Chicago Reviews

The aroma is low-toned but resonant with leather and fruit-toned chocolate. The acidity is rich and smoothly integrated, the mouthfeel round and supple. The chocolate declaration in the aroma is even more pronounced in the cup, but fruitier, more opulent.

An unusual bittersweet, gently spicy tendency runs from aroma through finish. The aroma is caramelly but pungent, with a hint of milk chocolate. The cup is low-toned and dominated by a sweet/sour/bitter fruit; tamarind and lemon perhaps. In the cup the background milk chocolate is more pronounced, rounding the bright fruit. The finish is slightly but richly astringent.

A bold, sweetly acidy coffee with a shifting, subtle complexity. In the aroma low-toned, lushly rich fruit (apricot, papaya, even banana) leaning toward milk chocolate. In the cup brighter and higher-toned, with lemon, flowers and continued suggestions of milk chocolate. Rounds and richens as it cools, the fruit tones landing somewhere near cherry.

Co-cupper Christy Thorns' (90) reading was precise and explicit: "The aromatics of this coffee undulate from desert lime, orange peel, lemon zest to eucalyptus and jasmine blossom. These characteristics do not carry over into the cup, however, but instead a delicate candied sweetness and roasted nut flavor dominate with a hint of ginger in the finish." Ken (90), just as positive but less specific, was content to praise a rich wine, fruit and floral character. Either way, a complex cup with great aromatic richness and range.

Ken (91) admired this coffee a bit more than co-cupper Christy Thorns (88), who praised its "gentle grapefruit-like acidity and a nicely rounded, sweet and berry finish" but didn't carry on about it much. For his part, Ken particularly admired this coffee's citrus-toned acidity, which he found sweet, rounded, and "profoundly rich and cleanly and elegantly wine-like."

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.

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.

High-toned, complex aroma: sweet citrus, cherry, apple. In the cup gently acidy, while the fruit maintains its complex, elegant trajectory: Meyer lemon, grapefruit, tart berry. The initial, almost shocking rush of sweetness is balanced by a crisply bitter finish.

A challengingly acidy coffee, by sweetly so. A sensitive roast rounds the acidity and deepens the fruit, turning it toward sweet cocoa and ripe cherry. Glints of jasmine. The cocoa-toned fruit persists agreeably through the finish.

A powerfully acidy coffee, sharply rich and winy. Beneath the acidy assertion patient drinking reveals subdued but seductive floral undertones. The aromatics are splendid but the mouthfeel is a bit too astringent for my taste.

Giddily sweet, rich, balanced. Gentle wine-toned fruit (call it chardonnay) and low-key floral notes run through aroma and cup, rounding toward milk chocolate n the finish. A superb expression of the El Salvador type.

Dry and forceful. The acidity is intense but sweet. The fruit is crisply austere: black currant, sauvignon blanc wine grapes. A challenging coffee that commands rather than seduces.

A subtle, lush coffee, richly sweet and gently acidy with shimmers of flowers. Notes of fermented fruit give the cup a juicy, decadent opulence that will please more adventurous palates but may put off coffee traditionalists.

Intense but balanced acidity, medium body, and tartly sweet fruit notes --berry and citrus -- that soften toward chocolate in the finish. Director of Coffee Geoff Watts praises this coffee's "grace and completeness."

Relatively light bodied but intensely dry and richly astringent, with an austere pineapple- and grapefruit-toned fruit. The finish, like the cup, is astringent but exhilarating. Director of Coffee Geoff Watts admires this Kenya's "pristine character" and its "dynamic and elegant acidity."

Pleasantly low-key, sweet, rather light-bodied, roasty without bitterness, modestly complicated by hints of cocoa or dry chocolate.

Fermented, wine-like fruit notes agreeably dominate the small cup, though they are shadowed by bitterness, particularly in the finish. The bitterness turns pleasantly bittersweet in cappuccino-sized milk, and flat-out gloriously sweet and chocolate-fruit-toned in big milk. (86 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

An exceptional versatile espresso that maintains complexity and intrigue from small cup to big milk. Nuance ranges from chocolate and walnut to fermented fruit and malty/musty tones. The musty notes are sharp in the finish of the small cup but turn splendidly round and rich in milk. (87 straight espresso, 93 w/milk)

Heavy, rich, a touch sharp, but balanced in the small cup, complicated nicely by dry fruit and cocoa. Maintains balance and authority in small milk, where the cocoa sweetens toward a voluptuous hazelnut-toned chocolate. Fades a bit in big milk, though still round and chocolaty. (89 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

Complex and exotic, this moderately dark-roasted blend sits sharply but sweetly on the palate. Floral notes and faintly ferment-toned fruit complicate the cup, but both nuance and sweetness fade in the finish, leaving behind a roasty bitterness some coffee drinkers may find pleasingly pungent, others a touch overbearing.