LATEST REVIEWS

Intense, exuberantly complex aroma: orange, grapefruit, honey, cedar, black currant. In the cup the acidity is intense and sweet, the mouthfeel syrupy, the flavor continuingly complex, dry yet lush: black currant, grapefruit, wine, a hint of milk chocolate. The finish is superb: saturated with grapefruit and chocolate, sweet, rich, long.

The surprise here is how well this blend performs in longer milk drinks. As a straight espresso it is agreeable enough, dominated in the aromatics by low-toned, musty notes that read as a raisiny semi-sweet chocolate or perhaps a spicy, cantaloupe-like fruit. The body is medium to full, the finish simple and rich with a slight astringent edge. The blend exerted a powerful though heavy dark-chocolate presence in short milk, but with more latte-like quantities of milk it bloomed with great sweetness and vivacity.

A very light-roasted, naturally sweet coffee that stays just on the rich side of raw. Low-toned but intense aroma: nut notes (raw cashew?) with hints of flowers and butter. In the cup soft acidity with a shimmer of wine, substantial body, continued sweet raw nut notes with hints of butter, chocolate and flowers. Rich, long, slightly heavy finish.

Ambiguous flavors associated with fruity mustiness run through the profile. Co-cupper Miguel Meza (87) describes them as: "Sweet-smoky and medicinal. A pungent and musty full-bodied coffee with exotic hints of eucalyptus, sassafras and bakers' yeast." Ken (86) is more conventional and more positive: "Rich, raisiny dark chocolate with a pungent cedar and herbal edge in aroma and rather syrupy cup."

Both co-cupper Miguel Meza (88) and Ken (89) agreed that this coffee was low-toned, but for Ken it displayed a quietly resonant depth whereas apparently for Miguel it was simply quiet. Miguel found chocolate and citrus in the aroma, Ken chocolate and a distinct ginger note. Miguel read "blueberry, over-ripe fruit and toast" in the crisply fruity cup, Ken dry chocolate, brandy, blueberries, apricot, flowers. Both noted a persistence of berryish fruit in an otherwise rather thinnish finish.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza's (88) description is succinct: "Cherry liqueur, smoke and chocolate." Ken (90) finds a similar palette: dark raisin-toned chocolate, red wine, cherry, flowers. Ken interprets Miguel's smoke notes as a slight hint of complicating mustiness. Altogether a quiet, wood-panels and leather easy chair sort of coffee.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (89) was rather faint in his praise of this coffee, finding a "floral and tropical citrus" character he associates with the more familiar washed or wet-processed Ethiopia profile, with added "chocolate and berry" nuance derived from dry-processing. Ken (91) wrestles with the detail a bit more, admiring a wine or brandy nuance to the chocolate and berry character, which he finds "lush but crisp."

Co-cupper Miguel Meza and Ken took different descriptive paths in an attempt to characterize the underlying structure of this low-toned, full-bodied coffee. For Miguel (92) the cup was "soft and comforting" with a mix of "dried fruit and mesquite" and "berries and chocolate." Ken (89) felt the cup's sweet yet salty structure dominated the berry- and cocoa-toned aromatics, making the cup attractive but limited.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (91) calls this coffee "juicy and refreshing," Ken (91) "sweet and deep." Both were impressed by a crisp, complex aroma (for Miguel "lemon-lime, cantaloupe and peach") and as the cup cooled distinct cocoa and sweet ferment notes that Ken read as "brandied cherry" and Miguel (with more ambition to precision) as "distilled agave."

A soft cup, rather simple aromatically but "well-balanced" (co-cupper Miguel Meza, 91) and "smooth and deep in structure" (Ken, 91). Miguel finds "berries, citrus and chocolate," Ken reads some quiet chocolate and perhaps some orange. The finish is quiet but impressive with continued chocolate and fruit (Miguel: strawberry and cherry) notes. (Previously reviewed and rated 92 ponts in June 2007).

