LATEST REVIEWS

Impressive aroma: lush, low-toned apricot fruit. In the cup a full body with a nice heft in the mouthfeel, but the pungent fruit turns increasingly salty and bitter as the cup cools.

The chicory in this moderately dark-roasted blend announces itself tactfully but distinctly in the peppery mouthfeel, spicy, resiny notes (think rosemary stored in a scorched cedar box), with a hint of round, slightly, salty fruit underneath - Chinese salt plums perhaps.

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.

Impressively complex ultra-dark roast: The roast tones are sweet and rather restrained in the aroma, complicated by fresh leather and apricot. In the cup they turn rich, full-throated and bittersweet. The finish is a touch heavy and astringent, inevitable in a roast this dark.

Balanced and roundly high-toned. Slightly roasty, gently acidy. Papaya and fresh leather notes in the aroma; papaya and dark chocolate in the cup. A tickle of astringency in the long finish.

Elegant, balanced dark roast: Comfortably sweet with a shimmer of acidity and a hint of roastiness. The bittersweet chocolate and pineapple notes in the aroma deepen and round congenially in the cup.

Rather simple aroma but fine, deep, roasty dimension with distinct dark chocolate notes. In the cup roundly roasty with a tickle of acidity and chocolate and prune-toned fruit. A touch sharp when hot but softens and sweetens as it cools.

Sweet, balanced, round, with a hint of roastiness and a subtle, shifting bouquet of flowers, fresh leather, spice and apricot that deepen toward chocolate in the cup. As the cup cools it simplifies slightly, turning the fruit a touch shallow and tart.

The aroma is roasty and quite sweet, with high-toned cedar and chocolate notes. Round and full in the cup, with a buttery mouthfeel and a balance of gentle roast tones and a tickle of sweet, fruit-toned acidity.

Delicately rich, with a shimmer of flowers in the aroma, pear deepening toward cherry and chocolate in the cup. Sweet, softly complex finish. The sample I cupped probably was delivered slightly stale from the restaurant; a fresh sample of the same coffee might well merit a higher rating.

An understated coffee that rewards attention to its gentle virtues. Sweetly balanced roastiness and rich papaya-toned fruit in the aroma; in the cup delicately complex and quietly lush with low-toned, carnal fruit: apricot and papaya.

Simultaneously intensely acidy and extravagantly sweet, medium-bodied, with a whole basket of fruit tones: apricot, dry cherry, sweet lemon, a tiny whiff of chocolate, all lush, crisply rich, complex.

Voluptuously classic coffee, perfectly poised between an almost sugary sweetness and a crisp, rich acidity. The mouthfeel is big and silky. The basic package is so complete that the hint of cherry- and tamarind-toned fruit comes as a bonus.

A cup that will put off purist coffee professionals but please everyone else: Fermented fruit tones that require some imagination to read as cherryish chocolate in the aroma simply explode with extravagantly complex fruit and floral nuance in the cup. As the cup cools the fruit seems to shed its ambiguous ferment entirely and turn cleanly lush.

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.

In the nose distinctly roasty, pungent, but quite sweet and resonantly round-toned. In the cup cleanly burned but still quite sweet, light-bodied but round in impression. Some fruit, perhaps softened by a hint of clean ferment, makes itself felt as the cup cools.

Rich in the aroma, pungent fruit, fresh leather, roasty chocolate. The roast tones turn the cup rather sharp and monotoned, however. In the finish softens once again toward a richly dry, chocolate-toned fruit.

In the nose sweetly pungent, with a round, full, balanced roastiness free of burned tones. The roasty tones sharpen in the cup, however, carrying into a long but rather astringent finish.

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.

Very sweet and round in both nose and cup, nuanced by a voluptuous fruity chocolate. This low-toned fruit may reveal a slight ferment that most palates will read as a complicating note to the chocolate.