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REVIEWS FOR:

Holiday Blends and Other Gift Coffees

By Kenneth Davids
November 5th, 2006

96

Terroir Coffee

Kenya Mamuto Kirinyaga

Review Date: Nov 2006

Vividly lively yet elegantly smooth coffee. Intense aroma with tart cherry and round, low-acid fruit notes, banana perhaps, with hints of fresh leather. In the cup sweet, lyric acidity, light but silky mouthfeel, cherry and cocoa notes. Rich, sweet, deeply long finish.

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93

Barefoot Coffee Roasters

Anniversary Blend

Review Date: Nov 2006

A quietly exotic, complex blend of impressive originality. Smoothly midtoned, gently pungent aroma. In the cup displays lively, almost peppery acidity and full body with some tingle in the mouthfeel. Lyrically and richly sweet, with a wine-like, black grapey hint of ferment and a slight musty-malty edge. A surprising shimmer of flowers in the long finish.

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92

Paradise Roasters

Ethiopia Kaffa Forest

Review Date: Nov 2006

Very complete aroma: pungently acidy but sweet-toned, with fat banana-like fruit and chocolate hints. In the cup gently round, rich acidity, medium body, silky mouthfeel, and distinct orange, lavender and fresh pipe tobacco notes with a little chocolate lean toward the finish. Excellent flavor persistence in the long, complex finish.

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90

Terroir Coffee

Kenya Karindundu Nyeri

Review Date: Nov 2006

An intense coffee dominated from aroma through finish by a rich, tartly sweet acidity and high-toned lemon and dry berry notes. The finish, like the entire profile, is as deeply sweet as it is uncompromisingly dry.

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90

Klatch Coffee

Original Christmas

Review Date: Nov 2006
Klatch Coffee logo

An exhilarating and intense blueberry and wine character dominates the profile from aroma to finish. In the aroma the blueberry and wine tones are particularly pure and sweet. In the cup things grow more complicated: the blueberry takes a chocolate turn and the wine may strike some palates as too aggressively fermented. The finish is even more ambiguous, as the blueberry fruit persists nicely but takes a slightly soapy, salty direction. There are some coffee professionals who would give this unorthodox coffee a rating of 95; others would throw it off the table at 75.

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88

Quartermaine Coffee Roasters

Holiday Blend 2006

Review Date: Nov 2006

Sweet-toned, gently roasty aroma with distinct grapefruit notes and the barest hints of cedar and chocolate. In the cup the roast tones are sharper but still sweet, reading even more clearly as a richly pungent grapefruit with a slight chocolate cast. Deep finish with almost no astringency. A slight unevenness from cup to cup brought down the rating of this fundamentally distinguished dark-roasted coffee.

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88

Willoughby's Coffee & Tea

Holiday Blend

Review Date: Nov 2006
Willoughby's Coffee & Tea Logo

Sweetly smoky, fruity aroma. In the cup light to medium body with a silky mouthfeel and quiet balance between a gentle acidity and a discreetly roast (cedar and toast) character. A hint of dark chocolate in the cup and butterscotch in the simple but rich finish.

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87

Orleans Coffee Exchange

Holiday Blend

Review Date: Nov 2006

Rather muted, mildly sweet, gingerbready aroma. Plumps up nicely in the cup, however: full-bodied, round, deep, with toasty caramel and fat, banana-toned fruit. Cleanly rich, sweet finish.

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86

Mocha Joe's Specialty Coffee Roasters

Holiday Blend

Review Date: Nov 2006

Very sweet-toned aroma with a round, banana-like fruit and hints of fresh-cut cedar, flowers, and sweet spice. Remains sweet in the cup with a sort of banana-bread molasses-and-fruit character, but the roast impact is lean and a touch bitterish. Rich short finish, slightly heavy long.

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