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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.
Extraordinary aroma: Nothing dramatic, but that may be the point here. Balanced and gently complex. Crisp dry tones keep the levitating sweetness grounded. Hints of smoke in the finish sweeten toward chocolate in the aftertaste.
Floral, fruity tones dominate, modulating to a sweet spiciness in the finish. The fruit reasserts itself in the long aftertaste. The fruitiness flirts with the over-the-top lush taste called ferment, but to my palate remains on the fresh, pleasing side of the fruit-ferment line.
A natural, vanilla-toned sweetness distinguishes a low-key but lively profile. Nut and spice notes complicate the vanilla sweetness in the aroma, but by finish and aftertaste the vanilla gently (and pleasingly) dominates. Little range or dimension; the vanilla is the main act.
Some cups of the sample are marred by a slight but distracting hardness, probably a fault in either drying or storage of the green coffee. The untainted cups are gentle, chocolaty and sweet, with a touch, perhaps, of flowers.
Some cups display a muted but disturbingly hard off-taste, probably a fault in the drying. The clean cups are low-key, sweet, with a pleasant, round earthiness and excellent resonance or dimension.
An unusually light-bodied, high-toned Guatemala, distinguished by a clean, bright acidity and sweet flowers in the finish. A hint of sweet spice or perhaps chocolate-toned fruitiness resonates under the flowers.
Restrained, low-toned, rather full-bodied, but not flat. In fact, alive with understated nuance: some tobacco tones, a full, dry spice impression that could be called chocolate; perhaps a hint of fruit or wine in the round finish. The aftertaste leaves a balanced memory of chocolate sweetness and dry tobacco.
About half the cups of this low-toned but forceful blend hint at the taste defect called bagginess, a flat, ropey taste green coffee acquires when it has not been fully cured before shipping or stored properly. The cups free of defect display a subdued intensity powered by a spicy, edge-of-astringent pungency.
The acidity is light and bright with a shimmer of fruit. At the center of the profile a slight pungency is nuanced by dry wine tones. Not much range, but solid dimension and outstanding balance.
The winy acidity characteristic of Kenyas here is pungent and deep, without a trace of fruit or shimmer of berry. It is possible the coffee has faded a bit in storage. Still, a powerful coffee that offers an interesting twist to the Kenya theme.
It is interesting. The solid, rather simple profile is centered on a deep, mouth-filling, pungent richness. Buried in the pungency is an odd but not unpleasant note that I don't quite remember tasting in coffee: a sort of dry saltiness.
It is a measure of this coffee's complexity that every time I returned to the cup it provoked new adjectives. Winy (the favorite), pungent and smoky, vanilla overtones, and in the finish sweetness, prune and chocolate. The body is rather full for a Kenya, and the cup almost shockingly rich. Like all great Kenyas this one keeps shifting and building complexity from first impression through aftertaste.
Floral, berry-like, high-toned and vivacious, this striking coffee displays less winy authority than many Kenyas but greater charm. Light-bodied but not light-weight: gives us a sort of levitating richness.
Complete and classic. Dry and acidy, but the acidity is held inside a deep, resonant matrix and complicated by richly wine-tinged fruit tones. Sweetens exquisitely in the finish. The medium body is smooth and buttery.
An extraordinarily clean, elegant Mocha-Java. The contribution of the two Ethiopian coffees is brightly fruity, floral and exhilaratingly fresh. The Java mostly stays out of the way, contributing a slight pungency to balance the Ethiopias' high-toned sweetness. The light body could be taken as a fault, but I found it more exhilaratingly weightless than disappointingly thin.
Distinct fruity chocolate tones, cherryish and round, are balanced by a tobaccoey dryness. When the coffee is hot the chocolate-fruit tones are fresh, complex, and thrilling. As the cup cools the tobacco tones intensify and turn slightly (though cleanly) astringent.
The superb oxymoron of this coffee, powerfully sweet yet sharply pungent, is at its best in aroma and in finish, when the pungent tones soften to a distinct and pleasing spice. Rich, clean aftertaste; medium to light body.
This delightfully gentle coffee is soft, brightly (and lightly) acidy, slightly floral. The aftertaste is as clean as white clapboard, with a lovely vanilla/floral burst, then a memory of pure sweetness. Not much power or depth here, but with a coffee this chastely bright and sweet who cares.
A fresh, clean, delightfully natural sweetness is balanced by a drier but still fruity pungency. A fine and distinctive coffee, though memorable more for what it gives out front than what it insinuates. The profile is immediate and pleasing rather than deep.
A fine example of the French-roast archetype. The carbon notes, as integral to French roasts as smoky notes are to Scotch whiskey, are discreet. The main taste complex here is sweet vanilla, floating above a dry, light pungency. Carbon notes prevail in the aftertaste, though a persistent low-toned sweetness gives them a run.
