LATEST REVIEWS

A solid, bordering-on-classic Sumatra profile: low-toned but rich, pleasantly pruny, its distinct pungency saved from bitterness by a sweetness that grows in power as the coffee cools.

A clean profile, but a bit flat. No sweetness, no lift, little dimension. Deep but opaque.

Under the taste of the darkish roast style earthy, but not a sweet or inviting earth. A bit hard (no pun), without depth, bounce or resonance. A tobaccoey, salty tickle in the finish.

Clean and elegant aroma with a shimmer of vanilla. In the demitasse complex, exciting, but not entirely balanced. The contrast of pungent sharpness and underlying caramelly sweetness is dramatic but stark, and carries the coffee precariously toward a rich but slightly astringent aftertaste. Blooms beautifully in milk, softening without losing authority and revealing deep, dry, bittersweet chocolate tones.

An impressive tribute to the tactile dimension of taste: the body is smooth, buttery, alive yet full. The profile is sweet and deeply dimensioned with a pleasantly spicy tickle at its heart, but remains rather limited in range. The aftertaste reveals the merest hint of hardness.

Crisp and toasty nose. In the demitasse heavy though not sharp; some sweetness but little nuance. The heaviness turns smooth in milk, expanding richly, but even there the cup remains austere and rather monolithic.

Distinct orange-citrus tones are exhilaratingly fresh when the cup is hot, but turn mildly astringent as it cools. The body is round and creamy, but lighter than any of the straight Brazils in the cupping.

For me this coffee lacks sufficient sweetness to support its attractive tobacco, spice and floral notes. Sweetness in dry-processed coffees like this one comes from sustained contact of the bean with ripe fruit during drying. The profile-flattening lack of sweetness here may derive from too many green or unripe cherries in the mix.

Restrained but elegant nose; in the demitasse sharply rich but lacks sweetness. The aftertaste is distinctly astringent. Masters milk nicely, but even in dairy not quite enough sweetness and nuance for my palate.

Either an over-aggressive roast or a drying-related defect in the green coffee deadens a promising profile. Satisfying body and richness, but little sweetness or nuance.

A dullness, perhaps a shadow defect from rain-interrupted drying, shadows an otherwise splendidly sweet profile. The sweetness, enlivened by spice and chocolate, almost sneaks out from under the hardness at the finish, but never quite makes it. Too bad.

Very sharp, carbony cup, with little richness or sweetness. Both aroma and body seem burned off the coffee by the rather aggressive roast. I also tried this coffee as espresso. In the demitasse it remained sharp, but softened and sweetened a bit in milk.

A hard, nasty ferment mars an otherwise sweetly rich profile.

Displays a rich, deeply matrixed acidity reminiscent of the best Sumatras. Although the cup is not quite as sweet and roundly ingratiating at first sip as some others in the cupping, the acidity sustains power as the cup cools, hence the somewhat higher rating for this coffee compared to those with comparable sweetness and body. A slight edginess to the acidity may indicate a scattering of cherries that were close to ferment as the coffee dried, but this shadow fault, if present at all, is so faint that it strikes me as a quibble. A fine coffee well-roasted.

Rich with a low-toned, vibrant acidity. The body is creamily smooth, though a touch lighter than the heaviest-bodiedBrazils in the cupping. Here the sweet spice tones characteristic of natural Brazils are buoyant and floral, almost Yirgacheffe-like in their perfumes. The floral tones linger sweetly in the aftertaste.

A solid American-style breakfast profile: Dry and acidy but balanced, complete, closing on rich. Everything is up front, however: limited dimension and development.

A tribute to dark-roast fruit character. In the nose deep with prune and sweet pipe-tobacco tones. In the cup the fruit comes up dry and pungent before softening and sweetening toward the finish.

A clean, direct dark-roast profile. The dominant pungency is free of carbon and dances rather lightly on the palate, with some spicy overtones and space for them to echo.

Another holiday coffee distinguished by a dark-roasted, pungent heart. The pungency dominates, but reads as rich and resilient, and is complicated by an unusual taste tickle. I want to call it cedar, but a publicist might call it spice. It's a pleasant holiday-themed sensation.

A very comfortable, low-key cup. The dark-roast pungency is pronounced but easy-going. Just enough richness to satisfy. Not much nuance but some sweet echoes.