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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.
Amazingly, behind the dampening effect of the aggressive dark roast a delicate, exquisite floral sweetness survives among the equally delicate charred, pungent notes. Think of a meadow that survived a forest fire.
A dark roast that tip-toes past burned to achieve a smooth, integrated bittersweetness, enlivened by a hint of acidity and a touch of fruit.
This coffee opens opulently, with a complex, enveloping aroma alive with nutty, spicy, bittersweet tones. In the cup the profile is smoky sweet, discreetly brightened by a touch of acidity. As the cup cools, however, the sweetness fades and the smokiness reveals hard, musty undertones. My rating faded too, from a high of 87 to a final landing at 81.
Smoky, resiny tones turn the Harrar fruit richly winy. In the finish everything softens and sweetens. The cabernet fruit tones deepen toward chocolate and the smoke tones turn toward fresh tobacco.
A light, bright breath of acidity shimmers inside an amazing bouquet of sweet jasmine and darker, woodier fragrances. The cup soars in a delicious, reeling dizziness of flowers, then immediately relaxes into spicy shadows. Somehow, all of the range and complexity remains precariously, elegantly in balance.
Pungent Sumatra tones wrap around the Ethiopian flowers and Yemen fruit. The deep, aromatic wood tones modulate to a fruity, cherryish chocolate in the finish. The pungency turned slightly flat as the cup cools, slightly shadowing an intriguing and dramatic cup.
Classic vanilla-nut aroma and a solid, authoritatively dry cup, bright but not brassy. Not a lot of nuance, but outstanding range and balance.
A pleasant roast-driven pungency balances a sturdy, assertive acidity. Dry and authoritative. Something seems to be flattening nuance, however. Either the five blend components are canceling one another out or the forceful roast has driven out some aromatics. In any event, more sweetness and lift would make a pleasantly hearty Oakhurst morning even rosier.
The famous Yirgacheffe flower tones are brighter and sturdier than usual here: less levitating, more grounded, fresh but rich, accessible, gently acidy. The cup darkens toward cedar and chocolate in the finish, the aftertaste is long and richly floral.
This complex, fruity, softly intense coffee unleashed a torrent of description from the panel. On aroma: "sweet cocoa, dried cherries"; "very strong & fruity." Descriptions of acidity included sweet, floral, fruity. Body: buttery yet light. Cup: fruity, sweet, "strong honey notes, very nice, very different." The odd intensity of this coffee, arresting yet restrained, disturbed two panelists: "Some may call this coffee pleasingly complex, but I find it a little wild," declared one. Count me in the pleasingly complex camp. I loved this coffee.
A promising coffee shadowed by inconsistency. The good cups: sweet, full, deep, but alive with a pleasing shimmer of acidity. The bad: full and sweet but monotoned, flat, with a disturbing hint of astringency in aftertaste.
Lots of praise for the fruity nose, but the cup failed to excite and the aftertaste disappointed. Overall, panelists found little to either condemn or admire. I felt the coffee had been cleanly processed but still emerged flat.
A promising coffee dried out in the roast. The slightly charred bittersweetness edges toward chocolate but doesn't quite make it. Any remaining nuance appears to have been burned off.
An exquisitely refined chocolate sensation dominates the profile. The chocolate is at its richest and sweetest in aroma, then turns pleasantly dry in the cup and lingers crisply in aftertaste. This may be a bit of a one-note coffee, but it's a very elegant note.
The bright Latin-American profile is complicated in the aroma by dry, pungently roasty nut tones. The cup displays unusual vegetal tones that reach toward floral, but fall a bit short.
The powerful acidity is like a whack across the palate. It doesn't allow much else to make an impression, although some cups hinted at a nutty sweetness. Perhaps the robust, dominating acidity is pleasure enough.
A gently bright coffee, sweet and alive with spice and smoke in the aroma and floral innuendo in the cup. The floral tones linger in the aftertaste. Just enough resonance and depth to maintain authority.
A rich, rounded acidity dominates with unaffected clarity from aroma through aftertaste. A cup in which nuance is not so much absent as irrelevant to the cup's essential candor.
A classic Latin-American cup, dominated by an austere, powerful, full-throated acidity. The big, acidy profile is both impressive and monolithic, complicated only by barely felt floral tones, a sort of deeply held essence of flowers.
An almost symphonic coffee. Nuance stretches across the profile: floral notes at the top, winy, dry fruit in the middle, and a smoky pungency at bottom. Sweet, cedarish notes tend to dominate in aroma and aftertaste, but in the cup fruit and flowers upstage everything else.