Light Roast Reviews

Evaluated at a steeping time of 6 minutes. This beverage is composed of coffee that has essentially been toasted but not roasted. Toasted grain, cocoa nib, hints of raw cashew and limelike citrus in aroma and cup. Sweet, woody/grainy structure with a hint of bitterness but no acidy sensation whatsoever. The mouthfeel is thin and tea-like but silky in texture. Grain and nut fade in the finish, though a woody sweetness lasts.

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.

Aromatic woods and a hint of sweetly fermented fruit in the aroma. Very sweet in the cup, with rich walnut notes and a continued hint of fermented fruit inclining toward chocolate - think of overripe apricots rolled in chocolate sprinkles.

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.

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.

A fine monsooned Malabar with the usual low acidity and heavy body of this exotic origin, but here, in a skillfully executed light-roast style, unusually sweet with complex nuance: low-toned cantaloupe-like fruit and a pungent, gingery mustiness that easily reads as nut, and, with imagination, as malty toned chocolate.

Low-key, mild, balanced to a fault. Sweet, with the round richness of a good Viennese blend, but ultimately unexpressive and rather inert.

Reader Derick Miller called Graffeo to my attention, testifying that this groupof three small in-store roasters produces "great coffee." I found this light-roasted version of theGraffeo blend acidy but sweet, rich, with a broad flavor range including delicate orange and floralnotes. Both aroma and finish showed a slight bitter edge which rounded and softened as the cupcooled.

Extraordinary, luxurious coffee, lushly sweet yet vibrantly acidy, with ripe, opulent fruit tones and delicately intense floral high notes. Utterly free of bitterness or astringency. Perfectly roasted, and as extravagantly complex as the very finest East Africa coffees. Nominator David Lubertozzi of Berkeley raves about its "amazing body and milk-chocolateyness," and confesses he enjoys it even better cold than hot -- always a sign of an exceptional coffee.

A startlingly distinctive coffee: richly fruity with almost symphonic aromatics and pronounced but sweet acidity. "Best blend in the world!" exclaims the nominating reader. "One of the few blends that has distinctive regional characteristics -- in this case a lighter roast highlights and protects a wonderfully lively flavor."