What we have below represents some of the very finest coffee lots currently available from hand selected small farms in growing regions known for renowned coffee quality. Coffee is a crop, and what is outstanding this month may be gone the next. So enjoy the rotation and take pleasure in some of the freshest, most delicious coffees on the planet!
The dry fragrance has strong almond character laced with bittersweet chocolate. It has a mild blueberry note in the cup, but this is obscured quickly by chocolate roast notes. There is a nutty dryness throughout the roast spectrum, almond with that almond skin effect in the finish. Chocolate alkaloids create a pleasant bittering finish. It’s not a super complex coffee, but has nicely integrated qualities, and the body has a nice slick, syrup texture.
The dry fragrance has a lot of roast notes to it: both sweetsavory
aspects and an interesting fruit-nut-chocolate
compound scent. The cup is malty sweet and lightly fruited,
with hazelnut notes and bittersweet chocolate tangy scents.
The acidity is very muted, and the body thick, buttery, and
dense.
The cup is classic Rwanda, very sweet, caramelized sugars, cherry hard-candy notes, violet floral notes as well as tangerine/mandarin citrus. The medium body has a silky mouthfeel, very refined and elegant overall.
A very interesting flavor profile, not your fruitbowl Kenya but a nicely structured, bracing and bright, articulate cup that is in the final analysis fairly straightforward. Stone fruits, firm peach and apricot (not overly ripe), juicy mouthfeel, a touch of hawthorn floral note (as found in the aromatics), a slightly drying tea-like quality to the finish.
So amazingly sweet, potent, and somewhat exotic compared to the standard Costa Rica wet-process flavor profile. The dry fragrance is intensely sweet, with malt syrup, praline, dark honey, and raisiny fruits. The wet aromatics have interesting savory sweet qualities, dark brown bread in the oven, cooked berry and more raisin fruits. The cup is vividly bright, with strong honey-lemonade flavors, red berry, toasted nut, and praline. It's quite sweet, but not in the typical wet-process Costa Rica way. The flavors are slightly more rustic, and the opaque body more pronounced, and a distinct "roundness" to the mouthfeel.
The cup has a clean, clear sweetness, like a light brown sugar taste, with mild sweet citrus marmalade accent. There is some spice tea flavor as well. As it cools a beautiful mandarin orange flavor comes forward, and the mouthfeel goes from being light and unobtrusive, to something more like fruit syrup. It's a restrained coffee and a bright and aromatic single origin espresso.
The dry fragrance is exploding with fruit, peach and plum are
the most dominant, with mango as well. It's flamboyantly
sweet, a heady, slightly winey and somewhat rustic sweetness,
raw brown sugar. The cup is canned peaches in syrup. After a
small temperature drop, other fruits emerge. Again, mango
along with dried apricot. The finish has Brazil nut, and the
fruits turn toward a tropical fruit salad mix; pineapple, peach,
guava, lychee, banana.
This is a Swiss Water Process decaf of a wonderful lot of coffee from Finca La Maravilla in Guatemala, one of Huehuetenango's extraordinary coffee farms. The farm is located in the La Libertad area of the state of Huehuetenango in Guatemala's north. The farm is owned by Mauricio Rosales and ranges from a very high 1500 meters all the way to 1850 meters.
The cup is a culmination of the various aromatic hints: Butterscotch and brown sugar sweetness with layers of tropical fruit, as well as apple and tamarind. It's a big, round cup, with prominent acidity, bit not at all a bracing acidity. The finish tends toward bittersweet, without being long on the palate. As it cools the sweetness lingers, the brightness seems more and more malic (apple-toned brightness), the body more syrupy, and a cola sweetness comes out.
This is a peaberry preparation of the Blue Batak Lintong-area coffee. Lintong coffees are from Sumatra, the island that is politically and geographically part of Indonesia. Lintong Nihota is the town that has become synonymous with the entire southern part of Lake Toba area.
The dry fragrance has chocolate and caramel biscuit tones, but with a slight earthy and graham cracker graininess. Surprising fruits come forward in the wet aroma, even a momentary
whiff of citrus, pineapple, dried plum, fig. It's got great rustic sweetness, aromatic tree bark, cinnamon stick, black tea, and mulling spice in the finish. The body is a bit heavier and it also has less of the herbal notes found in other Lintong coffees, which makes it a better choice for espresso.
Black Balsam is a turbulent espresso with mulled wine fragrance, pungent plumy sweetness, sage, popcorn, and fleeting citric high notes. Berries, melon, cinnamon, and clove notes churn in a viscous body. This turbulent and sweet espresso has a lightly bitter long lasting finish