated complexity: brandy, caramel, cedar and flowers, hints of which persist in the roundly rich finish. Masters milk with a gentle, brandied chocolate authority.
Pungent, spicy or perhaps smoky aroma, with caramel notes and a hint of apple. In the cup rather sharply acidy with very distinct caramel notes and not much else. A bright, simple, limited coffee.
A contradictory coffee, with sweetly buoyant flowering grass and vanilla notes shimmering above a pungent heaviness in both aroma and cup. The pungent notes hint at semi-sweet chocolate in the aroma but turn rather bitter in the cup, compromising the continuing agreeable floral character.
Fermented fruit contributes to a glorious aroma dominated by a sort of dry, nutty chocolate. In the cup very sweet and floral but also quite astringent, netting a wildly ambiguous profile with intriguing fruit notes too astringent to call chocolate and too explosively fermented to call winy. Unorthodox palates might assign high ratings to this unusual coffee, while purists surely would choke and dismiss it. We compromised at 85 - buyers beware.
Sweetly roasty throughout the profile: fresh-cut cedar and hints of cardamom and flowers in the aroma; in the cup silky in mouthfeel, very sweet, with continuing cedar and intensified floral notes. Slightly astringent, almost turpenny in the long finish.
Fine aroma: delicate but deep, with milk chocolate, floral and caramelly fruit notes, apple perhaps. In the cup softly acidy, velvety in mouthfeel; the chocolate turns toward sweet cocoa with a richly tart floral twist. Surprisingly long finish, but also surprisingly heavy and even astringent. Cups were slightly uneven with occasional very faint musty fermented suggestions as they cooled, so a rating that started at 90 ended at an ambivalent 87.
High-toned, delicate (almost too) aroma: flowers, caramel, pipe tobacco. A bit sharp and astringent in the cup, but with a richly rounding caramel character and fine floral top notes. The caramel settles toward chocolate in the finish.
Simple, rather subdued aroma: cherry and chocolate notes. In the cup rich, pungent and sweet, but aromatically simple: dried cherries, a hint of chocolate, perhaps suggestions of merlot-like red wine.
Classic aroma: cleanly high-toned, slightly acidy, with flowers, peach, and a hint of milk chocolate. In the cup sweetly and brightly acidy, with continued floral, peach and black currant notes. The flavor drops off in a rather disappointing finish.
Rich aroma: semi-sweet chocolate and suggestions of apple, with floral notes at the top. In the cup rather big-bodied and rich, with continuing distinct floral top notes and a rather dominating, roundly tart acidity that nearly overwhelms but still allows further suggestions of chocolate, ripe tomato, orange and cedar.
A pungent, sweetly tart, tight-knit complexity - cedar, orange, semi-sweet chocolate - runs through the profile from aroma through the long, rich finish. Magisterial and consistent when hot; stiffens and simplifies just slightly as the cup cools.
Roundly delicate aroma: chocolate and caramel notes with suggestions of flowers and ripe tomato. In the cup silky mouthfeel and a classic profile: tart fruitiness enveloped in a giddy sweetness that harbors continued hints of chocolate and flowers. Clean, sweet - almost sugary - finish.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): A complex and rather exotic profile. Round, low-acid fruit (apple?) in the aroma, leaning toward chocolate, with a hint of flowers. In the cup lively, wine-like acidity, with apple, floral, chocolate, nutmeg-like spice notes. Chocolate and apple resurface in the long, quietly rich finish.