Highest Rated Reviews

Sweetly melodic, soft but substantial, with a gentle tickle of acidity. A spice-toned chocolate complicates the aroma and resurfaces in a long, easy finish. Nominating reader Monique Tam calls this "The best 100% Kona I have tasted." It certainly was the best of the four Konas I sampled for this month's cupping.

Crisply rich in the aroma, with sweet apple-toned high notes. In the cup simple and engaging as an early Beatles song, with an acidity felt rather than tasted and seductively fruity milk chocolate notes. W. Morris Brown Jr. nominated this coffee with a simple tribute: "I like it."

A classic high-grown Latin-American profile: Cherry- and grape-toned fruit in the sweet, high-toned aroma. In the cup big and smooth-bodied, rich, sweetly but intensely acidy, with an essence-of-coffee fruit that edges toward chocolate.

Simultaneously intensely acidy and extravagantly sweet, medium-bodied, with a whole basket of fruit tones: apricot, dry cherry, sweet lemon, a tiny whiff of chocolate, all lush, crisply rich, complex.

An understated coffee that rewards attention to its gentle virtues. Sweetly balanced roastiness and rich papaya-toned fruit in the aroma; in the cup delicately complex and quietly lush with low-toned, carnal fruit: apricot and papaya.

A cup that will put off purist coffee professionals but please everyone else: Fermented fruit tones that require some imagination to read as cherryish chocolate in the aroma simply explode with extravagantly complex fruit and floral nuance in the cup. As the cup cools the fruit seems to shed its ambiguous ferment entirely and turn cleanly lush.

Voluptuously classic coffee, perfectly poised between an almost sugary sweetness and a crisp, rich acidity. The mouthfeel is big and silky. The basic package is so complete that the hint of cherry- and tamarind-toned fruit comes as a bonus.

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.

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.

Opens with a very sweet, very intense but balanced aroma complicated by apples and flowers. In the cup the gentle acidity subordinates itself to a melodic sweetness and a rich, deeply dimensioned chocolate- and apple-toned fruit. Lyric and seductive.

The aroma is high-toned but pungent, laced with caramel, cantaloupe and leather. In the cup a sweet, wine-toned fruit leads, with richly malty, bracingly bitter tones opening up behind. The bitterness dissolves in the long, clean, chocolate-toned finish.

High-toned, complex aroma: sweet citrus, cherry, apple. In the cup gently acidy, while the fruit maintains its complex, elegant trajectory: Meyer lemon, grapefruit, tart berry. The initial, almost shocking rush of sweetness is balanced by a crisply bitter finish.

A tribute to classic balance: pure but substantial, quietly intense without extremes. Gently acidy, deeply rich, discreetly complicated by tightly laced notes of leather, chocolate and fruit.

Co-taster Willem Boot: "Fine and complex fruity/minty aroma. Exotic berry-like flavor notes with fascinating wild black currant aftertaste. Balanced, sweet and intriguing with milk" (93) Ken characterized the wild, sweet, edge-of-ferment fruit tones running through the profile from aroma to aftertaste as black cherry, and enjoyed them almost as much as Willem (90). In milk Ken completely concurred with Willem: "sweet, balanced, lovely."

Co-taster Willem Boot greatly admired this coffee, awarding it an exclamatory 95: "Reddish brown supershot! Complex aroma with tingling body. Mild sweet and dry flavor balance with intense fruit and spicy notes. Cardamom flavor with milk." Ken's admiration was more restrained. He enjoyed the low-toned bouquet of pipe tobacco, leather, toast, smoke, spice and musty cantaloupe notes enough to award a rating of 88, but found the body "gritty" (Willem called it "tingling") and the finish slightly astringent.

Giddily sweet, rich, balanced. Gentle wine-toned fruit (call it chardonnay) and low-key floral notes run through aroma and cup, rounding toward milk chocolate n the finish. A superb expression of the El Salvador type.

Dry and forceful. The acidity is intense but sweet. The fruit is crisply austere: black currant, sauvignon blanc wine grapes. A challenging coffee that commands rather than seduces.

High-toned, sweet, light-footed and delicate, yet rich and deeply dimensioned. Lemon and red-wine notes in the aroma, in the cup red wine, cherry and a shimmer of flowers. Long, complex finish.

Medium bodied but delicate, soft, exquisitely balanced, giddy with sweet fruit tones that may suggest cherry but ultimately express the purity and elegance of a perfectly processed coffee. The finish is sweet, long, and gently rich.

A grandly acidy coffee, austerely tart yet voluptuously sweet. Complicated by hints of green apple or pie cherry, but the main expression is the huge, rich gesture of the acidity. The finish is tart but round and opulent.