Intense, complex aroma. Quite tropical for co-cupper Miguel Meza (92) who cites guava, pineapple, and orange; Ken's (92) associations are more temperate: blueberry, cherry, orange, honey. In the cup both Ken and Miguel find cherry and chocolate, and most likely Miguel's "mango and caramel" and Ken's "candyish butterscotch" both are efforts to find descriptors for the same sensation, a pleasingly pungent sweetness. Miguel passes on the finish; Ken finds the usual flaw haunting this style of coffee: a slight salty astringency hiding amid the lovely fading trajectory of fruit.

Miguel Meza (94) found only purity and ripeness in this opulent coffee; Ken (92) was impressed as well but felt just slightly let down by a limiting simplicity once past the aroma. Miguel Meza: "Vibrant, pure and ripe ... Creamy mouthfeel with vanilla-like floral notes. Full and balanced with a juicy acidity that hints of peach, orange and berries in the long, clean finish." Ken (92) admired the ripe, lush aroma every bit as much as Miguel for its "true dark chocolate, mint, floral and berry" notes, but observed that once past the aroma the cup simplified despite remaining "rich and berry-toned." Miguel and Ken diverged most strongly over the finish, where Ken detected a shadow astringency amid the memories of aromatic complexity where Miguel found only clean flavor.

Miguel Meza (93): "An intense but slightly flawed cup. The coffee is so luscious and passionate[, however,] that such misgivings are easily forgotten. A dizzying array of ripe and dried berry flavors mingles with banana, lime and chocolate." Ken (93) agrees, finding a rich mix of "brandyish cherry, crisp cocoa/chocolate and ripe orange" notes. He is more specific about the flaw, which for him is a slight salty astringency that "softens as the cup cools, allowing the ripe fruit notes to fully bloom."

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (94): "Intensely fragrant: strawberry, kiwi, cherry, amaretto. The cup is powerful, well-structured and dynamic, [progressively revealing] a whole universe of fruit flavor. Only a lingering sharp astringency, perhaps a side effect of he same process that developed the incredible range of flavors ..., limits this coffee from near perfection." Ken (92) found the lavish aroma and rich acidity particularly impressive, but like Miguel he found a slight nagging astringency in the finish, a shadow to this coffee's monumental yet seductive aromatics.

Co-cupper Miguel Meza (92) finds bergamot and flowers in the aroma, Ken (94) finds flowers as well as cherries, red wine, and hints of chocolate and butter. In a cup that is "sweet" for Miguel, "rich and opulent" for Ken, both read cherries and blueberry and a positive fruit ferment note which Miguel nicely describes as 'Grand Marnier" and Ken more prosaically as red wine. In either case a slight, pleasing (more so to Ken?) hint of ferment complicates a round, deep, lavishly fruity cup.

Straightforward, lucid, classic. Very sweet-toned aroma with fresh coffee fruit (tart cherry) and honey notes, hints of cedar and lemon. In the cup the honeyish sweetness envelops an intense though not sharp acidity. Continued coffee fruit notes with a lemony lean. Richly tart finish.

In the aroma deep-toned with moist earth and fruit tones that suggest molassy fruitcake or banana bread or a fruity dark chocolate. The candied fruit, molasses and moist earth complex carries into the cup, riding richly over a slight flatness introduced by decaffeination. Sweet, long, rich finish, very slightly astringent when hot but impressively smooth as the cup cools.

In the aroma the fruity earth tones display an almost candied sweetness paired with a moist-leaf pungency. In the cup medium in body but silky in mouthfeel, with continued candied fruit and moist leaf notes that together hint at a host of associations ranging from chocolate to butterscotch to tartly sweet grapefruit. The flavor-saturated finish is a bit astringent when the cup is hot, but rounds nicely as it cools.

The aroma is very deep and sweet-toned with lush references to banana, coconut, dusk flowers. In the cup the acidity is extraordinarily rich and round-toned, the mouthfeel supple, the nuance opulent with coconut, red wine, chocolate and floral notes. Rich, long, flavor-saturated finish.

Intense, sweetly tart aroma: flowers, cherry, lemon. In the cup the acidity is lyrically sweet, the mouthfeel silky, the flavor vivid with grapefruit, dry berry and floral notes that soften toward a raisiny chocolate as the cup cools. Superb finish: cleanly bright, long, sweet to the far end of sensation.