Estates Reviews
We found 1746 reviews for Estates. The reviews below appear in reverse chronological order by review date. Older reviews may no longer accurately reflect current versions of the same coffee.
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.
Rich but subdued, with a stealthy, understated sweetness. Some aromatic intrigue suggests apples and spice. The restrained aroma and rather flat finish compromises an otherwise roundly expansive Caribbean cup.
Smoky and richly heavy in its aromatics, but rather musty and monotoned in the cup. The musty tones, as they often do in Sumatras, hint at positive associations like spice and a sort of rough chocolate, but ultimately are too hard and unresilient to sustain too positive a reading.
Medium-bodied but expansively rich with complex mid to low notes. Cedar, nuts and dry fruit in the aroma; sweetly melodic fruit and floral notes in the cup. A dash of astringency in the finish tightens the fruit notes toward grapefruit.
Full body and sweet, voluptuously rounded acidity. Low-toned, symphonically complex fruit suggests melon in aroma, spicy apricot in cup and finish. A slight hint of mustiness is coiled inside the richness, modestly lowering my rating of this otherwise classic Blue Mountain cup.
Sweet, low-key, gentle. Displays muted musty/mildew tones that, combined with the essential sweetness of the coffee, read agreeably as malt or dry spice.
Sweet and complex with grapefruit, lemon and cocoa in the nose. The grapefruit notes dominate and harden a bit in the pleasingly rich cup, turning slightly astringent in the finish.
Bright and crisp but delicately sweet. An unusual but quite appealing combination of chocolate and grapefruit tones makes its invigorating, seductive presence felt from nose to finish.
A sturdy if simple Latin-American cup: Little nuance but substantial body and bright acidity. High-toned, balanced, clean, direct.
A powerfully understated, slow-developing cup with an acidity enveloped in sweetness, low-toned wine and cherry notes, a silky body, and a long, clear finish. The cup rounded and strengthened impressively as it cooled.
Pleasingly heavy, round, low-key, with a nicely balanced bittersweetness when hot. As the cup cooled sweetness enveloped the bitter tones and turned them pleasingly chocolate in the finish.
This deeply dimensioned coffee rewarded patience. My initial score was the same as the jury 's, but as the cup cooled I found myself adding points as a slight bitterness dropped away and a seductive fruit- and floral-toned sweetness prevailed.
A classic, high-toned, vanilla-laced aroma; in the cup subtle, rich, resonant, with pronounced chocolate tones that carry straight through from cup to finish.
A light, bright, fragrantly smooth cup. When hot alive with shimmers of citrus, spice, and nut tones. As the cup cools, however, a disturbing vegetative undertone surfaces: "grassy," "dried peas," "sour," panelists complained. A potentially superb coffee, an India version of the great, brightly nuanced coffees like Guatemala Antigua and Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, but flawed by either processing/storage errors or too much unripe fruit.
Clear, dry fruit that reads pleasingly as cocoa graces this agreeable but understated coffee. Some panelists praised its gentle complexity; others found the cup too gentle.
Panelists found this coffee interesting but ambiguous. They were attracted by its combination of nuanced, caramelly softness and bright, aggressive acidity; put off by a smoky, slightly bitter pungency that hinted at a drying fault.
A luxuriously sweet, full, suavely rounded cup enlivened by nut and spice tones and a tickle of flowers. "Rich, saturated butter," exclaimed one panelist. Slightly sharp when hot, but as the cup cools the bitter edge swoons into the enveloping sweetness.
Winner in the 2000 Specialty Coffee Association of Panama Cupping Event. Gently lively acidity rides a full, buttery body toward a splendid, complex, wine-toned finish.
Soft, sweetly brisk, balanced, but edging on bland. "No flaws, but not many grace notes. Good, inoffensive cup," wrote one panelist. "Nice combo of sweet & floral ... just missing intensity," offered another.
The panel put this light-bodied coffee somewhere between bland and defective. Four panelists reported at least one cup of the several they sampled displayed defective aromatics, their descriptions ranging from soapy to beefy to sour. Apparently I was lucky: all of my cups were light-footed but sweetly acidy and agreeable.