LATEST REVIEWS

Deep, chocolate-toned aroma. In the small cup medium to full in body, in flavor sweetly cedar-toned with dry chocolate and apricot complication. The short finish is rich, the long fades toward astringency. Rounds nicely in milk, displaying a fine balance of crisp cedar and chocolate-toned fruit.

Deep, gently pungent aroma resonating with chocolate and low-acid tropical fruit notes. In the small cup the body is full, the mouthfeel a touch rough, the flavor slightly sharp and roasty with cedar and a hint of chocolate. The finish is rich and mildly astringent. Milk softens and sweetens the profile, nicely developing the implicit chocolate and fruit, though never completely plumping out the mouthfeel.

Chocolate and toast show in the rather subdued aroma. In the small cup the body is medium and the mouthfeel slightly lean, with a simple but attractive pungent/sweet character complicated by a cocoa or dry chocolate. Rich, semi-sweet chocolate finish. In milk balanced and crisply sweet, with the chocolate retaining its dry authority.

Delicate aroma, sweet with milk chocolate innuendo. In the small cup medium in body, smooth in mouthfeel, cedar-toned and gently bittersweet in flavor with a lean toward chocolate. Rich finish with a continuing shimmer of chocolate. Relaxes but doesn't quite bloom in milk; remains balanced and reticent with understated complications: fresh leather, cedar, raisiny chocolate.

Superb front end to this blend: velvety crema, the aroma deep but delicately and crisply chocolate- and vanilla-toned. In the small cup the body is full, the flavor caramelly and crisp but slightly salty and a bit shallow. Blooms with discreet elegance in milk, complicated by a dry but opulent chocolate.

Deep, sweetly pungent aroma with echoes of apricot or papaya. The mouthfeel is a bit rough but pleasantly so. The small cup is rich and sweet with a tightly-knit, deeply fruity complexity complicated by hints of cedar and toast. The sweet richness persists from short through long finish. Impressive range of sensation in milk: crisply sweet yet lushly chocolate.

A superb, versatile blend. The aroma is deep with chocolate and tropical fruit tones (banana?), the mouthfeel buttery and the body full, the small cup sweetly cedar toned with a lush, very slightly fermented fruit that reads as a rich raisin- and floral-toned chocolate. The finish is resonant and long with a low-key, pleasantly bracing astringency. In milk the shot rounds and sweetens without losing identity or authority.

Delicate aroma, toasty with distinct raisin and chocolate notes. Deepens in the small cup; the mouthfeel is buttery and the raisin and chocolate notes turn lavishly rich with a tickle of brandyish ferment. Long, resonant finish. Transforms beautifully in milk; the chocolate intensifies without turning trite or candyish, while the fruit seems to lift and reveal lighter, brighter tones of melon and flowers.

Intense, high-toned aroma, complex but tightly knit: lemon, dry berry, flowers (tea rose?), milk chocolate. The acidity is powerful but roundly balanced, the body surprisingly full, the flavor explosive: rose water, sweet pipe tobacco, chocolate, all enveloped in a lemony richness. Lemon and chocolate notes carry into the finish, where they soften and enliven a slight astringency.

Rich, deeply fruity papaya-toned chocolate in the aroma. In the small cup the body is medium in weight but smooth and balanced in mouthfeel; the flavor crisp but resonant, with a tightly knit complexity: wine, chocolate, cedar, perhaps pear. The finish is heavy but smooth and rich, with a recollection of chocolate. Sweetens and blooms in milk without losing its crisp elegance: fresh leather, pear, mint, cherry-toned chocolate.

A potentially fine coffee compromised by mild mildew tones probably picked up during storage. The aroma is flat, potatoey and faded. In the cup, however, sweet, lushly winy tones compete with the musty hardness, a combination that some coffee drinkers may find attractive. The finish is rich and clean.

Smoothly pungent, roasty presentation. Cedar, prune and raisin notes contribute to a pleasingly complex aroma, but the roast dominates the aromatics in the cup, relieved mainly by subtle but distinct floral top notes. Astringent though rich in the short finish, floral-toned in the long.

Richly and deeply roasty in the aroma with some fruit complication - fresh plum perhaps. The roast gently dominates in the cup, bittersweet, with undercurrents of fresh plum and hints of chocolate and flowers. Richly roasty in the short finish, slightly astringent in the long.

Simple but deeply rich aroma, with a distinct raisin/prune complication. The cup displays a gentle acidity wrapped in a deep, fundamental sweetness, with muted notes of dusk-blooming flowers, papaya, caramel, raisins. Simple but long, clean finish.

A simple but refreshing coffee: rather high-toned, delicate in body, gently acidy, with coffee fruit that reads as cherry with a sweet-pipe-tobacco twist. The finish is rich, clean, and surprisingly long.

A changeable coffee both as it cools and from session to session. Constants are a crisp coffee fruit that probably best reads as pear or cherry, a smoky, spicy chocolate sensation, and distinct floral notes that at times resemble an elegant, heady lilac. The finish tends to be heavy, but as the cup cools the long finish is finely floral.

A low-toned but deceptively lyric coffee. Rich in both aroma and cup: in aroma pear, caramel, and hints of flowers and cinnamon; in cup caramel, yellow fruit (peach?) and chocolate with hints of flowers and dry berry. The finish is agreeably chocolate-toned, particularly as the cup cools, although slightly heavy.

Low-toned fruit (peach?), semi-sweet chocolate and fresh-cut cedar notes in the aroma. The cup is delicate but lush, enlivened by a softly tart acidity and complicated by continued fruit (cherry, peach) and semi-sweet chocolate notes. The finish is simple but sweetly clean.

A tribute to the upside of slightly fermented fruit tones in coffee. Sweet and completely free of bitterness or saltiness, the ferment comes across as sweetly orange-toned in the aroma with a crisp hint of cedar, in the cup as a lushly ripe papaya- and peach-toned fruitiness that leans toward chocolate but never quite surrenders its tropical juiciness.

Everything explodes near the top of the profile in this intensely fragrant coffee. The aroma is rich with floral, sweet lemon and lush chocolate notes. Exhilarating floral tones dominate the cup, but to simply call them floral understates their complexity: This is a whole symphonic garden of flowers. The body is light but the impression and mouthfeel delicate and buoyant. Only the very slightest astringency in the finish mars this exceptional coffee.