LATEST REVIEWS

I suspect only a slight astringency in the aftertaste prevented this Papua New Guinea from pushing up near the top of the ratings. Panelists liked its smoky aroma ("brownies baking" said one), its soft sweetness, and its understated character. Its rather metallic, salty astringency was barely detectable, but, once observed, distracting.

An agreeably sweet coffee with pungent bottom notes, but wildly uneven from cup to cup. A grassy, green taste marred some cups; others clearly displayed the overripe-edging-on-rotten taste of ferment. Some combined both problems, in a sort of bouquet of defects.

Very uneven from cup to cup. The best cups: low-toned, smooth, with a touch of spicy, clove-like pungency and a sweet, cocoaish finish. The less-than-best cups: bland with a slight but disturbing astringency.

"A sweet, inoffensive little cup of coffee. No bells and whistles here," wrote one panelist. At first I was inclined to agree, but this soft, subtle coffee eventually won me over with its relaxed richness and striking lavender-like floral tones. Other panelists agreed. Perhaps no bells and whistles, but some pleasant warbling.

A classically bright yet sweet cup shimmering with seductive floral and wine-like fruit notes. This coffee attracted lavish praise from the panel: "fruity, floral, working well together"; "noble fruit notes!"; "[light] body but very clean like a great Pinot"; "rich, sweet, very aromatic." Given such enthusiasm, why didn 't this fine coffee attract a higher aggregate rating? Perhaps owing to its relatively light body, perhaps owing to the barest hint of astringent imbalance in the acidity.

A coffee whose interesting sweet fruit tones ("apricot" hazarded one panelist) edge into ferment, the overripe-cum-rotten flavor caused by sugars that prematurely ferment in the coffee fruit, tainting the bean inside the fruit. Complicating the ferment is a related off taste that some panelists tolerated and described with terms like "tobaccoey" and others condemned as "animal-like" and "skunky." In short, a promisingly sweet, complex coffee gone wrong.

Split vote, split coffee. The yeas responded to a bright, brisk, floral-and-fruit-toned richness with sweet cedar innuendoes. The nays were disturbed by hard, off-tasting undertones, perhaps a baggy mustiness.

This sweet, deep-toned coffee with its pruny fruit notes edging toward chocolate attracted considerable praise, though some panelists expressed ambivalence: "some character but not too interesting next to others"; "[a kind of] sweet, fruity flavor that I don 't much care for." Perhaps a faded mustiness restrained this coffee 's considerable potential.

Panelists described a clean-tasting, agreeable coffee that was perhaps too agreeable, low-key to a fault. "Good balance, but not much to balance," complained one panelist. "Nothing really to grab onto," wrote another. Finished well, with a hint of chocolate, and the cup seemed to strengthen in character a bit as it cooled.

Just enough sweetness to make the smoky, burned tones bittersweet and cocoa-like rather than simply bitter. And just enough lightness and lift to keep the burned tones from smothering the palate.

This blend expresses the usual bitter-but-sweet paradox of dark-roast coffees with particular intensity. The sweetness is almost sugary and the burned bitterness dramatically sharp. Not much range, development or weight, but the cup does offer a pleasant tickle of fruit and lavender. The bitterness outlasts the sweetness in the aftertaste.

Overwhelmingly musty. If you don 't understand musty, imagine the smell (or taste) of old shoes at the bottom of a damp closet. The mustiness is haloed with sweetness when the cup is hot, but as the coffee cools nothing remains except mustiness: flat and oppressive.

The aroma is faint and faintly sweet. The cup displays a pruny fruitiness that plays peek-a-boo with a distinctly unpleasant rubbery taste. In the finish the sweetness prevails, though barely.

I 'd call this heavy-bodied coffee rich if there was anything to be rich. The aroma is pleasantly sweet, but the cup displays -- quite literally -- no flavor whatsoever, only primary taste sensation, a sort of heavy emptiness with insinuations of bitterness and sweetness.

Sweet yet dryly bright, lightly acidy with shimmers of wine and flowers. As the coffee cools the grace notes settle toward chocolate. Not much body, dimension or staying power, but a lively, balanced cup.

A subdued cup, but pleasantly balanced with pungent and sweet tones that together read as prunes, dried fruit or, in a bit of a stretch, chocolate.

Low-toned but solid, with a nice balance of understated acidy tones and sweetness. Some muted dry fruit notes contribute a throaty murmur in the background. Lacks intensity and range, but sound, round and satisfying.

Floral, sweet, high-toned and as giddy as a field of flowers, with some pungent richness and substance underneath. Ramps down toward clean cocoa tones in the finish.

A pleasant, if slight, hazelnut sweetness hovers in the aroma. The cup is vaguely sweet but essentially tasteless except for a hint of pungency probably deriving from hard or musty blend components.

Absolutely neutral. I kept telling myself that I had to be tasting something, but I couldn 't say what: a vague heaviness with a hint of sweetness, perhaps.