• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Coffee Review

The World's Leading Coffee Guide

Advanced Search

Shop at Hula Daddy, Roaster of the No. 1 Coffee of 2018

  • Coffee Reviews
    • Latest Reviews
    • Top-Rated (94+)
    • Espressos
    • Best Values
    • Top 30 Coffees of 2019
    • Top 30 – Past Rankings
    • Pods and Capsules
    • 台灣送評的咖啡豆
    • Reviews by U.S. City
    • Advanced Search
  • Tasting Reports
    • Latest Reports
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia-Pacific
    • Espressos
    • Annual Top 30
    • Processing Method
    • Social/Environmental
    • Tree Variety
    • Blends
  • Equipment
  • Journal
    • Shop the Top 30 – 2019
    • Top Coffees by Category – 2019
    • Best Value Coffees of 2019
    • At Long Last, a 98-pt Coffee
    • Coffee’s Economic Paradox
  • About Us
    • Our Story
    • Kenneth Davids
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
  • Learn
    • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
    • Reference
    • Glossary
  • For the Trade
    • Getting Coffees Reviewed
    • Tasting Report Calendar
    • Becoming an Advertiser
    • Media Kit
    • Quoting Reviews
  • Advertisers

REVIEWS FOR:

New Crop Sumatra Coffees

By Kenneth Davids
February 1st, 1999

88

R & R Beans

Sumatra Mandheling

Review Date: Feb 1999

A solid, bordering-on-classic Sumatra profile: low-toned but rich, pleasantly pruny, its distinct pungency saved from bitterness by a sweetness that grows in power as the coffee cools.

Read Complete Review >
85

Willoughby's Coffee & Tea

Sumatra Mandheling

Review Date: Feb 1999
Willoughby's Coffee & Tea Logo

A rather refined profile, lighter and sweeter than most Sumatras, with clean hints of fruit and flowers under the usual Sumatra pungency. Much more expansively buoyant at the top of the profile than the other Sumatras in the cupping.

Read Complete Review >
Visit Willoughby's Coffee & Tea >
84

Timothy's World Coffee

Sumatra Mandheling

Review Date: Feb 1999

When the cup was hot I thought I had hit the Sumatra jackpot, something close to the great Sumatras of pre-Starbucks days, when Sumatra was an exotic secret shared by a handful of professionals and enthusiasts. Rich, burgundy-like fullness, gathering under the back edges of the tongue, with just enough acidity to set off dark tickles and echoes. However, a slightly bitter and salty aftertaste gave away this coffee's weakness, which became abundantly clear as the cup cooled: just enough hardness to dampen an otherwise splendid profile.

Read Complete Review >
80

Alpen Sierra Coffee Roasters

Sumatra Mandheling

Review Date: Feb 1999

Distinctive but limited. The strength of the cup is a powerfully smoky, carbony center with pleasing hints of dry chocolate. Little sweetness or range, however, making it a bit of a Johnny-one-note (though it's a rather exotic note).

Read Complete Review >
79

The Coffee Roaster

Sumatra Mandheling

Review Date: Feb 1999

The roast dominates the coffee here, overlaying the mouth-filling Sumatra richness with distinct carbon tones. The result is a dry, pungently full profile, powerful but a bit to astringent for my taste.

Read Complete Review >
79

Alpen Sierra Coffee Roasters

Decaf Sumatra

Review Date: Feb 1999

The dark roast style develops a subdued sweet-sweat pungency and attractive cedar tones in the aroma, but the cup disappoints. Not so much flat as underpowered: light-bodied, little range or dimension, with the main pleasure a gentle, unassuming bittersweetness.

Read Complete Review >
79

Great Northern Gourmet Coffees

Organic Sumatra

Review Date: Feb 1999

Assuming classic and earthy are not mutually exclusive terms, this is a classically earthy Sumatra: a round, muted but full earth taste gently dominates the profile. Apparently the earth taste comes from drying the coffee directly on the ground rather than on tarpaulins, the usual practice in Sumatra. Although the earth tones are wonderfully soft, overall the profile suffers from a slight bitterness.

Read Complete Review >
78

Klatch Coffee

Sumatra

Review Date: Feb 1999
Klatch Coffee logo

Another Sumatra with intrigue, but more murky than mysterious. The aroma is marvelous, alive with vanilla and sweet aromatic wood tones, but the cup settles down into a heavy smokiness unrelieved by lift or sweetness. Hints of dry chocolate turn tobaccoish in the finish.

Read Complete Review >
Visit Klatch Coffee >
78

Starbucks Coffee

Decaf Sumatra

Review Date: Feb 1999

Another decaf-ravaged Sumatra: Here the aroma is as subdued as the cup. A touch of carbon from the roast and a bit of sweet tobacco from the Sumatra, but not much else: clean, low-toned, empty.

Read Complete Review >
77

Starbucks Coffee

Sumatra

Review Date: Feb 1999

Under the taste of the darkish roast style earthy, but not a sweet or inviting earth. A bit hard (no pun), without depth, bounce or resonance. A tobaccoey, salty tickle in the finish.

Read Complete Review >
77

Salt Spring Roasting Company

Sumatra Dark Roast

Review Date: Feb 1999

A clean profile, but a bit flat. No sweetness, no lift, little dimension. Deep but opaque.

Read Complete Review >

Primary Sidebar

1st in Coffee Logo

Shop for top-rated coffees at Trade Coffee Co.

Shop for 94-point Kenya at Coava Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Amavida Coffee Roasters

Shop for top-rated coffees at GoCoffeeGo

Quality Packaging Solutions from AFPAK

Shop for top-rated coffees at JBC Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Dragonfly Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Paradise Roasters

Shop for coffee equipment at 1st in Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Peach Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at CafeTaster in Taiwan

Shop for top-rated coffees at Kakalove in Taiwan

Shop for top-rated coffee at 94 Fresh Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at Durango Coffee Company

Shop for top-rated coffees at Magnolia Coffee

Shop for Top-rated coffees at Barrington Coffee Roasters

Become an advertiser

Shop for top-rated coffees at Bird Rock Coffee

Get Coffees Reviewed

Shop for top-rated coffees at Dragonfly Coffee

Shop for top-rated coffees at JBC Coffee Roasters

Connect with Us

Sign Up for Our Free E-Newsletter

Enter your email address below to receive our free e-mail newsletter
  • Coffee Reviews
  • Tasting Reports
  • Reference
  • Glossary
  • Advertisers
  • Contact Us
  • Journal
  • Kenneth Davids
  • Interpreting Coffee Reviews
  • Caveats about Coffee Ratings
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Getting Coffees Reviewed
  • Site Map
  • Advertising Opportunities
  • Quoting Reviews
  • Copyright
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Security

Copyright © 2019 Coffee Review. All Rights Reserved.