Cooperative Reviews
We found 485 reviews for Cooperative. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee.
An interesting dark-roast cup. Distinctly charred but full-bodied and rather expansively sweet, with hints of dry pineapple in both aroma and finish and an odd, smoky chocolate twist in the cup. Finishes rather bitterly, like most dark roasts.
A rather simple but pleasingly balanced cup: bittersweet, with a low-toned shimmer of acidity. Prune or dried fruit notes in the cup and cocoa in the finish. Holds up very well as it cools.
Either pleasantly subdued or disappointingly flat, depending on expectation. Roasty and mildly bittersweet, complicated by slight dry, brisk cocoa notes and perhaps some spice tones. The best of the four Perus submitted for this cupping.
Lovely, floral top notes float on a sturdy bittersweet structure. Gently bright, light- to medium-bodied. The finish leans toward the bitter side.
Musty tones are softened by sweetness, and read variously as spicy, smoky, and dryly fruity in the cup, then hint at cocoa in the finish.
Delicate floral and fruit notes reminiscent of Ethiopia wet-processed coffees shimmered in this complex, richly-textured coffee. The acidity was understated but resonant and wine-toned.
Elegant rather than authoritative, with a clear, bell-like, but not overpowering acidity, delicate, flower-toned aromatics, and a smooth, sweet finish.
Light, dryly fruity, complicated by pleasant cocoa tones. Simple, ingenuous, agreeable. Not sweet, but stays on the gentle side of bitter.
Powerfully, richly, uncompromisingly acidy. Some cocoa or chocolate tones in the finish, but otherwise simply big, dry, and robust.
Subdued, low-toned, smooth, full, round. Very little at the top of the profile, but a rich, fat fruitiness in the middle. Giddy suggestions of guava darkened toward cocoa and cherry as the cup cooled.
A hint of ferment pleasantly hovers between chocolate and cherry-toned, overripe fruit. The darkish roast turns the sweet fruit dryly rich.
A ripe, almost overripe, sweetness carries giddily from aroma to finish, anchored by a discreet touch of roast pungency. The lush fruit tones flirt with ferment but stay on the sweet side. A wonderfully juicy, deeply dimensioned coffee.
A classic Guatemala in the lighter, softer mode: floral, gently acidy, high-toned but deeply dimensioned. Flowers permeate even the slight bitterness of the roast. A coffee as pure, sweet-toned and brightly complex as a Guatemalan weaving.
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.
I have to assume that our sample of this generally understated, rich, but rather inert coffee was dramatically inconsistent. I detected a teasing, off-again, on-again defect in my sample, probably hard ferment. I wasn 't alone: "dusty; something funky," wrote another. Others found their sample simply bland or "non-descript." Two admired their samples, however, responding positively to the round, rich promise of the clean upside of the profile.
A striking one-third of the panelists described the aftertaste of this sweet, clean, fruit-toned coffee as "resonant," a seldom-chosen term. That response may suggest why this coffee scored the second-highest rating in the cupping despite its limited nuance. It displayed impressive dimension, an echoing space around and behind initial sensation.
A complex, subtly nuanced coffee, light-bodied but softly and sweetly acidy, embellished with fruit and pronounced chocolate tones. I tasted papaya in the finish. "Deep & lush," wrote one panelist on aroma. "Slight tobacco. Leafy." Apparently balance and seductive grace notes carried this delicate coffee to the top of the ratings.
A coffee that rewards deliberation. The sweet nut tones that are the glory of many softer Latin-America coffees run luxuriantly through the profile from aroma to finish, taking on a distinct chocolate cast in the cup. A coffee whose richness reads more as resonance than heaviness.
A high score but a relatively low wow quotient. Apparently panelists valued this coffee for its rich balance and deeply matrixed fruit; the body was described variously as full, heavy, and thick. However, several panelists felt the cup was a bit faded, restrained, "past-croppish." Perhaps this is an instance when the mid-season timing of the cupping did prejudice the cupping results.
Bright but well-matrixed acidity, full body, and a complex cluster of grace notes elevated the score of this sample. "Good balance of flavors, excellent complexity, ... fruit, spice, ... tropical woods, cedar with some sweet dark chocolate. [But] fades when cool. Where did all that flavor go?" For me the flavor went too soon. I missed length and development, and found the smoky, herby notes a touch dissonant. But that's a minority opinion: Overall the panel very much admired this coffee.