The World's Leading Coffee Guide
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.
Distinctive aromatics: sweetly dry fruit notes that suggest black current, blackberry, tart cherry, cedary orange. Lightly syrupy mouthfeel, fine balance. Long, deep finish that stays on the rich side of astringent.
Delicate but intense aroma, with milk chocolate, nut and coffee fruit notes that read as tart cherry. In the cup impressive balance and structure: lushly sweet but crisply acidy with a lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Continued tart cherry and chocolate notes carry into a simple but cleanly rich finish.
Richly sweet-toned aroma: orange, cocoa, butterscotch. In the cup big, simple, authoritative but ingratiating, with round, ringing acidity and the pure expression of coffee fruit, a tart cherry sensation. Clean, deep, cherryish finish.
Sweet-toned, quiet aroma with nut, dried cherry and chocolate. Elegantly balanced cup: softly acidy, silky in mouthfeel, with continued dried cherry, cocoaish chocolate and a slight brightening hint of lemon. The chocolate notes in particular carry into the long, rich, complex finish.
Intense, balanced aroma: cedar, cherry, flowers, orange. In the cup syrupy body with an almost bouillon-like richness, deeply but quietly acidy, with floral high notes and a wonderfully deep cherry- and cedar-toned chocolate. The pungent chocolate/fruit notes carry into a long, flavor-saturated finish.
Sweet-toned, delicately complex aroma: flowers, hints of honey, cedar and tart cherry, perhaps chocolate. In the cup very gently acidy, light in body but buoyant and silky in mouthfeel, and giddily floral- and honey-toned with complicating hints of chocolate, tart coffee fruit and Riesling-like white wine. Fades rather quickly in the finish but exquisitely clean with memories of chocolate and flowers. An exceptionally pure and balanced coffee.
Simple aroma but very sweet-toned, gently pungent, with flower and butter notes. In the cup medium bodied with silky mouthfeel and continued distinct floral notes and hints of caramel and chocolate. Stays on the rich side of astringent in the slightly tight but continued sweet finish.
Exquisitely clean coffee at a sensitive light roast. Delicate in structure and mouthfeel, gently and sweetly acidy, with flowering grass and molasses notes and hints of nut and milk chocolate in aroma and cup.
Rich, gently pungent aroma with butter, floral and apricot-toned fruit hints. In the small cup medium body, syrupy mouthfeel, and rather sharply but sweetly cedary with continued apricot and flowers and an explicit moist, leafy earth note. At its best in milk: rich, strong-presenced but sweet with dark chocolate and sustained suggestions of moist earth and flowers.
Deep-toned aroma with great range and complexity: flowers, orange, cocoa, butter, cedar. In the cup richly acidy, medium in body, silky in mouthfeel, with continued lavender-like floral notes, crisp cocoa, dry berry. Clean, tartly juicy finish with flower notes present to the last fading.
Decent but flawed ultra-dark-roast. Begins well: Roundly and gently charred in the aroma with hints of dark chocolate and butter. In the cup medium body and a simple but richly, buttery charred character with a continued slight suggestion of chocolate. A rather rich astringency in the short finish grows more insistent in the long. As the cup cools the hints of chocolate regrettably give way to hints of rubber.
Sweet-toned, softly pungent aroma with wood and molasses notes. In the cup syrupy body and very sweet in structure, with continuing distinct molasses notes and some woody underpinnings. In the finish fades almost immediately.
Low in acidity, with a sweet, mildly fermented fruit that struck me as a bit too cloyingly sweet (banana-ish fruit, cut flowers past their prime) in the aroma, but cleaner and more attractive in the cup (banana, slightly fresher flowers, syrupy mouthfeel) and especially in a rich, fruity, if mildly astringent finish.
Intense, roundly balanced aroma with mildly pungent roast character and orange, nut and cedary chocolate notes. In the cup low in acidity, medium in body and agreeable but rather simple aromatically: bittersweet, woody, with only a hint of cedary, perhaps earthy, chocolate. Not a long finish, but sweet and rich.
Softly bittersweet with molasses and woody nut notes that with imagination could suggest chocolate. Silky to syrupy mouthfeel and a simple, woody but rich finish without distracting astringency. The woody flatness intensifies a bit as the cup cools and the aromatics fade, but still a remarkably balanced and satisfying blend at a remarkably low price.
Sweet-toned, softly acidy, dominated by fresh-cut wood notes, with a second wave of sensation suggesting a sort of herb-toned dark chocolate. The chocolate notes carry directly into an impressively sweet, round finish.
Simple, rather shallow aroma but agreeably chocolate- and nut-toned. In the cup low in acidity, syrupy in mouthfeel, sweet-toned with continued nut and crisply cocoaish chocolate notes. In the finish fades rather quickly but on the way out remains cocoaish and rich.
A low-key but still distinctive cup: crisp, lean-bodied, with sweet blackberry, dry black currant and pungently orange, nut and cedar notes. If it were not for a flavor-dampening undercurrent of wood this would be a 90-point coffee.
Sweet, crisp, simple with walnut and minty dark chocolate notes in the aroma that consolidate as a distinct, pleasing cocoa in the quietly balanced cup. The long, rich, cocoa-toned finish is particularly impressive.
In the aroma sweet, intense: molasses, dry berry, butter, earth. In the cup gently acidy, delicate but - again - intense, with continued molasses and cocoa-toned earth notes. A coffee both wild and elegant. Slight heaviness in the finish and slightly uneven cups.
