Blend Reviews

Delicate but deeply dimensioned aroma: distinct milk chocolate, hints of aromatic cedar and low-toned, temperate fruit: peach, perhaps, or apricot. Almost sugary sweet in the cup, light-bodied, with a tight-knit complexity centered on peach- or cherry-toned milk chocolate. The finish is short but refreshing.

A coffee that demonstrates the virtue of a dash of cleanly and sweetly fermented fruit taste in a blend. The aroma is low-toned and caramelly, with smoky and raisiny chocolate suggestions. The cup is roundly rich with a tingle of fermented fruit that reads as a raisin- or brandied-cherry-toned chocolate.

The aroma is low-toned but resonant with leather and fruit-toned chocolate. The acidity is rich and smoothly integrated, the mouthfeel round and supple. The chocolate declaration in the aroma is even more pronounced in the cup, but fruitier, more opulent.

Crisply rich in the aroma, with sweet apple-toned high notes. In the cup simple and engaging as an early Beatles song, with an acidity felt rather than tasted and seductively fruity milk chocolate notes. W. Morris Brown Jr. nominated this coffee with a simple tribute: "I like it."

A lush, complex cup that derives some of its considerable appeal from slightly fermented fruit tones: apricot in the aroma, apple and pear in the cup, all turned overripe and slightly chocolate-leaning by the ferment. Some cups were gloriously sweet and juicily fruity; others slightly bitter in the finish. Marcus Fitzsimmons nominated this coffee, adding a general plug for Caribou Coffee: "Awesome selection of various coffees including a welcoming store-side atmosphere."

Rich, sweet aroma with distinct caramel tones in the finish. Gently lively in the cup, with caramel, cocoa, and temperate fruit notes - I'd call them apple. A low-key cup, just spirited enough to avoid laziness. Several readers nominated Dunkin' Donuts coffees.

Complex aroma: sweet chocolate, some shimmers of flowers and spicy cedar. For me the cup was contradictory rather than balanced, its sweet chocolate tones uneasily cohabiting with a sharp acidity: think sweet-and-sour chocolate. Nominating reader Woodard Springstube reports that "Plantation Blend is a long-time favorite of mine, although I like all of Community's blends."

In the aroma this light-to-medium-roasted coffee is sweet, high-toned but round, with a whiff of lightly fermented fruit that suggests brandied chocolate. In the cup the agreeably rich, overripe fruit is complemented - or contradicted - by a sweet-toned but blunt acidity. The finish is long and rather heavily astringent. Several readers nominated Gevalia coffees, including this blend.

Decent enough in the aroma: sweetly pungent, balanced, intensely roasty with a twist of slightly charred cedar. In the cup sweet and pungent, but the charred cedar notes turn to charred board notes, expressionless and woody. A vague hint of fruit at the top of the profile. I hope the nominating reader tasted a better sample of the Verona than this one.

This particular sample of Original Blend exhibited an almost academically thorough anthology of coffee taints and shadow defects. Some cups were flat and musty, others seemed additionally green and astringent, and some were rich with a rather pleasant apricot-toned sweet ferment (perhaps what nominating reader Des Cabigan cited as "a sniff of oranges"). But not a single cup appeared on the table without some taint or other. Presumably the several nominating readers based their emails on a better iteration of the Original Blend than this one, something closer to the version to which I gave an 87 rating in 2002.

A thoroughly dispirited coffee, with little sweetness and limited nuance aside from hints of nondescript fruit and a sort of vegetal, slightly charred cocoa. This particular sample appears to consist of green coffees of ordinary to poor quality that were poorly roasted to boot. Presumably nominating reader C. Dowling got luckier than I did when he was inspired to nominate this blend as a "mellow ... all-around coffee."

Impressive aroma: lush, low-toned apricot fruit. In the cup a full body with a nice heft in the mouthfeel, but the pungent fruit turns increasingly salty and bitter as the cup cools.

Predictable ultra-dark roast: intense and pungent with an edge of charred cedar in the aroma; in the cup thin in mouthfeel and sweetly charred, with a mildly astringent finish that lovers of this style of roast will find bracing.

In the aroma sweetly and cleanly roasty and cedar-toned. The roasty tones turn burned and rather cloyingly sweet in the cup - lightly charred cedar or sandalwood.

An understated coffee that rewards attention to its gentle virtues. Sweetly balanced roastiness and rich papaya-toned fruit in the aroma; in the cup delicately complex and quietly lush with low-toned, carnal fruit: apricot and papaya.

The aroma is roasty and quite sweet, with high-toned cedar and chocolate notes. Round and full in the cup, with a buttery mouthfeel and a balance of gentle roast tones and a tickle of sweet, fruit-toned acidity.

Sweet, balanced, round, with a hint of roastiness and a subtle, shifting bouquet of flowers, fresh leather, spice and apricot that deepen toward chocolate in the cup. As the cup cools it simplifies slightly, turning the fruit a touch shallow and tart.

Rather simple aroma but fine, deep, roasty dimension with distinct dark chocolate notes. In the cup roundly roasty with a tickle of acidity and chocolate and prune-toned fruit. A touch sharp when hot but softens and sweetens as it cools.

Elegant, balanced dark roast: Comfortably sweet with a shimmer of acidity and a hint of roastiness. The bittersweet chocolate and pineapple notes in the aroma deepen and round congenially in the cup.

Balanced and roundly high-toned. Slightly roasty, gently acidy. Papaya and fresh leather notes in the aroma; papaya and dark chocolate in the cup. A tickle of astringency in the long finish.