Exotic Reviews

In the aroma sweet and pungent with aromatic wood notes and a whiff of fermented fruit. In the cup nutty and sweet; the fermented fruit tones intensify as the cup cools, landing in a potentially intriguing spot somewhere between chocolate and composted apricot.

Dense, heavy aroma: fresh-cut pine, Mediterranean herbs, with an elusive hint of fruit - pear perhaps. In the cup an unusually heavy, rather gritty body, bitter walnut tones and distinct pine and resiny herb notes - rosemary perhaps.

Very sweet aroma with fresh peach and chocolate mid tones and balancing cedar bottom notes. Delicate in the cup with a gently tart acidity wrapped in a rather giddy sweetness. The fruit notes are cleanly wine-like.

Luxuriously sweet, delicately pungent, with tart but lush tropical fruit notes, tamarind perhaps, running through the profile from aroma to finish. The tamarind fruit notes incline toward a richly raisin-toned chocolate in the long finish.

Sweet and fruity in the aroma with raisin and chocolate complication. In the cup delicate in mouthfeel, tartly sweet, and richly and roundly fruity. Cleanly sweet and rich in the short finish, though a slight but not unpleasurable astringency lingers in the long.

Sweet, midtoned, and intensely fragrant with an odd but pleasingly complex of sweet citrus (orange and Meyer lemon?) and fresh-cut cedar. This striking aromatic combination hints at a sort of herb-toned chocolate toward the rich but slightly heavy, bittersweet finish.

The aroma is sweetly and gently pungent with spice and dried apricot. In the cup very sweet, smooth in mouthfeel, with a quietly complex, raisin-toned fruit that manages to suggest a sort of wine-toned chocolate.

Densely but sweetly and gently pungent in the aroma. Richly low-key, heavy-bodied, with gently charred cedar notes. Just sweet and complex enough to escape inertia.

Sweetly lyric with delicate but lushly complex high notes in the aroma. The softly lyric character carries into the cup, where the indeterminate aromatic complexity gives way to dramatic floral high notes and Meyer lemon and chocolate midtones.

The chicory in this moderately dark-roasted blend announces itself tactfully but distinctly in the peppery mouthfeel, spicy, resiny notes (think rosemary stored in a scorched cedar box), with a hint of round, slightly, salty fruit underneath - Chinese salt plums perhaps.

Lovely balance of sweet and dryly acidy tones; more than balanced, integrated and smoothly compete in expression. Floral notes in the nose; in the cup the cherry-toned fruit carries pleasing hints of a clean, sweet ferment.

Superb aroma: sweet, balanced, intense, with deep dimension and a grand range of nuance, ranging from floral top notes to mid-tones of papaya and perhaps pear. In the cup an explosive entry, with intense, almost contradictory impressions of sweetness, bitterness, acidity and distinct floral and cherry-toned fruit. This amazing cup hardens a bit toward the finish, although the finish itself is smoothly rich and floral.

Very sweet and round in both nose and cup, nuanced by a voluptuous fruity chocolate. This low-toned fruit may reveal a slight ferment that most palates will read as a complicating note to the chocolate.

Richly melodic coffee in which wine and apple notes carry from aroma through cup to finish. A tactful dark roast preserves a shimmer of acidity in the cup while contributing a slight herbal twist to the dominating apple-cider-like notes.

Sweetly roasty in the aroma, thin-bodied and sharply roasty in the cup. Almost disembodied floral top notes float above a bittersweet, prune-toned chocolate.

A sweet, lyric coffee with remarkable complexity, starting with the aroma -- distinct leather notes, winy fruit, milk chocolate -- to the cup, where the wine tones deepen and take on an almost smoky edge. Clean, sweet, grape-like finish.

Cinnamon, pumpkin, chocolate smeared on leather in the aroma. In the cup overripe, lush, half-rotting fruit and carnal melon tones eventually suggest chocolate, which sweetens and rounds in the long, surprisingly clean finish.

A big-bodied, massively roasty coffee. Intense musty tones read as rosemary, cardamom perhaps, with a shimmer of chocolate. The intense, monumental character fades a bit as the cup cools.

Mid-toned and complex in the nose with fresh apricot and sweet cocoa. Simplifies slightly in the cup, turning roundly tart in a rich Meyer lemon direction. The immediate finish is slightly sharp, but the long finish smoothes out in a silky lemony, chocolaty trajectory.

Variants on citrus shimmer through this buoyant, sweetly acidy cup: lemon and cocoa in the aroma, lemon and pink grapefruit in the cup. The finish is sweetly tart.