Organic Reviews

Minty and fresh tobacco notes in the dry fragrance. In the hot aroma dry fruit notes of prune and wisps of spicy sweet chocolate. In the cup the dark roasting amplifies body, but mutes many of the attributes specific to this elegant origin. For me this coffee ultimately suggested a lovely old-master painting, sparkling with jewel-toned detail that centuries of darkened varnish have dulled. Nevertheless, it displays the depth and intensity of a well-crafted and classic French roast. (Lindsey Bolger)

Intense aromatics of coffee blossom (imagine jasmine, gardenia and lime), laced with milk chocolate, dried orange peel, bees' wax and lemon. While many Yirgacheffes display flourishes of mint, here oregano is the more dominant herbal note. If this coffee is big and robust in fragrance and aroma, the cup is quiet and a bit timid - a contradiction that adds to the appeal of this delicately balanced coffee. (Lindsey Bolger)

Complexly fruity and richly floral coffee - papaya, lemon, coffee fruit, hints of dusk-blooming flowers and chocolate, all ride a strong, balanced structure: good body, smooth mouthfeel, supple, sweet acidity.

Lovely, lyric coffee. Distinct apricot and milk chocolate notes in the aroma. In the cup sweet, balanced, with a delicate acidity lifting on rich undercurrents of bittersweet chocolate and apricot-toned fruit. For such a lyric coffee the finish is surprisingly long and bracing.

Delicately pungent, richly balanced aroma with excellent dimension and tickles of pear and chocolate. Comfortable in the cup, balanced, with an almost sugary sweetness. Caramel and chocolate undercurrents, but basically a coffee that charms with quiet completeness rather than excites with complexity.

Intensely sweet, round fruit swoons toward milk chocolate in the aroma. Simplifies in the cup, the aromatics dominated by an intense acidity that is properly sweet but -- perhaps owing to its sheer intensity -- lacks an impression of depth and fruit.

Roundly and sweetly pungent aroma, rich with walnut and cherry-toned chocolate. Simplifies slightly in the cup, but remains buoyant and cherry-toned, a giggly, meadowy sort of coffee. Light-footed but rich finish.

Deeply roasty in the aroma with grapefruit top notes and apricot and spicy chocolate undercurrents. In the cup sweet and complexly rich with chocolate and a caramelly fruit. A slight sharpness in the cup turns distinctly astringent and bitter in the finish.

Fresh cut cedar and fruit. The fruit richly and sweetly dominates in the aroma. In the small cup the cedar complicates and gives a resiny authority to the fruit. The fruit and cedar turn to an intriguingly pungent chocolate in milk.

Superb single-shot espresso distinguished by its fruit tones and general resonant depth of sensation. The aroma is robustly fruity and sweet, the small cup roundly and sweetly roasty with toast and chocolate notes. Simplifies slightly in milk but still agreeably expresses a high-toned, fruity chocolate.

Deep, resonant aroma, gently pungent, complicated by ripe cherry and fresh leather. In the cup settles into a classic traditionally processed Sumatra cup: musty earth tones and tart fruit notes, tamarind and dry cherry perhaps. Reader Pat Teel nominated another Hunter Bay coffee (Kaffe Moose Drool); we received this one as a bonus.

Intensely roasty; no rubber tones but overwhelmingly charred. Rather light-bodied but dense in sensation. The burned notes carry resiny hints of charred pine and pungent Mediterranean herbs; rosemary perhaps. Reader P. Teel found this coffee "deep, rich and flavorful."

Deep and balanced, smooth in mouthfeel, low in acidity, rich with sweet wine- and chocolate-cherry-toned fruit and a resiny hint of cedar. Nominating reader John Outler applies the technical tasting term "Yummy!" to this coffee before continuing "Perfect intersection between dark and light [roast]. Not too bitter."

A lush, complex cup that derives some of its considerable appeal from slightly fermented fruit tones: apricot in the aroma, apple and pear in the cup, all turned overripe and slightly chocolate-leaning by the ferment. Some cups were gloriously sweet and juicily fruity; others slightly bitter in the finish. Marcus Fitzsimmons nominated this coffee, adding a general plug for Caribou Coffee: "Awesome selection of various coffees including a welcoming store-side atmosphere."

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.

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.

A vastly rich, balanced medium-dark roast, distinctly nuanced from nose to finish with a deep, bittersweet, raisin-toned chocolate. As is often the case with deeply fruit-toned coffees, some of the lush richness may derive from a fortuitous edge of sweet ferment.

In the nose intensely roasty and intensely alive with pungently sweet fruit - passion fruit, or sweet grapefruit. In the cup the powerful coupling of sweet fruit and bitterish roast tones persists. Patient palates may read a raisin-toned dark chocolate in the roasty fruit.

In the nose sweetly pungent, with a round, full, balanced roastiness free of burned tones. The roasty tones sharpen in the cup, however, carrying into a long but rather astringent finish.

Rich in the aroma, pungent fruit, fresh leather, roasty chocolate. The roast tones turn the cup rather sharp and monotoned, however. In the finish softens once again toward a richly dry, chocolate-toned fruit.