Blind Assessment

Superb aroma: full, rich, stretching from winy top notes to a deep, engaging bottom. But the wine-like East African acidity turns hard in the cup, then reveals clear fermented notes as the coffee cools. The Java component is weak, failing to provide the expansive bottom such blends call for.

Notes

Offered whole-bean, this coffee had superb aroma, but the acidity turned hard in the cup. One of an array of Trader Joe's private-label coffees (as many as fifteen, both blended and straight), all offered whole-bean in nitrogen-flushed cans. The "Moka" or Mocha component of this Mocha-Java blend is an Ethiopian dry-processed coffee rather tha

Who Should Drink It

Perhaps I admired the aroma so much because many of the other coffees in the cupping were pre-ground and consequently rather flat in the nose. The rough, acidy profile, made even rougher by the ferment, could please palates that crave excitement over subtlety. Without the ferment this blend, at $5.99 per pound, would be a good value.

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