Tartly sweet fruit notes suggest pineapple, grapefruit or perhaps black currant in the aroma, with delicate undercurrents of caramel and earth. In the cup the musty/malty earth notes move richly forward, backgrounding the continuing crisp, pineapply fruit. A slight astringency in the short finish gives way to sweetness and pineapple in the long.
In the aroma intense, pungent with grapefruit and cedar notes. In the cup full-bodied, with the dominating earthy pungency enveloped in deep sweetness. Continued grapefruit, pineapple and cedar notes settle toward honey and chocolate. Sweet, resonant, rich finish, totally free of astringency.
Intense, lyrically sweet coffee: honey, flowers and the pure notes of coffee fruit carry from aroma to cup; the acidity is tart but caramelly, even buttery. Impeccably clean, delicately rich finish.
Powerful, sweet-toned aroma: cherry, honey, tea-rose, milk chocolate, with a very mild ferment that reads as delicate Riesling-like wine. In the cup the honey and rose-like floral notes persist lushly, with the fruit notes turning from dark cherry to a tarter coffee fruit. The felicitous ferment deepens, reading more as brandy than wine. The finish is rich and deep, with an attractive persistence of flower, cherry and honey, but is weighed by the astringent heaviness usual with even the best of this style of dry-processed coffee.
Pungent but sweet throughout the profile. In the aroma caramel, fruit-toned, slightly smoky cedar, orange. In the cup the pungent, smoky fruit notes read as a tartly sweet grapefruit, perhaps dry berry, with continuing undercurrents of caramel sweetness. Distinct orange notes resurface in the rich finish.
Review Date: Aug 2006
A deep, spicy floral character - dusk flowers, tea rose - leads in aroma and cup, supported by low-acid fruit notes - peach, cherry - and hints of milk chocolate and leather. The acidity is deep-toned and round, the finish rich and clean.
Cherry notes dominate in the very sweet-toned, pungently acidy aroma. Relatively light-bodied in the cup, but sweetly and buoyantly acidy, with striking and complex aromatic notes: cherry, tea rose, Meyer Lemon, orange, honey. Honey in particular persists in the rich, sweet, though slightly astringent finish.
A whisper of an aroma, but a complex one: flowering grass, caramel, honey, a hint of chocolate. Amazingly sweet and delicately lush in the cup, with the honey notes intensifying and the floral notes declaring as spicy tea rose. The honey and floral notes persist in the surprisingly long, resonant finish.
Intense aroma: tart cherry, caramel, hints of lemon, flowers, chocolate. In the cup delicate and pure: brings the fresh, dusky floral and tart cherry notes of coffee flowers and fruit into the cup with continuing hints of chocolate and lemon. The finish is clean, simple, ingenuous.
Nut, prune, cedar and citrus, perhaps grapefruit, in the rich, low-toned aroma. Very sweet in the cup, pungent, with continued walnut and citrus notes and suggestions of earth or moist leaves. Everything settles toward chocolate in the rich finish. The cup roughens very slightly as it cools.
A sweet fruit ferment contributes to an intense aromatic complexity that carries from nose to cup: Spicy, rose-like flowers, honey, blueberry, ripe peach, a hint of chocolate. The finish is rich and blueberry-toned, but cup and finish both stiffen just a bit as the coffee cools, revealing a hint of heavy astringency.
Orange, raisiny chocolate, and pungent herbal notes in the aroma. Delicate in the cup, with continued orange-chocolate and pungent herb notes. Slightly bitter in the short finish, but smoothes out and sweetens nicely in the long.
Hints of banana-toned fruit, chocolate, fresh-baked bread in the complex but rather listless aroma. Thin though silky mouthfeel. Pungent, gently burned cedar character in the cup, with floral and caramelly chocolate suggestions. Nicely malty finish, but a hint of burned building rubber.