In the aroma this relatively light-roasted coffee is caramelly but smoky, with cherry and sweet pipe tobacco notes. In the cup it is delicate yet robust and very sweet, with a smoothly rich acidity, heavy body, and a giddy complexity anchored around wine and cherry tones with hints of smoke and milk chocolate. The finish is clean, long and sweet.
REVIEWS FOR:
Fruit and Flowers: Coffees of Central and Southern Africa
By Kenneth Davids
February 5th, 2005
Everything explodes near the top of the profile in this intensely fragrant coffee. The aroma is rich with floral, sweet lemon and lush chocolate notes. Exhilarating floral tones dominate the cup, but to simply call them floral understates their complexity: This is a whole symphonic garden of flowers. The body is light but the impression and mouthfeel delicate and buoyant. Only the very slightest astringency in the finish mars this exceptional coffee.
A tribute to the upside of slightly fermented fruit tones in coffee. Sweet and completely free of bitterness or saltiness, the ferment comes across as sweetly orange-toned in the aroma with a crisp hint of cedar, in the cup as a lushly ripe papaya- and peach-toned fruitiness that leans toward chocolate but never quite surrenders its tropical juiciness.
Low-toned fruit (peach?), semi-sweet chocolate and fresh-cut cedar notes in the aroma. The cup is delicate but lush, enlivened by a softly tart acidity and complicated by continued fruit (cherry, peach) and semi-sweet chocolate notes. The finish is simple but sweetly clean.
A low-toned but deceptively lyric coffee. Rich in both aroma and cup: in aroma pear, caramel, and hints of flowers and cinnamon; in cup caramel, yellow fruit (peach?) and chocolate with hints of flowers and dry berry. The finish is agreeably chocolate-toned, particularly as the cup cools, although slightly heavy.
A changeable coffee both as it cools and from session to session. Constants are a crisp coffee fruit that probably best reads as pear or cherry, a smoky, spicy chocolate sensation, and distinct floral notes that at times resemble an elegant, heady lilac. The finish tends to be heavy, but as the cup cools the long finish is finely floral.
A simple but refreshing coffee: rather high-toned, delicate in body, gently acidy, with coffee fruit that reads as cherry with a sweet-pipe-tobacco twist. The finish is rich, clean, and surprisingly long.
Simple but deeply rich aroma, with a distinct raisin/prune complication. The cup displays a gentle acidity wrapped in a deep, fundamental sweetness, with muted notes of dusk-blooming flowers, papaya, caramel, raisins. Simple but long, clean finish.
Richly and deeply roasty in the aroma with some fruit complication - fresh plum perhaps. The roast gently dominates in the cup, bittersweet, with undercurrents of fresh plum and hints of chocolate and flowers. Richly roasty in the short finish, slightly astringent in the long.
Smoothly pungent, roasty presentation. Cedar, prune and raisin notes contribute to a pleasingly complex aroma, but the roast dominates the aromatics in the cup, relieved mainly by subtle but distinct floral top notes. Astringent though rich in the short finish, floral-toned in the long.
A potentially fine coffee compromised by mild mildew tones probably picked up during storage. The aroma is flat, potatoey and faded. In the cup, however, sweet, lushly winy tones compete with the musty hardness, a combination that some coffee drinkers may find attractive. The finish is rich and clean.