Blind Assessment: Co-taster Willem Boot: "Fine and complex fruity/minty aroma. Exotic berry-like flavor notes with fascinating wild black currant aftertaste. Balanced, sweet and intriguing with milk" (93) Ken characterized the wild, sweet, edge-of-ferment fruit tones running through the profile from aroma to aftertaste as black cherry, and enjoyed them almost as much as Willem (90). In milk Ken completely concurred with Willem: "sweet, balanced, lovely."

Notes: This coffee was recommended as espresso by a discerning Coffee Review reader, Richard Reynolds. Yemen's small-holding farmers prepare their coffee in the simplest of fashion: pick it and put it out, fruit and all, to dry on the roofs of their stone houses. The resulting fruity, wild character can make for excellent espresso, as it does here. This coffee is most likely not a certified organically grown coffee, by the way, but a passive or de facto organic: Yemeni farmers simply don't use chemicals. Bartlett's is a boutique San Francisco Bay Area roaster. Visit www.bartlettcoffee.com for more info.

Who Should Drink It: Lovers of the exotic. The extravagant fruit tones turn elegant under the impact of espresso roast and brewing.