Blind Assessment: For me this coffee lacks sufficient sweetness to support its attractive tobacco, spice and floral notes. Sweetness in dry-processed coffees like this one comes from sustained contact of the bean with ripe fruit during drying. The profile-flattening lack of sweetness here may derive from too many green or unripe cherries in the mix.

Notes: This espresso is roasted in traditional Italian machines fired by oak. Though the wood smoke does not influence taste, it does encourage a slow roast. This coffee has attractive tobacco, spice and floral notes, but lacks sweetness. Mr. Espresso coffees are roasted in traditional Italian machines fired by oak. The wood smoke does not enter the roasting drum or influence taste, but the technology does encourage a slow, deliberate approach to roasting.

Who Should Drink It: Those austere souls who prefer a tobacco-toned dryness to sweeter, ampler-bodied Brazils.