LATEST REVIEWS

John Weaver: "Fast roast, singed beans. Nice flavor though. Quick roast means bright acidity. A little slower roast would benefit this coffee" (85) Ken: "Elegant balance of fruity chocolate and leathery roast tones. Some bitterness, but softens toward the finish" (88).

Both John Weaver and Ken admired this dark-roasted Ethiopia. John: "My favorite of this cupping. Obviously East African. Bright acidity with exceptional flavor. Nice roast for this coffee, although I might have taken it a hair farther to bring out more body" (90). Ken: "Balanced, sweet, deeply dimensioned integration of rounded acidy notes, crisp roastiness and a lush, apricot-toned fruit" (91).

This very dark-roasted coffee reveals almost nothing about the potentially interesting green coffee itself except its ability to stand up to a severe degree of roast and still taste quite agreeable. The profile is roasty and charred, but pleasantly free of bitterness and haloed by sweetness.

Lush, sweetly overripe Harrar fruit notes are shadowed by salty and bitter tones. Dry chocolate in the finish.

Lush floral notes and suggestions of fruity chocolate are pleasantly felt behind a dominating bittersweetness that leans a bit more toward the bitter than the sweet. A floral-toned sweetness softens the astringent finish.

A dark-roast presentation with a splendid aroma: intense, crisply dry and fruity. In the cup, however, the roast dominates, though patient drinkers will feel a sweet, lush fruitiness behind the roasty bitterness. The halo of fruit persists in the cleanly roasty finish.

The medium-dark but rather aggressive roast preserves a touch of acidity and lemony sweetness amid the dominant roasty tones. More complex than balanced, the closest sensory analogy I can propose is roasted lemon drops.

A rather aggressive roast contributes distinct charred notes, but they are richly charred notes, with a leathery twist and a tickle of dry fruit. The astringent finish is pleasantly complicated by dry chocolate.

The moderately dark-roast style mutes the Kenya fruit and gives it a roasty, tart pineapple twist that softens toward a toasty chocolate in the finish. The darkish roast may transform the Kenya character, but the transformation is quite pleasurable in its own right.

The medium roast allows the character of the coffee to emerge, in this case richly and sweetly acidy, complicated by sweet nut notes and, as the cup cools, more characteristic Yirgacheffe floral and lemon tones. An unusual coffee in two respects: light roasted in a region (San Francisco Bay Area) where extremely dark roasting prevails, and rather heavy bodied for a Yirgacheffe.

Seductively rich in the nose, with pineapple and orange notes, but all business in the cup: grandly and austerely acidy with pronounced dry, cabernet-like fruit. Softens and sweetens again in the finish.

A Kenya in the grandly classic mode: intense but perfectly balanced, full-bodied, voluptuous with dry red wine and cherry tones, acidy without bitterness. The tactful medium-dark roast rounds the acidity and contributes a slight roasty note.

Considerable disagreement surfaced between Ken and Chris over this blend's odd character contributed by seldom-used coffees like India Monsooned Malabar and wet-processed robusta. Ken rather defiantly settled on a rating of 85, admiring what he called the blend's "sweet, complexly opulent nose and odd, overripe apricot and bittersweet chocolate notes" but admitting he found its "background musty tones disturbing." Chris (rating 77) didn't buy into the exotic character at all, concluding that the musty (his term is "earthy") tones dominated: "Off the mark, it strides toward a nutty baked bread aroma. The body and acidity tire down to earthy notes midway, but regain some sweet strength in the aftertaste."

Ken admires this blend's "rich, powerful, low-toned acidity, fullish body, and dry chocolate nuance," but is distracted by "a hint of bitter peanut tones and a cloying background flatness" (rating 86). Chris is both more specific -- "dark roast beans blended with very light roast, which hides the borderline past-crop flavor" -- and more metaphoric: "This coffee is hanging on for dear life with a shot of sweet wine adrenaline" (rating 82).

Ken admires this coffee's "almost chewy dry chocolate or cocoa notes" and its "sweet, rich balance and well-integrated acidity," though he had reservations centering on "a slight flatly potatoey, bitter mustiness" (rating 85). Chris finds a positive and colorful way of describing the sample's unorthodox aromatics: "Impressive variety of aroma in the cup, from honey baked bread to a sweet green-pepper spice, which caught me off guard at first. Finishes with smooth banana-muffin-like notes" (rating 84).

Ken: "Fine balance of sweet, acidy and roasty tones, with a hint of flowers and bittersweet chocolate. The balance breaks up a bit in the rather bitter finish" (rating 86). Chris: "Slight pipe tobacco sweetness in the aroma. Smooth, fresh milk chocolate flavor with a hint of sweet jalapeno" (rating 84).

Ken: "Round, balanced, quietly agreeable. A subdued roastiness is nicely enveloped in gently sweet fruit tones" (rating 86). Chris also appreciates the sweet, round fruit, but objects to the notes Ken calls roasty, condemning them as "woody": "Fragrant honey butter with a hint of a citric bite. However, the sweet creamy character gets lost in the woody nut tones of the finish" (rating 83).

Issues of roast rather than green coffee dominated reactions to this dark roast, with Ken leaning to the critical side and Chris to the positive. Ken: "Impressively full-bodied, but bitterly monotoned and heavy rather than round" (rating 83). Chris acknowledges that "most of the [attractive] India sweet pepper flavor has been roasted out of this one. However," he continues, "it deserves merit for a skillful roast that brings out sweet creamy coconut tones without contributing a smoky flavor" (rating 86).

Both Ken and Chris find the aromatics and body of this dark roast impressive but the finish distracting. Ken: "Superb aroma, intense, sweet dark-roast character with shimmers of tart grapefruit and milk chocolate. The roast taste pleasantly dominates in the cup but turns charred in the finish" (rating 84). Chris: "Opens with nutty, caramel candy; smooth body in the cup. Cools to a touch of earthy, metallic flavor" (rating 87).

Ken's favorite in the cupping: "Superb balance of dry and sweet tones. Crisp fruit notes suggest temperate fruit, perhaps pears. Slight but not entirely unpleasant bitterness in the finish" (rating 90). Chris: "The other stand-alone in the cupping, owing to its medium-intensity East-Africa-style acidity. Begins with suggestions of mandarin orange and dips toward a floral wine finish" (rating 89).