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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.
As usual this famously refined espresso comes across either as elegantly refined or excessively delicate depending on taste, expectation and (despite Illy's rigorous quality assurance) slight variations in the blend itself. This time around I was impressed by the purity of the aroma and its floral, apple, lemon and milk chocolate notes. The mouthfeel certainly is not fat, but could be praised as silky. The cup could be criticized as a bit too sharp and simple, or valued (as I did) for its gentle tartness and hints of cedar, flowers and lemon. The finish could be praised for its floral and fruit persistence or criticized for a slight lean toward astringency. In short milk one could find it quietly sweet with a fine crisp chocolate (as I did) or lazy and wanting in power and fatness.
Rich, balanced but subdued aroma: pruny fruit, nut, a hint of chocolate. In the small cup fullish in body with a slightly rough mouthfeel, aromatically simple but sweetly resonant in structure with hints of cedar and chocolate. Clean, sweet finish. Comes into its own in milk, where it blooms richly with a deep, malty chocolate.
Sweet-toned aroma with a musty fruit that suggests bananas, dark chocolate and raisins. In the small cup syrupy but slightly rough mouthfeel, sweetly and richly pungent with a cedary semi-sweet chocolate that persists nicely into the finish. Impressive in milk: rich, with a sweet, mint-finishing dark chocolate.
As a straight shot extraordinarily syrupy and liqueur-like. The aroma is sweet and round with a musty ferment that reads as a sort of drunken/brandyish chocolate. In the small cup startlingly full-bodied and smoothly viscous with long-finishing, tight-knit complexity that ranges in suggestion from carnal melon to semi-sweet chocolate to sweet, pungent, molasses-toned tobacco to an earthy morel mushroom. Curiously, given its monumental body, fades and thins in milk, the chocolaty notes persisting but not blooming.
Sweet, deep aroma with chocolaty fruit and a hint of flowers. Silky mouthfeel, smooth in the cup with semi-sweet chocolate and orange peel notes. Rich and sweet in the short finish; a recurring hint of flowers and a slight astringency in the long. As the cup cools the orange-toned chocolate persists sweetly but the body thins.
Intense aroma: nut, mint, brandied cherry chocolate. In the cup rich acidity, silky body and a continuing aromatic profile so deeply and explosively complex that a world of coffee sensation can be found in it: cocoaish chocolate, raisin, flowers, lemon, brandy, orange peel. Very sweet and flavor-saturated short finish, though in the long a very slight salty astringency shadows the fine aromatic echoes.
A superb example of its type, though not a coffee for the conventional. Wood and musty earth notes in the aroma are enriched by butter and orange that together read persuasively as a sort of butterscotch. Rather lean-bodied but very sweet in the cup with orange, pipe tobacco and continued butterscotch notes. In the finish suddenly blossoms and soars, with altogether new and surprising chocolate and even some giddy floral notes.
Lushly complex aroma: flowers, honey, molasses and sweetly tart fruit notes that suggest grapefruit. In the cup moderate in acidity, medium in body, with an opulent candyish, molasses-toned floral character and continued tart fruit notes enriched by a slight, brandy-like ferment. Clean, rich finish. The cup flattens very slightly as it cools.
No hints here: The aromatics are direct, inescapable, lavish. Lushly intense blueberry, chocolate, and floral-toned honey in the aroma. In the cup the incendiary aromatics are influenced by a wine-like acidity that turns the berry and chocolate notes crisp and richly dry. The fundamental berry and floral notes linger with surprising clarity in the finish, although they are outlasted by a slight but forgivable astringency.
Deep, sweet-toned aroma with distinct floral top notes and hints of butter and cedar. Simplifies slightly in the cup, but remains deep, balanced and big-bodied, with semi-sweet chocolate notes that carry into a richly clean finish.
Opens well: Very sweet-toned, deep aroma with a hint of mustiness that merely complicates a tight-knit, delicate complexity: cedar, semi-sweet chocolate, dry berry, orange. In the cup remains sweet, but the musty character dominates, narrowing the aromatics toward a sort of rough, cedary chocolate. Rather tight, salty finish.
Sweet-toned, delicately rich aroma: hints of flowers, milk chocolate, orange, molasses. In the cup the mouthfeel is lean to the point of watery, with aromatics so delicate they almost don't register: orange, molasses, pipe tobacco, and nut-like notes that hint at chocolate. Impressively clean, sweet finish.
Soft aroma, with floral top notes, and prune- or apricot-toned fruit and a hint of chocolate. Simplifies in the cup, turning gently bittersweet. The deep-toned, prune-like fruit grows more pungent, the chocolate hints drier. Smoothes out again in the impressively sweet, finish.
Crisp, rather limited aroma: caramel and milk chocolate. In the cup sweet, delicate, rather shallow and lean, with a pleasant dry nutty chocolate character. Unexpectedly, the finish stretches out splendidly, rich and chocolate-toned.
Sweet-toned, deep aroma with distinct orange notes and hints of nut and semi-sweet chocolate. The cup is dominated by a plush orange- and wine-toned acidity, sweet and richly balanced, with continued hints of dry chocolate that carry into a richly astringent finish.
Very sweet-toned, very deeply dimensioned aroma, with lush cedary chocolate notes and hints of banana and molasses. In the cup plush in mouthfeel, roundly resonant, chocolate-toned. Rich but simple finish.
Sweet-toned, soft, very delicate aroma with orange, floral and pungently buttery (butterscotch?) notes. In the cup light to medium bodied but silky in mouthfeel, with a gently bittersweet character and crisp chocolate and orange peel notes. As the cup cools an attractive mint-like note also emerges. The chocolate and orange notes linger impressively in the long, clean finish.
Pure, balanced, quietly complete. Sweet-toned, deep aroma with rounded fruit notes, butter, milk chocolate, a hint of flowers and lemon. In the cup rich acidity, silky mouthfeel and continued understated milk chocolate, butter and tart-cherry coffee-fruit notes. Sweet, consistent finish.
In the aroma delicately complex: berries, flowers, sweet lemon, honey. In the cup opulent: syrupy mouthfeel, sweet acidity, crisply powerful berry notes, continued hints of honey and flowers. Only a rich but simple finish prevents this coffee from rating in the high 90s.
A grandly classic coffee, very sweet and deep in the aroma, with berry- and cherry-toned fruit and a balancing hint of crisp lemon and cedar. The cup is dominated by a full, lush acidity: gently tart yet almost sugary sweet. The dry berry and cherry notes persist in the rich finish.
