Blind Assessment: Complex, uniquely sweet, tropical. Plumeria, roasted cacao nib, mango, sandalwood, nougat in aroma and cup. Sweetly tart structure with bright, juicy acidity; syrupy mouthfeel. The finish carries through on the promise of the cup, with rich florals in the short and deep fruit notes in the long, where a new element, a soft fruit tone suggesting coconut, surfaces.

Notes: This exceptional coffee was selected as the No. 8 coffee on Coffee Review’s list of the Top 30 Coffees of 2017, and it earned the highest rating in a tasting of holiday coffees for Coffee Review‘s December 2017 tasting report. Produced from trees of the rare Ethiopia-derived botanical variety Gesha (also Geisha) by farmer Roberto Brenes of Auromar Estate. With its generally elongated beans and distinctive floral and crisp, often chocolaty cup, the Gesha variety continues to distinguish itself as one of the world’s most unique coffees. This is a dry-processed or “natural” Gesha, meaning the beans were dried inside the fruit rather than after the fruit has been removed, as is the case with wet-processed or “washed” coffees. Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea is a pioneer specialty coffee roaster established in the early 1980s that has gracefully and successfully moved with the times and now offers a menu of extremely refined small-lot, single-origin coffees. Visit www.willoughbyscoffee.com or call 800-388-8400 for more information.

The Bottom Line : A dynamic coffee with complex aromatics that invoke the tropics—and a seemingly infinite finish, richly sweet and flavor-saturated.