The World's Leading Coffee Guide
We have published thousands of coffee reviews and espresso reviews since 1997. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee. To search for a specific roaster, origin or coffee use the Advanced Search Function.
Smooth, delicately crisp, subtly distinctive. Lemony cocoa and dusk flowers in aroma and cup. Gently dry acidity; light, buoyant mouthfeel. The balanced, flavor-saturated finish fades with a long, slow, lovely trajectory.
Soft and balanced. Sweet-toned nut dominates in aroma and cup, with rounding melon-like fruit and citrusy top notes. Crisply tart acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Simple, sweet, gently rich finish.
Refined earth tones turn berry- and orange-toned fruit deep and pungent. Richly tart, well-integrated acidity, lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The pungent fruit carries into a long, resonant finish.
Rich, round, deep. Roasted nut, dusk flowers, cocoaish dark chocolate, melon-like fruit with a hint of citrus in aroma and cup. Wine-toned acidity; silky mouthfeel. The dry chocolate and melon suggestions carry into a long, resonant finish.
Frank but brilliant in its complex fermented fruit character: cocoa, dusk flowers, butter, brandy, lemon all layer engagingly in aroma and cup. The sweet, exuberant ferment seems to turn the mouthfeel almost effervescent. Sweetness and flavor outlast a hint of astringency in the long finish.
Rich fruit-toned aroma turns pungent in the cup, displaying an intense black-currant-laced chocolate with hints of flowers and lemon. Soft but penetrating acidity and silky mouthfeel. Dark chocolate in particular lingers in the sweet-toned finish.
A relatively light roast develops this pure high-grown coffee’s giddy natural sweetness, delicately bright acidity and tart fruit notes. Light, silky mouthfeel. The tart fruit softens toward chocolate in the finish.
Notes of nut, milk chocolate and aromatic wood dominate the aroma. In the cup the aromatics intensify, highlighted by rich, albeit slightly musty tones of dark chocolate, toasted almond and suggestions of citrus fruit and baking spices. Flavors linger softly in a dry finish.
Sweetly and richly pungent: cedar, grapefruit, freshly turned earth in aroma and cup. Rich, roundly bright acidity; medium body; silky mouthfeel. The citrus turns orangy in a fine, flavor-saturated finish.
Evaluated as espresso. Deep, dark-chocolaty aroma turns crisper in the small cup, which co-taster Sean Kohmescher (90) read as dry, “limeish” and floral, Ken (90) as more orangy and anise-like. Rich, dry, very long finish with a clear citrus edge. Two parts milk revives a delicate and cocoaish version of the chocolate, rounding the citrus and flowers.
Evaluated as espresso. Although Ken (90) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (90) produced identical ratings, they read this coffee a bit differently, with Sean emphasizing its brightish citrus and floral tendencies while Ken added dark chocolate and hint of brandy. Sean was citrus inclined more toward lemon and lime, Ken toward a deeper-toned orange. Both read the small cup as medium in weight though slightly lean in mouthfeel, but admired the sample performance in two parts milk, finding it smooth, creamy, complex: berry, flowers, lemony cocoa.
Evaluated as espresso. Co-taster Sean Kohmescher (92) and Ken (88) split on this coffee and how to read its deep, ferment-toned fruit. Sean enjoyed the distinctive character of the fruit: “stone-fruited chocolate” with a hint of grapefruit. Ken read the same fruit but also picked up nagging musty/salty tendencies. Two parts milk smoothed things out a bit for Ken, developing a chocolaty sweetness, though Sean remained more committed here also, praising the shot’s “light, sweet, berries and cream” performance in milk.
Evaluated as espresso. Ken, at 92, liked this unusual sample better than co-taster Sean Kohmescher (90) did, perhaps because Ken read more depth in the aromatics and flavor. Sean stopped at citrus, honey and caramel in aroma and small cup whereas Ken added dark chocolate and pungent fir. Ken also found a bit more going on in the finish, with flowers complicating a deep, bananaish chocolate. In two parts milk Ken and Sean read the cup about the same although applying slightly different language, with Sean citing lemon and ”light caramel” and Ken a “lemony chocolate.”
Evaluated as espresso. Gently tart, lemony, delicate. Co-taster Sean Kohmescher (91) was a bit more lavish in his descriptors than Ken (91): “bright citrus” in the aroma; more sweet citrus, vanilla, hints of flowers and honey in the small cup; vanilla and cranberries in the finish. Ken pretty much left it at lemon and flowers. The lemon dominated in two parts milk, but the milk coaxed out a sweet chocolate to round and support it.
Evaluated as espresso. Complex dried-in-the-fruit profile. “Berries and more berries” in the aroma for co-taster Sean Kohmescher (91). For Ken (91) berries plus a lot of other notes: brandy, malty dark chocolate, fresh-cut cedar. In the small cup Sean felt the aromatics turned crisper and drier: lemon, flowers, green bitters (as in asparagus); Ken read the same rounder, brandyish, cedary berries-and-chocolate notes as he had in the aroma. Both found the body medium and the mouthfeel silky. Rather crisp in two parts milk; cocoa for Ken, lemon and flowers for Sean.
Evaluated as espresso. Although both Ken (94) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (90) lavished a bundle of descriptors on this complex and challenging espresso, the real issue was how much to honor a pungent, musky character as it plays out in a well-pulled espresso. Both Ken and Sean were puzzled by the unusual aroma, but Sean, as he followed it into the cup, found it pleasing but just a bit edgy, perhaps musty, whereas Ken enthusiastically read it rich with the sort of pungent, earthy grapefruit character one finds in the best Sumatras. In two parts milk Sean found this flavor complex “musky” and “antique”; for Ken it was suavely nut-like.
Evaluated as espresso. Both Ken (93) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (93) admired sweet-toned floral and bright lemony suggestions broadened by leather-like, musky bottom notes. Medium to full body, syrupy mouthfeel. Cocoaish chocolate and hints of lemon and flowers carry pleasingly into two parts milk.
Evaluated as espresso. Both Ken (94) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) remarked on and enjoyed distinct and subtly unusual roasted nut and fudgy (Sean’s term) chocolate notes in aroma and small cup. Also some fruit complication (orange for Ken, berry for Sean). Medium to full body, smooth mouthfeel, and a superb finish that just keeps coming, carrying subtly transforming flavor notes far into the reaches of sensory memory. Fades just a bit in two parts milk, but remains pleasing and balanced.
Evaluated as espresso. Co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) and Ken (94) both admired this sample’s refined complexity and chocolate-toned depth. Ken cited crisp fir and lemon complication, whereas Sean’s reading of nuance inclined more toward berry and wine. Both found the sample slightly more impressive in the small cup than in milk, but nevertheless honored its sweet chocolaty balance in two parts milk, nuanced (for Ken) by hints of flowers and lemon.
Evaluated as espresso. Great depth and range of sensation. Between Ken (94) and co-taster Sean Kohmescher (94) about a dozen aroma/flavor descriptors surfaced, most circling around fruit (stone fruit, wine grape, berry) and nut-toned dark chocolate. Medium to full body; silky/syrupy mouthfeel; crisply dry, flavor-saturated finish. Balanced, chocolaty and berryish in two parts milk.
