Price, Quality and Value: Questioning Competition Coffees

Chocolate and citrus on the break. Regal acidity, complex flavors of chocolate, citrus and herbs. A powerful, intense and demanding cup. Haunting, persistent finish. Perfect roast of this especially challenging bean. What great coffee is all about.

Cocoa laced with citrus in the aroma. Flavors are as complex and sculpted as a top Alsatian Riesling, with intense lemon and orange acidity, chocolate, and a suggestion of fresh chive or tarragon always associated with this variety. A powerful, aristocratic grand cru. This fragile, low-density variety is a major challenge to roast (and cannot handle dark roasting); this is a particularly masterful roasting job.

Spectacularly aromatic in both dry and infused aroma: candied lemon peel, bergamot, hints of jasmine. Medium bodied and sweet, with superb acidity and flavors that suggest both the mentholated citrus of a Yirgacheffe and the blueberry notes of a Harrar, but without a trace of ferment or earthiness. Perfumed perfection.

Cocoa and dark chocolate aroma, vigorous flavors of dark chocolate laced with cherry, medium-full body, intense, focused acidity, great purity. Ideally roasted.

Mouth watering dark chocolate laced with butter caramel and black cherry, subtler flavors of cigar leaf and mace. Razor sharp acidity. Extraordinary concentration, vigor and balance. Exceptionally skillful, tender roast that lets the coffee shine.

Huge body, luscious Belgian chocolate flavor with plenty of supporting acidity. Vanilla bean along with the chocolate in the finish. Roast is perfectly matched to the coffee.

Crisply acidy but big-bodied and lavishly chocolate-toned. Vanilla bean complicates the chocolate in the finish. A tactful match of roast to coffee.

Cocoa and caramel aroma. Blazing acidity, dark chocolate and caramel, regal balance. A nicely conducted, relatively light roast makes this balanced but assertive coffee particularly well-suited for vacuum pot and drip brewing.

Dark chocolate and caramel in the aroma. Luscious body, cherry-laced dark chocolate in the cup.