Seattle Reviews

A cup either pleasingly delicate or disappointingly simple depending on taste and expectation. Balanced, gentle aroma with a very fresh, foresty cedar and a suggestion of pear-toned fruit. In the cup the cedar and fruit tones finally settle into a sweet, raisin-toned chocolate. Reader Laura Cheng nominated another Central American coffee from Caffe Vita that was not available, so we took the liberty of ordering this one instead.

Smoky, deep-toned aroma with a tightly-knit complexity: cedar, flowers, pineapple, vanilla, semi-sweet chocolate. Simplifies a bit in the cup, but remains richly and roundly bittersweet with an impressive smoky rather than burned character and a tickle of pineapply fruit. The sweet, expansive finish reveals a slight touch of astringency but the semi-sweet chocolate and fruit notes linger agreeably.

The roast dominates here, deeply pungent and cedary in the aroma, with floral and Mediterranean herb top notes. Roundly and sweetly roasty in the cup, lightish in body but deep in dimension, with floral top notes and a cedary, herb-toned chocolate. Clean, rich and chocolaty in the short finish, though a burned astringency surfaces in the long, particularly as the cup cools.

A classic but quiet, rather lazy cup. Caramelly, richly roasty aroma with ripe tomato, cedar and sweet orange complications. Similarly quiet in the cup, with a hint of chocolate joining the tomato, orange and cedar notes. Simple but rich finish.

Delicately fruity aroma, sweet cherry with a hint of chocolate. In the cup sweet, rich, surprisingly full-bodied, with a dry, wine-toned black currant fruit and a slight burned undercurrent. Sweetly rich short finish, but a hint of burned astringency shadows the long. This was the highest rated of three Starbucks coffees nominated and reviewed for this article.

Once past the aroma, co-taster Ted Lingle (79) had little positive to say about this blend, finding it lean in body, rather burned/bitter in flavor, and weak in presence in milk. Ken (84) also found the mouthfeel too lean and the finish too astringent, but enjoyed the berry-like, chocolate-leaning fruit that carried through the profile from aroma to milk. The reader who nominated this blend said he wanted "to see if this espresso is everything it is claimed it is."

For both Ken (81) and co-taster Ted Lingle (79) the aroma was muted and burned. Ted found the body in the small cup light; Ken (81) found it fuller but rough in mouthfeel. Nor did Ken or Ted have much positive to say about flavor: pungent and rough for Ted, burned and sharp for Ken. In milk pleasantly sweet but thin-bodied for Ted; Ken was more positive here, finding that the milk smoothed out the sharply roasty character of the coffee, turning it toward a pleasing fresh leather and a clove-toned spice. The reader who nominated this blend found it "exceptional, that's all."

In the aroma intensely but cleanly roasty: pungent cedar with faint fruit undertones: papaya and apricot. In the cup the aggressive charred cedar tones continue to dominate, but the fruit becomes more explicit, rounding and sweetening toward chocolate. Sweet chocolate tones buffer the astringency in the short finish, but in the long the astringency turns rather heavy and tongue-coating.

Subdued cedar and prune in the aroma. In the small cup medium body and lean mouthfeel. In flavor slightly smoky, slightly sharp, cedar-toned and rather shallow, with a suggestion of fruit and semi (very semi)-sweet chocolate. Shortish and rather astringent finish. Sweetens and rounds in milk, with some fruity chocolate softening the cedar and smoke.

Agreeable but a bit lazy in the aroma: spice, cedar, with the barest hint of apricot-toned chocolate. In the cup sweet, balanced gently rich, still dominated by cedar and smoke, but the chocolate-toned fruit, barely perceptible in the aroma, opens and blooms nicely.

Muted aroma with roasty pine and spice notes and a hint of low-key fruit. Delicate in the cup, with distinct and explicit spice notes ? cinnamon, nutmeg perhaps, with a continuing hint of apricot-toned fruit.

