Blend Reviews

Impressively complex ultra-dark roast: The roast tones are sweet and rather restrained in the aroma, complicated by fresh leather and apricot. In the cup they turn rich, full-throated and bittersweet. The finish is a touch heavy and astringent, inevitable in a roast this dark.

Roasty and sweetly and gently charred, with a hint of fermented fruit that under the influence of the roast suggests a spicily aromatic chocolate - imagine bittersweet chocolate stored in charred cedar. Rich finish with a tingle of astringency.

Willem: "Blossom-like, peppery aroma, just like the roses from my 50+year-old rose tree! Mild sweet flavor with lingering floral aftertaste. Excellent caramel complexity with milk. I loved it." (92) What for Willem was peppery and blossom-like, for Ken was spicy and fruity in the aroma and smokily fruity in the small cup. Ken wanted more sweetness in the demitasse but in milk praised this blend as "sweet, crisp and cherry-like edging toward chocolate." (89).

Ken and Willem were eight points apart on this one. Ken liked the aromatic excitement of the "floral and fruit notes with complex smoky undertones" that he followed with pleasure from aroma through finish to milk. Although he found the small cup a bit sharp and thin-bodied, he forgave all in return for the floral and fruit complexity. (89) Willem, on the other hand, tasted nothing but imbalance and too much acidity: "Somewhat dull aroma with minor earthy notes" and in the small cup "mildly sharp and some uncontrolled acidity." He was a bit more forgiving with performance in milk: "sweet, bright, with caramel aftertaste." (81)

A gently roasty, light-bodied blend: sweet, balanced, with fresh leather, grapefruit and sweet herb notes, lemon thyme perhaps. Slightly astringent in the finish.

Straightforward, simple but satisfying dark-roast: cleanly roasty, pleasantly smoky but without burned or excessive bitterness. In cup and finish the roastiness takes on a toasty, campfire chocolate character.

Massively roasty in the aroma: sweetly pungent with a sort of lush bar-b-qued apricot-toned fruit. Less impressive in the cup, where the main impression is simply the roast, heavy and burned but not rubbery. Given the weighty intensity of the roast sensation, surprisingly sweet and rich in the finish, with only a slight astringency.

Cleanly smoky and rather richly roasty, complicated by shimmers of sweetly tart, high-toned fruit - pineapple perhaps.

The aroma doesn't provoke much anticipation: roasty, edge of burned, midtoned, without range or nuance. Softens and complicates in the cup, displaying a pleasantly wine-toned balance of sweet acidity and a discreetly bittersweet roastiness. Simplifies again in the rather sharp finish.

Roasty, sweet and balanced in the aroma, with shimmers of pineapple. In the cup a light-bodied buoyancy and a continuing tickle of pineapple lifts the dominating sharp, edge-of-burned roastiness. Mildly astringent in the finish.

A delicate cup with impressive complexity: Lemon, smoky spice and milk chocolate notes carry with subtle variation from aroma through finish. In the cup, shows a fine balance of sweet acidity and a subtle roastiness, the roast making itself felt mainly in the smoky spice. The five cups I sampled displayed some unevenness; otherwise I would rate this silky, aromatic blend even higher.

Sweet and richly low-toned in the aroma, with shimmers of flowers, grapefruit and perhaps apples. In the cup the fruit turns opulently bittersweet under the impact of the roast: walnuts, dried apricots, bittersweet chocolate.

Seductive aroma: sweet Meyer lemon, roasty chocolate, balanced and elegant. The lyric lemon and chocolate notes survive a sharp roastiness in the cup, but finally lose their way in the rather astringent finish.

In the aroma explosively sweet and exquisitely balanced, with chocolate and a gently gingery spice. In the cup complex and wide in range: roasty, pungent, with a tickle of lemony sweet acidity and a hint of musty earth. An underlying astringent heaviness weighs slightly on the finish.

A heartily roasty, herb-toned, bittersweet chocolate dominates both aroma and cup, though turning a bit flat and burned in the finish. Overall narrow in range but pleasingly intense. Maintains character as it cools.

Sweetly balanced and gently roasty. Little distinguishable nuance, though the cup is pleasantly alive with an almost subliminal range of fruity sensation. Slight astringency in the finish.

In the aroma roasty, sweet, slightly burned, complicated by a prune-toned fruit just on the dry side of chocolate. In the cup the chocolate inclination of the fruit clearly declares itself, particularly as the coffee cools. The roasty tones turn a bit astringent in the finish.

The aroma is round and intense but limited in nuance. The cup adds a complicating hint of chocolate-toned fruit to a similarly limited but balanced and deeply resonant profile.

The aroma is delicate to a fault, more neutral than balanced. The mouthfeel is lean and the flavor watery, with a faintly sweet, delicately acidy character complicated by attractive grapefruit notes.

The aroma is subdued but complex with leather, chocolate and apricot. In the cup a fine balance of bitter bite and seductive sweetness, complicated by an apricot-almond-toned fruit and a crisp bittersweet chocolate. Medium-bodied, gently rich.