LATEST REVIEWS

Carbon tones overlay the sweet fruit fragrances of this dark-roasted Kenya, dampening but not obliterating them. A remarkable body and dimension open underneath the carbon, assuring a long, complex finish.

Impressive complexity for such a dark-roasted coffee. Prune and vanilla tones grace the aroma, while a fruit-nuanced acidity dominates in the cup. As the coffee cools suggestions of ferment surface in the fruity acidity.

Some wine tones survive the dark roast to complicate the acidity. Brought along to a dark roast slowly enough to spare us burned notes, but for a Kenya not a lot of body or dimension either. The pleasure would seem to be the paradox of understated acidity and dark-roast pungency.

The high-pitched fruit and vanilla tones in the aroma deepen to herbal wildness in the cup, then to hints of ferment in the finish. Sufficient body but not much dimension.

Pungent, chocolate notes enliven the aroma, but in the cup burned tones dominate. The body is decent, but in the aftertaste the carbon prevails completely.

An intense coffee, particularly in the nose, but without grace notes or much resonance. Carbon tones dominate, but allow some sweetness and pungency to balance the cup.

An exquisitely balanced traditional American-style coffee. The acidity is dry without astringency, alive with slight fruit or wine notes. Enveloped in the matrix of the body, it is always present but never dominant.

This coffee gets better as it goes, probably owing to its heavy body. The dark tones of the aroma modulate with increasing power through the cup to a complex finish.

This coffee is so complex at the top that it positively levitates, alive with sweet, light vanilla tones. In the finish whatever is left of the body vanishes, the vanilla tones fade, but the sweetness lingers.

The body is full, the taste richly pungent. The carbon tones permeate, having definitively chased the acidity south, but they're rich, complex carbon tones, rather than the thin kind that whine at you from the cup.

The acidity doesn't immediately reveal itself in the deep, mouth-filling richness of this coffee, emerging most clearly in the powerful finish. A coffee that, in its understated complexity, seems considerably greater than its parts.

This classic medium-dark coffee gives us solid, mouth-filling dark-roast pungency, though the carbon notes seem to co-opt its sweetness. Some acidity survives the roast, and fills out the top of the profile nicely.

A light-medium-roasted blend with power: The aroma is intense and classically acidy. For a coffee so lightly roasted the body is full, and the acidity teases and shimmers before emerging clearly in the finish.

The rest of the taste profile plays peek-a-boo around dominating carbon tones in this very dark roasted coffee. Nevertheless, the pungent sweetness that constitutes the upside of darker roasts prevails, particularly in the cup.

Given the medium roast, the carbon notes here are a bit of a surprise. Fortunately, the pungent sweetness also characteristic of darker roasts gives the burned, carbon notes some support, and the acidity holds its own until the finish, when it fades into the carbon.

For such a relatively light roast, not particularly acidy. In fact, once past the classically rich, fragrant nose, rather flat. Perhaps the coffee arrived a bit stale. Full-bodied enough to please those who like to ride the classic American roast profile while relegating acidity to the back seat.

This coffee arrived pre-ground (not available whole bean), perhaps accounting for its flatness in nose and cup, although some herbal or prune notes survive in the thin, carbon-toned acidity.