Reviews for Uncommon Grounds

A coffee in which a mild processing taint - sweet fermented fruit for Ken, a hint of mustiness for co-taster Willem Boot - turns toward chocolate under the influence of the dark roast. Subtle but substantial in milk: "lingering balance" in milk for Willem, "delicately complex" for Ken. Ken awarded this coffee a considerably higher rating (90) than did Willem (86), probably owing to Ken's openness to sweet, flirt-with-ferment coffees.

A rather dramatic difference surfaced between co-taster Willem Boot and Ken on this very dark-roasted Panama. Ken wanted more sweetness and body; Willem apparently found enough of both and admired the elegant nuance. Willem: "Aroma with caramel and mild-apricot notes. Despite the dark roast, balanced flavor with apricot and chocolate. Pleasantly spicy with milk" (91). Ken: "Lovely aroma, high-toned but sweet fruit notes. In the small cup lean-bodied and crisply bitter, with a rich but astringent finish. Fruit re-emerges in milk, dry, smoky, chocolate-toned." (83).

A dominating roast flushes out most nuance, but imparts a pleasantly dry, cocoaish character to an elegantly crisp cup. Gently austere.

The quintessentially smooth, deep, rich Pacific coffee. Not so much complex as dense with sensation. Refined, crisply seductive cocoa tones carry elegantly from aroma to aftertaste.

Dark fruit (prune?) tones complicate a solid, balanced, dark-roast character. Some carbon at the top of the profile, but good Indonesia richness underneath. The carbon dominates in the aftertaste.

Some winy notes flirt from inside the dark-roast pungency. Otherwise an unremarkable but solid dark-roast coffee: balanced, without sharpness, and nearly carbon-free.