Blind Assessment: Evaluated as espresso. Chocolaty and sweetly herbaceous. Baking chocolate, lemon verbena, date, almond, a hint of eucalyptus in aroma and small cup. Crisply satiny mouthfeel. The finish consolidates to notes of baking chocolate and lemon verbena. In cappuccino-scaled milk, chocolate and fruit notes intensify, softening the herb notes.

Notes: Composed entirely from trees of the Catimor variety of Arabica grown in Yunnan China and processed by the honey method, in which some sweet pulp or fruit flesh (“honey”) is allowed to adhere to the beans during drying. Chu Bei, based in China’s Hubei Province, specializes in the roasting of coffee, cacao, and tea. Visit www.chubei.co for more information.  

The Bottom Line: A confident honey-processed Yunnan coffee with pleasing herbal tendencies in the straight shot and thoroughly chocolaty in milk.