Dark Roasts Reviews
We found 210 reviews for Dark Roasts. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee.
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We found 210 reviews for Dark Roasts. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee.
Intensely and sweetly roasty. Baker’s chocolate, scorched cedar, hints of apple and grapefruit in aroma and cup. Lightly syrupy, plump mouthfeel. The finish is drying but richly chocolate-toned.
Evaluated as espresso. Sweet, roundly and gently pungent. Dark chocolate, ripe orange, black cherry, walnut, a hint of narcissus-like flowers in aroma and cup. Lightly syrupy mouthfeel; walnut and chocolate carry into a deep though drying finish. An orangy chocolate with hints of walnut and flowers dominates in three parts milk.
Evaluated as espresso. Very discreetly and mildly roast-toned. Ken (93) found the hint of roast fine, maybe even refreshing given all of the bright, lighter-roasted espressos he tastes, but Ethan (91) was not entirely happy with the roasty suggestions. Chocolaty and floral yes, but he also found the blend “bittersweet,” “dry”, even “gritty,” and “lacking complexity overall.” The term “dry” found its way into Ken’s notes as well, but nevertheless he appreciated the chocolate, the caramel, the raisin, the flowers and for him a pleasant hint of anise. True, Ethan did fall in line with Ken when it came to sampling the blend in three parts milk, where both found the chocolate and caramel notes appealing and the floral notes surprisingly clear and persistent.
Deeply and richly roast-toned, resonant. Dark chocolate, raisin, cedar, hints of lavender-like flowers and orangy citrus in aroma and cup. Roast-muted acidity; lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Chocolate and the lavender hint carry into a sweet though richly and roundly drying finish.
Evaluated as espresso. Rich, complex, gently roasty. Sweet chocolate, raisin, ripe grapefruit, lightly scorched pine, a hint of lush flowers in aroma and small cup. Plush but drying mouthfeel; sweet though quite drying in the finish. Lightly and delicately chocolaty in three parts milk.
Heavily scorched wood dominates in aroma and cup, with hints of faded chocolate, clove and molasses. Acidity is folded inside the scorched pungency of the roast; mouthfeel is light and leanish. The finish is bittersweet and drying.
A tactful ultra-dark roast dominates a cleanly sweet green coffee: Gently charred aromatic wood with a backgrounded dark-chocolate sweetness and a hint of flowers at the top. Medium body, smooth mouthfeel; slightly astringent finish.
Deeply and intensely roasty aroma, with notes of charred cedar, walnut and spicy chocolate. Medium body, somewhat thin mouthfeel, flavors of charred wood with hints of raisin, dark chocolate and earth. The short finish is sweet and rich, but simplifies, with an astringent roastiness lingering in the long.
Intense, simple aroma: sweet scorched wood, hint of dark chocolate. More complex in the cup: nut and dark chocolate dominate, with a distinct herb note, somewhere between rosemary and peppermint. Smooth, sweet finish, only slightly heavy in the long.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule to produce a 6-ounce serving size): Delicate, gently exotic, faintly smoky, with cocoa, cedar, floral and caramel notes in both aroma and cup. Lightly syrupy and bittersweet in structure. The short finish is sweet and cocoa-toned, the long mildly astringent.
Simple, roasty aroma, with smoke, toast, butter, cedar, a hint of bananaish fruit. In the cup heavily astringent but rich and sweet-toned with gently scorched cedar and dark chocolate notes and a surprising hint of night flowers. The rich sweetness dominates the astringency in the finish.
Intense, deep aroma: distinct dark chocolate, spicy cedar and hints of orange and nut. In the cup low in acidity but rather astringent, with a rich, attractive cocoaish chocolate. Both chocolate and astringency carry into the finish, where the shadow nut tones turn (to my palate) slightly cloying.
Evaluated as espresso. As a drip coffee fell quite short of 80. As espresso revealed some virtues. In the aroma sweet-toned with distinct chocolate and butter notes. In the small cup medium bodied, round-toned and sweet, with earth, aromatic wood and herbal notes (I read fennel) and hints of nut and chocolate. The finish was simple in the short and mildly astringent in the long. Surprisingly disappointing in milk: leanish in mouthfeel with banana and chocolate in front but a slight though disturbing note toward the finish that for me suggested salted meat.
The ultra-dark roast turns mouthfeel lean, but spares us astringency and leaves us with a gently pungent, delicately rich cup with a shimmer of cardamom-toned spice and scorched cedar complication.
(As brewed in a Keurig B60 single-serve brewing device using a "K-Cup" capsule at a cup volume of 5.25 ounces): Sweet, round, toasty caramel aroma with a hint of flowers. In the cup very balanced: sweet, toasty, rich, with a hint of green apply tartness and pruny fruit edging toward chocolate. Sweet and rich in the short finish; turns slightly woody in the long.
Intense, deeply rich aroma dominated by cedar notes with hints of plum or prune that lean toward semi-sweet chocolate. In the cup smooth and substantial in mouthfeel, powerful and balanced, but limited in nuance. Like the cup, the finish is structurally impressive (rich, clean) but simple.
For both Ken (81) and co-taster Ted Lingle (79) the aroma was muted and burned. Ted found the body in the small cup light; Ken (81) found it fuller but rough in mouthfeel. Nor did Ken or Ted have much positive to say about flavor: pungent and rough for Ted, burned and sharp for Ken. In milk pleasantly sweet but thin-bodied for Ted; Ken was more positive here, finding that the milk smoothed out the sharply roasty character of the coffee, turning it toward a pleasing fresh leather and a clove-toned spice. The reader who nominated this blend found it "exceptional, that's all."
A coffee seen from the far end of the taste telescope, intriguing but shrunk and diminished. The aroma is lushly sweet with a hint of grapefruit. The cup is sweet as well, but complicated only by an agreeable but simple acidity. Once past the aroma little nuance of any kind. Slightly astringent in the finish.
The roast turns the fruit high-toned and dryly pungent: cedar and spice in the aroma, sweet grapefruit in the cup. As the cup cools the fruit softens toward pear. Fine balance of sweet and dry tones in the cup, though the finish is rather heavily astringent.
The balanced dark roast is so tactful that even some acidity survives. Shimmering inside the dominant roastiness are tantalizing shimmers of flowers, a gentle, generalized fruit, and rounded citrus notes, grapefruit perhaps. A slight astringency in the long, rich finish reduced the rating for me, but other coffee drinkers may find this sensation bracing.