Decent enough in the aroma: sweetly pungent, balanced, intensely roasty with a twist of slightly charred cedar. In the cup sweet and pungent, but the charred cedar notes turn to charred board notes, expressionless and woody. A vague hint of fruit at the top of the profile. I hope the nominating reader tasted a better sample of the Verona than this one.

This particular sample of Original Blend exhibited an almost academically thorough anthology of coffee taints and shadow defects. Some cups were flat and musty, others seemed additionally green and astringent, and some were rich with a rather pleasant apricot-toned sweet ferment (perhaps what nominating reader Des Cabigan cited as "a sniff of oranges"). But not a single cup appeared on the table without some taint or other. Presumably the several nominating readers based their emails on a better iteration of the Original Blend than this one, something closer to the version to which I gave an 87 rating in 2002.

A thoroughly dispirited coffee, with little sweetness and limited nuance aside from hints of nondescript fruit and a sort of vegetal, slightly charred cocoa. This particular sample appears to consist of green coffees of ordinary to poor quality that were poorly roasted to boot. Presumably nominating reader C. Dowling got luckier than I did when he was inspired to nominate this blend as a "mellow ... all-around coffee."

Roasty and sweetly and gently charred, with a hint of fermented fruit that under the influence of the roast suggests a spicily aromatic chocolate - imagine bittersweet chocolate stored in charred cedar. Rich finish with a tingle of astringency.

Willem found this sample of the Starbucks staple blend "balanced throughout with no major high [positive] or low [negative] notes in aroma, flavor and aftertaste. [In the demitasse] some sweetness with a bitter end note. With milk, sweet, spicy, [with] a mild, pungent aftertaste." (85) Ken was less impressed. For him the aroma was "smoky, sweet and subdued," the body lean, the small cup "smoky and simple." He was most taken with this ubiquitous blend's impact in milk: "sweetens and rounds, prune fruit softens toward chocolate in the finish." (83)

This well-known blend, which attracted high ratings in previous Coffee Review tastings, mildly disappointed in this incarnation (Willem 84, Ken 84). Aroma fared well enough. For Willem it was "elegant, complex[ly] floral," for Ken "sweet, rich, with papaya and perhaps mint." Both found the small cup imbalanced, however. Willem described it as "acidy [and] spicy," Ken as "heavily pungent with aromatic wood notes." This imbalance predictably softened in milk: "Much better with milk than without" Willem concluded, although Ken felt the presence in milk was substantial but "rather ponderous with a woody finish."

Both Ken and Willem liked this blend, but Willem really liked it: "Floral aroma, buttery, smooth body, sweet flavor with berry and prune notes. Lingering aftertaste with resonant sweetness. Fantastic and complete as milk drink, with chocolate and caramel notes." (93) Ken honored and enjoyed the fruit notes, which he found complex but rather tart once past the aroma ("tart berry and pineapple, dry chocolate" in the small cup, "tart fruit with a floral finish" in milk). In the end Ken found the cup just a bit short on sweetness and depth of sensation, both with milk and without (87).

Willem: "Blossom-like, peppery aroma, just like the roses from my 50+year-old rose tree! Mild sweet flavor with lingering floral aftertaste. Excellent caramel complexity with milk. I loved it." (92) What for Willem was peppery and blossom-like, for Ken was spicy and fruity in the aroma and smokily fruity in the small cup. Ken wanted more sweetness in the demitasse but in milk praised this blend as "sweet, crisp and cherry-like edging toward chocolate." (89).

For Ken this naturally low-acid, lighter roasted blend was "Sweetly musty, cherry and apple in the aroma, heavy body with a tingle in the mouthfeel, crisp and toasty rather than sharp in the small cup, with excellent dimension and range."(91) Willem was less excited: "Bubbly and rich body. Chocolate, caramel notes with mildly woody then fruit notes in the aftertaste." (87) For both Ken and Willem, this blend came most distinctly into its own in milk. "Wonderful mastery of milk" according to Ken, "rich, complete, with a sort of carnal, earth-toned fruity chocolate." Willem: "Fantastic with milk: sweet, rich, lingering chocolate."