Blend Reviews

Rich, round and balanced, with a sweetly understated acidity. Not a lot of nuance, but a hint of mustiness reads as an agreeably peppery chocolate. The finish is smooth, clean and long.

Dark roast in the classic bittersweet style, complicated by delicate floral, dry fruit and pipe tobacco notes. A distracting astringency dampens an otherwise balanced, complex dark-roast cup.

Dryly acidy but sweet, expansively fruity, distinctly floral. A crisp roastiness turns the fruit toward chocolate. Only a very slight bitter astringency mars this otherwise luxuriously exotic cup.

Very soft, round, gentle cup with luxurious chocolate notes and a pleasant hint of sweet fermented fruit.

Fermented, wine-like fruit notes agreeably dominate the small cup, though they are shadowed by bitterness, particularly in the finish. The bitterness turns pleasantly bittersweet in cappuccino-sized milk, and flat-out gloriously sweet and chocolate-fruit-toned in big milk. (86 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

In the small cup intense and rather lean-bodied but richly sweet, complicated by dry fruit notes and shimmers of flowers and chocolate. In milk smooth, sweet and toasty with a lushly chocolate-toned finish. (87 straight espresso, 88 w/milk)

An appealing combination of orange, chocolate, and floral notes shimmer in the small cup, though shadowed by a roasty sharpness. Milk rounds the cup nicely, however, turning the citrus and floral notes into a crisp, toasty chocolate. Fades slightly in big milk. (87 straight espresso, 89 w/milk)

Citrus and floral notes float atop pungent fermented fruit tones in the small cup; nut and chocolate notes complicate the finish. Maintains its leathery, spicy complexity in milk, adding a rounder and softer chocolate finish. 88 straight espresso, 89 w/milk)

Heavy, rich, a touch sharp, but balanced in the small cup, complicated nicely by dry fruit and cocoa. Maintains balance and authority in small milk, where the cocoa sweetens toward a voluptuous hazelnut-toned chocolate. Fades a bit in big milk, though still round and chocolaty. (89 straight espresso, 90 w/milk)

Complex and exotic, this moderately dark-roasted blend sits sharply but sweetly on the palate. Floral notes and faintly ferment-toned fruit complicate the cup, but both nuance and sweetness fade in the finish, leaving behind a roasty bitterness some coffee drinkers may find pleasingly pungent, others a touch overbearing.

Impressive complexity: high, sweet notes, caramel in the middle, crisp, edge-of-burned tones, a touch of floral acidity. Excellent body. Pungent, bitter tones propose sugar for the demitasse, but give this blend tremendous staying power in milk, where it blossoms with little loss of range or complexity.

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.

Pleasant and interesting, although to my taste the coffee component is not quite sweet or heavy-bodied enough to completely support the spice. A sharp tickle of pepper and clove with a hint of cinnamon sweetness complicates a straightforward, low-key cup.

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

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.

Pungent Sumatra tones wrap around the Ethiopian flowers and Yemen fruit. The deep, aromatic wood tones modulate to a fruity, cherryish chocolate in the finish. The pungency turned slightly flat as the cup cools, slightly shadowing an intriguing and dramatic cup.

Sweet, deeply dimensioned floral notes dip toward spice and nut in the aroma. The cup is lemony, but it is a complex, deep lemon, modulating toward dry chocolate in the finish. Saved from any hint of candyish sentiment by richly acidy mid-notes.

This delightfully gentle coffee is soft, brightly (and lightly) acidy, slightly floral. The aftertaste is as clean as white clapboard, with a lovely vanilla/floral burst, then a memory of pure sweetness. Not much power or depth here, but with a coffee this chastely bright and sweet who cares.

Not nearly as dramatic as the Olympic mountains, but satisfying and substantial. Straightforward, low-toned, agreeably balanced, vibrant and solid in mid-range, fresh and sweet in finish, complicated by a touch of intrigue that could be called chocolate. As the cup cools the sweet tones grow rounder, fuller and more distinctly chocolate.

In the demitasse this blend is complexly crisp and pungent; richly dry chocolate notes are supported by an understated sweetness. Perhaps the heavy, smoothly balanced body accounts for the splendid impact this coffee makes in milk. The dairy relaxes the crisp chocolate notes and the coffee richly suffuses the milk rather than penetrating it.