Espresso Reviews

A rather aggressively roasted espresso. Delicate floral and fruit notes complicate an aroma that is toasty and almost burned. In the small cup medium to full body, creamy mouthfeel, and a flavor dominated by a gentle but slightly sharp bittersweetness. The complicating fruit notes are a bit too dry to read as chocolate. Sweetens and rounds in milk but never quite blooms.

Delicate but attractive aroma complicated by chocolate and low-acid tropical fruit notes. In the small cup medium body and a rather lean mouthfeel. The flavor is simple, cedar-toned, pungent-sweet, with a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Rich in the short finish, a bit heavy in the long. In milk rather delicate, sweet-cedar-toned with a continuing hint of chocolate.

A pleasant but rather predictable American-style espresso blend. Subdued chocolate and fruit in the aroma, medium body with a somewhat lean mouthfeel, smoky and pungently cedar-toned flavor with a little shimmer of dry cocoa. Softens and sweetens in milk to a cedarish chocolate with a hint of fresh leather.

Subdued cedar and prune in the aroma. In the small cup medium body and lean mouthfeel. In flavor slightly smoky, slightly sharp, cedar-toned and rather shallow, with a suggestion of fruit and semi (very semi)-sweet chocolate. Shortish and rather astringent finish. Sweetens and rounds in milk, with some fruity chocolate softening the cedar and smoke.

Rich, deeply fruity papaya-toned chocolate in the aroma. In the small cup the body is medium in weight but smooth and balanced in mouthfeel; the flavor crisp but resonant, with a tightly knit complexity: wine, chocolate, cedar, perhaps pear. The finish is heavy but smooth and rich, with a recollection of chocolate. Sweetens and blooms in milk without losing its crisp elegance: fresh leather, pear, mint, cherry-toned chocolate.

In the aroma low-toned, with cedar and papaya notes leaning toward chocolate. In the small cup the body is heavy with a pleasantly rough mouthfeel, the flavor rich with continuing suggestions of cedar and papaya-toned chocolate. The short finish maintains the chocolaty richness, but the long concludes with a hint of saltiness and astringency. The generally heavy profile softens nicely in milk while maintaining a pleasing depth and power, though the woody cedar tones seem to hinder the chocolate from fully sweetening and blooming.

In the small cup deeply sweet, with a heavy, buttery mouthfeel and carnal fruit tones: papaya, mango, bittersweet chocolate. Exceptional in milk: very sweet with chocolate-toned fruit of almost lyric lift and complexity balanced by a dry, authoritative finish.

The aroma is elegantly simple: toasty and sweet with low-key fruit notes suggesting ripe apricot. Superb in the small cup: velvety mouthfeel, substantial body, deep-toned but crisply dry chocolate and apricot notes, with a long, clean, sweet finish. Solid, chocolaty presence in milk, but the glory here is in the classic but powerful straight shot.

Serenely balanced yet powerfully complete. Low-key, roundly rich in the small cup, with dry fruit and bittersweet chocolate notes. Masters milk with crisp, quiet assurance: fresh leather, milk chocolate, dry fruit.

Fresh cut cedar and fruit. The fruit richly and sweetly dominates in the aroma. In the small cup the cedar complicates and gives a resiny authority to the fruit. The fruit and cedar turn to an intriguingly pungent chocolate in milk.

Superb single-shot espresso distinguished by its fruit tones and general resonant depth of sensation. The aroma is robustly fruity and sweet, the small cup roundly and sweetly roasty with toast and chocolate notes. Simplifies slightly in milk but still agreeably expresses a high-toned, fruity chocolate.

Richly and elegantly roasty and bittersweet in aroma and small cup with high-toned, pear-like fruit shimmering at the top. The finish is heavy and slightly bitter, a liability in the small cup but an advantage in milk, where the dairy turns the cup deeply yet lyrically sweet with a whole candy-counterful of sophisticated chocolate tones.

The Gimme!Coffee package describes this blend's aroma as "Centennial Harley leather." I can-t say much about Centennial or Harley, but I'd agree on the leather, with maybe a kinky smear of chocolate thrown in. Flavor is described as "Dive Bar Chic." As a dive bar innocent I'd call it dense, simple, but big and balanced, with more leather and perhaps some pleasantly pungent cedar notes. No leather makes it into the milk, but a very pleasant, high-toned chocolate-and-nuts sweetness does.

Big but elegantly leathery aroma laced with chocolate. In the small cup a dry sharpness limits the chocolate tones, but they reassert themselves in milk, blossoming richly with a long, hazelnut-toned finish.

An unusually successful ultra-dark-roasted espresso: the gently burned tones in the aroma develop rather than dominate the pronounced dry fruit and chocolate notes that carry from aroma through small cup into milk, where they bloom with lean but masterful authority.

Bittersweet in the small cup, with little nuance or complexity but impressive weight and a buttery presence. The big body carries into milk with predictable power, the simple bittersweetness blooming into an expansively sweet, prune-toned chocolate.

The aroma is sweet, smoky and toasty. In the small cup the smoky tones complement a dry but lush fruitiness. Comes richly into its own in milk, where the smoke and toast tones read as fresh leather and the dry fruit turns crisply chocolate.

Subdued but gently elegant aroma. Stiffens a bit in the cup, landing somewhere between crisp and sharp, but with a gentle undercurrent of chocolate sweetness. The fruit and chocolate stop just short of richness in milk.

Crisp cedar tones and sweet chocolate in the small cup. In milk the chocolate further blooms and softens, and the cedar tones read as a high-toned sweetly tart fruit (pineapple?).

Charred aroma, lean mouthfeel and a bitterish sharpness in the small cup all suggest an overly aggressive roast. But a floral sweetness wafts through the profile and contributes to a fine presence in milk: still a bit lean in mouthfeel but alive with leather, apricot and chocolate notes.