Blind Assessment: Richly sweet, spice-toned. Baker’s chocolate, cinnamon, banana, cashew, citrusy lantana flowers in aroma and cup. Bittersweet in structure, with juicy acidity; velvety-smooth mouthfeel. Notes of baker’s chocolate and banana are sweetly resonant in the short finish, spice-toned florals resurface in the long.

Notes: This coffee tied for the fourth-highest rating in a cupping of coffees from the Great Lakes region of Africa for Coffee Review’s June 2018 tasting report. Produced by Ben and Christy Carlson of Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi. Benefiting from ideal growing conditions and large plantings of local strains of the heirloom Bourbon variety of Arabica, Burundi has recently emerged as a premier Africa fine coffee origin. This is a dry-processed or “natural” coffee, 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. Green Stone Coffee is a woman-owned artisan roastery in Taipei, founded in 2016 and specializing in sourcing distinctive coffees that express their individual terroirs. Visit http://www.greenstone-coffee.com.tw/en/info.html for more information.

The Bottom Line: A solid natural-processed Burundi coffee with crisp, clean fruit notes and a hint of cinnamon-like spice.