LATEST REVIEWS
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.
A classic Latin-American cup, dominated by an austere, powerful, full-throated acidity. The big, acidy profile is both impressive and monolithic, complicated only by barely felt floral tones, a sort of deeply held essence of flowers.
An almost symphonic coffee. Nuance stretches across the profile: floral notes at the top, winy, dry fruit in the middle, and a smoky pungency at bottom. Sweet, cedarish notes tend to dominate in aroma and aftertaste, but in the cup fruit and flowers upstage everything else.
The roast dominates the coffee, burning off sugars and turning the cup dryly pungent, full and hearty but not sweet. Crisp chocolate tones complicate the finish.
A full, rich, low-keyed cup. Stolid but not inert, with just enough acidity vibrating at the heart of the coffee to keep it lively.
An unusual profile: sweet cedarish tones turn smokily chocolate in the finish. The chocolate sensation is superb: dry yet sweet, crisp and complex, lingering with husky richness in the aftertaste.
The roast turns the lemony acidity rich and smokily pungent. Not a lot of range or innuendo, but a balanced and satisfying cup.
A clean, sweetly understated acidity complicated by a hint of flowers animates the bittersweetness of the dark roast. Ultimately the bitter tones dominate in finish, however, and intensify as the coffee cools.
Rich Kenya wine tones dominate, buoyed by shimmers of citrus and berry. A complex sweetness blooms as the cup cools and the dry wine tones soften. A fine coffee, although I missed the echoing dimension of the very best Kenyas.
Probably the smoothest, most seamlessly integrated dark-roast blend in the cupping. Preserves distinct acidy tones, but wraps them in dark-roast character, balancing them richly on the cusp between fruity tart and roasty pungent. Softly sweet in finish, without a trace of charred or burned notes.
Strikingly sweet, with virtually no dark-roast bitterness. The sweetness is agreeably complicated by tart berryish or citrusy tones, but overall the profile seems a bit restrained, a touch limited in range and dimension.
To my palate, one of the finer dark roasts in the cupping. The sweetness is elegantly complex and lemony, lightly rich, almost juicy. A subdued charred bitterness balances the fruity sweetness.
A deep, resonant pungency envelops the Kenya dry wine and tart berry tones, giving them a sexy fresh-sweat twist. This odd, rough-yet-smooth pungency is a Peet's trade mark, and only occasionally found in coffees dark-roasted by competitors. Here it supports without obliterating the citrus and berry freshness of the Kenya.
As usual with most extreme dark-roasted blends sold under the name French roast, no real flavor survives, only competing sensations of bitter and sweet -- in this case inclined more toward the bitter. I preferred this particular "French roast" profile over several others owing to the invigorating intensity of the bittersweetness
A fresh citrusy sharpness complicates the dark-roast bittersweetness. The bitter tones intensify in finish, but never completely master the sweetness, which persists pleasantly through aftertaste.
A pleasantly charred sweetness, buoyant and almost floral, dominates at first. As the cup cools the sweetness recedes and the bitter side of the dark-roast cup prevails.
The bittersweet paradox is less intense here than in the Jeremiah's Pick French Roast, with a bit more emphasis on the sweet side of the equation and a hint of dry, pruny fruit. The smoothest body of the eight French roasts I cupped, suggesting that the roast drove fewer fats out of the bean.
Close to the great Blue Mountains of the past: balanced, round, very rich, almost bouillon-like, with a slight, spicy effervescence tickling at the heart of the cup. Regrettably, a faint, almost undetectable hardness or storage-related fading shadows the otherwise superb cup.
Sweet, almost juicy, lemon-and-nut-tones carry exhilaratingly from aroma into the cup. Once there, they turn a bit stolid, then darkens toward tobacco in the finish.
When hot, the cup is light-bodied but smooth, with a touch of levitating floral-toned fruit that turns sweetly chocolate in the finish. As the cup cools the fruit deepens toward wine and even more distinctly chocolate tones.
A dry, powerful, authoritative cup, rich but not sweet. The ringing energy of the acidity and the substantial body are close to monumental, though lovers of delicacy and nuance may be disappointed.
