Fair trade Reviews

Lindsey Bolger: "A coffee with some interesting twists and turns. While dominated by a less desirable woody flavor, a sweet and chocolaty aroma and clean finish redeems what may be an otherwise ordinary coffee" (82). Ken: "Bittersweet, with dry chocolate and nut tones. A little too bitter and not quite sweet enough for me. The finish is astringent but rich." (83)

This very dark-roasted coffee reveals almost nothing about the potentially interesting green coffee itself except its ability to stand up to a severe degree of roast and still taste quite agreeable. The profile is roasty and charred, but pleasantly free of bitterness and haloed by sweetness.

Rich, round and balanced, with a sweetly understated acidity. Not a lot of nuance, but a hint of mustiness reads as an agreeably peppery chocolate. The finish is smooth, clean and long.

In the nose, brightly sweet grapefruit tones animate a vaguely spicy roastiness. In the cup the aggressive roastiness turns bitter and slightly charred, lifted only by a shadow sweetness and a memory of citrus. Substantial body.

Low-toned, subdued but sweet and rich, with an almost chewy body and a tantalizing suggestion of flowers, lavender perhaps. As the cup cools a slight rubbery note emerges, reflecting either a roasting fault or a storage or processing problem with the green coffee.

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.

Clear, sweet ferment tones are turned cherryish chocolate by the darkish roast. Clean, bittersweet chocolate finish. The winy ferment tones, giddy and buoyant when the cup is hot, flatten just a bit as the cup cools.

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.

The aggressive roast agreeably dominates the coffee here. A delicate, floral-toned, buoyant sweetness sings over a pungently charred center. The sweetness fades and the charred tones dominate in the finish.

Rich, sweet, with a gentle lift from the acidity, complicated by pronounced chocolate fruit tones (think chocolate-covered cherries). The body reads as bigger than it is owing to the general richness of the cup. Not much range or complexity, but a fundamentally pleasing cup.

A richly expansive, deeply dimensioned coffee, caramelly, smooth, with an elegant balance of slightly bitter roasty notes, sweetness, and a gently fruity acidity.

Rich, balanced, deeply dimensioned, sweet and mouthfilling at the front end, a touch bitter toward the finish. Meadowy hints of flowers waft in the sweetness.

Medium-bodied but smooth, sweet, chocolaty, with a glint of dry acidity to animate the sweetness. The roast taste is backgrounded and unobtrusive, wrapped in the chocolate-toned sweetness.

The aroma is remarkable: rich, sweet, caramelly, complete. In the cup substantial, brightly rich, with tickles of citrus and cocoa. The chocolate-toned finish sits rather heavily on the palate.

A dominating roast flushes out most nuance, but imparts a pleasantly dry, cocoaish character to an elegantly crisp cup. Gently austere.

Light, dryly fruity, complicated by pleasant cocoa tones. Simple, ingenuous, agreeable. Not sweet, but stays on the gentle side of bitter.

Gritty, smoky, low-toned and ponderous. Some sweetness peers out from under the rather bitter heaviness.

Balanced but subdued. Acidy brightness and hints of fruit and chocolate are dampened by a bitter pungency. For the patient, a hint of lavender in the finish.