Blind Assessment:

Round, resonant, deep. Dark chocolate, gently scorched cedar, raisin, plum blossom, musk in aroma and cup. Gently brisk acidity; light though syrupy-textured mouthfeel. Dark chocolate and flowers carry into a rich though drying finish with a complicating suggestion of savory.

Notes:

This sample, produced in Yunnan Province, China by the ManLao River plantation, consists entirely of peaberries, a kind of bean that results when the coffee fruit develops only a single, oval bean rather than the usual pair of flat-sided beans. Peaberries produce a somewhat different (often better) cup than normal beans from the same crop, from which they may or may not be separated during grading. This coffee when roasted for retail sale is sold in an attractive round fiberboard gift container. AHRIRE is a micro-roaster spun off from the ManLao River project, a non-profit project for alleviating poverty and protecting the environment in the Pu’er region of Yunnan Province. AH-RI-RE or “Tiger” in the Li language is the name of the head roaster, an ethnic minority who aims in his roasting to “showcase the robust, multi-faceted flavors in nature.”

Who Should Drink It: A discreet darker roast develops the chocolate and musky floral notes in this interesting China coffee.