Blind Assessment: The roast dominates the coffee in this extreme dark-roast profile. Intensely but roundly and sweetly charred in the aroma, with a gingery, cedarish complication. The cup is dominated by charred tones that remain just on the pleasantly rich, aromatic cedar side of flat-out burned.

Notes: The coffees making up this dark-roasted blend all represent long-term importing and support relationships between Equal Exchange and organizations of small-holding farmers. All coffees are Fair-Trade certified and certified organically grown. Equal Exchange is a worker-owned cooperative founded in 1986 to, as the Equal Exchange website describes it, "... create a new approach to trade, one that includes informed consumers, honest and fair trade relationships and cooperative principles." Visit www.equalexchange.com or call 774-776-7400 for more information.

Who Should Drink It: Lovers of social and economic justice and extremely dark "French" roasts.