LATEST REVIEWS

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A coffee that meets us with a smile, giving everything out front: gently brisk acidity, a touch of wine-toned fruit, floral sweetness. Thereafter it stands pat, light-bodied and balanced, perhaps a bit shallow in dimension.

Animated by an almost effervescently dry, winy fruit elevated by hints of flowers. Sweetens slightly in the shimmers of the fruity finish.

Rich, deep, intense, with the dry fruit robustness of a cabernet and the tartly sweet black currant notes so cherished by lovers of Kenya. In the finish swoons into a ringing, almost sugary sweetness.

Metaphor fails. This is a coffee that refers to nothing except what it is: a superb coffee, grand yet elegant, dry yet sweet, balanced, full-bodied, complete.

Smooth, subtle, and above all, sweet. Buoyantly soft rather than bright or brisk, with sweet nut tones in the aroma and sweet chocolate in the finish.

The cup is redolent with the fresh, sweet perfume of clay. Slightly musty tones give a dry, pungent edge to aroma and aftertaste, framing the sweetness in the cup.

Pungently rich and round in the nose. In the cup the signature hard mustiness is balanced by sweetness, particularly in the finish.

A very clean, bright version of the fruity Yemen cup: the wine tones are rich and smooth, with only a hint of sweet ferment near the finish. Surprising floral notes at the top and a long, clean, sweet, chocolate-toned aftertaste.

Full yet majestically buoyant. The aroma soars with sweet nut notes, the cup glistens with fruit and flowers, the entire impression is gentle but enormous. The finish is aggressively dry but saved from astringency by rich cocoa tones.

Alive with the slightly wild fruit and dry-wine tones of the great dry-processed coffees of Yemen and Ethiopia. In the wonderfully long, sweet finish the fruit tones darken deliciously toward chocolate.

The aroma is magnificent: high, sweet and singing. The cup is gently bright, with a pear or apple sweetness and a touch of pungency in the mid tones. The slight green tones are so sweet they 're more meadowy than grassy.

Dry acidy tones combine nicely with a restrained roasty pungency. Good, deep dimension, but little sweetness to support the deeply tart fruit notes.