Fair-Trade Coffee Review

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Organic Mexican Select, Fair-Trade Medium Roast
Origin: Southern Mexico
Intense aroma with a tightly knit complexity: muted spice, apple, pear, chocolate. In the cup sweet, delicate and balanced, with subtle but distinct chocolate notes and a quietly vibrant acidity. The chocolate turns toward cocoa in the mildly astringent finish.
Overall Rating: 88 points

Thanksgiving Coffee Mayan Harvest Breakfast Blend, Organic Fair Trade
Origin: Huehuetenango growing region, northwestern Guatemala
A rich and vividly fermented fruit dominates. The cherry-toned ferment is overlaid by a cedary roastiness in the aroma. In the cup the ferment deepens toward a dark chocolate and brandied cherry, but also displays a distracting pine or rosemary pungency. Smoothes out toward a cleanly rich chocolate in the short finish, though slightly astringent in the long.
Overall Rating: 87 points

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Fair Trade Organic Peru
Origin: Peru
Lushly complex but delicate aroma, alive with floral and low-acid fruit notes: apple perhaps, even banana, leaning toward chocolate. In the cup displays a simplifying sharpness when hot, but softens and sweetens as the cup cools. The seductively low-acid fruit notes persist from aroma into cup, reading as red wine and chocolate. The finish is long and rich with a slight astringent edge.
Overall Rating: 88 points

Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters Organic Fair-Trade Costa Rica
Origin: Tarrazu growing region, Central Costa Rica
Muted aroma with notes that Ken called "quietly pungent" and co-cupper Rodger "smoky." Ken also found pleasantly floral top notes as well. In the cup substantial body and smooth mouthfeel; the pungent notes in the aroma reappear as nut (Rodger) or semi-sweet chocolate (Ken). Simple, sweet short finish, very slight astringency in the long.
Overall Rating: 87 points

Flying Goat Coffee Organic Fair-Trade Decaf Mexico
Origin: Pluma growing region, southern Oaxaca State, Mexico
An intense, high-toned coffee with almost African character: distinct orange notes and hints of sweet spice, chocolate and flowers, lavender perhaps, in the aroma. The citrus, chocolate and lavender tones are sharper and simpler in the cup, though still intense. A tingle of astringency persists, not unpleasantly, into the finish.
Overall Rating: 88 points

Higher Grounds Trading Company Fair-Trade Mexican Decaf
Origin: Oaxaca State, Mexico
A profile so delicate it has difficulty asserting itself. Gentle and lyric in the aroma, with sweet nut and a cherryish fruit that carry into the cup but remain subdued and without authority, a charming but distant warble in the woods.
Overall Rating: 84 points

The Roasterie Organic Fair Trade Espresso
Origin: Not Disclosed
Delicate aroma, toasty with distinct raisin and chocolate notes. Deepens in the small cup; the mouthfeel is buttery and the raisin and chocolate notes turn lavishly rich with a tickle of brandyish ferment. Long, resonant finish. Transforms beautifully in milk; the chocolate intensifies without turning trite or candyish, while the fruit seems to lift and reveal lighter, brighter tones of melon and flowers.
Overall Rating: 93 points

Barefoot Coffee Roasters Bossa Nova Espresso
Origin: Not Disclosed
Chocolate and toast show in the rather subdued aroma. In the small cup the body is medium and the mouthfeel slightly lean, with a simple but attractive pungent/sweet character complicated by a cocoa or dry chocolate. Rich, semi-sweet chocolate finish. In milk balanced and crisply sweet, with the chocolate retaining its dry authority.
Overall Rating: 88 points

Kaldi's Best Sustainable Coffees Sweet Spot Espresso Blend
Origin: Not Disclosed
Deep, chocolate-toned aroma. In the small cup medium to full in body, in flavor sweetly cedar-toned with dry chocolate and apricot complication. The short finish is rich, the long fades toward astringency. Rounds nicely in milk, displaying a fine balance of crisp cedar and chocolate-toned fruit.
Overall Rating: 87 points

Gimme! Coffee Piccolo Mondo Espresso Blend
Origin: Not Disclosed
A rather aggressively roasted espresso. Delicate floral and fruit notes complicate an aroma that is toasty and almost burned. In the small cup medium to full body, creamy mouthfeel, and a flavor dominated by a gentle but slightly sharp bittersweetness. The complicating fruit notes are a bit too dry to read as chocolate. Sweetens and rounds in milk but never quite blooms.
Overall Rating: 85 points

Kaldi's Best Sustainable Coffees Fellowship of the Bean Espresso
Origin: Not Disclosed
A pleasant but rather predictable American-style espresso blend. Subdued chocolate and fruit in the aroma, medium body with a somewhat lean mouthfeel, smoky and pungently cedar-toned flavor with a little shimmer of dry cocoa. Softens and sweetens in milk to a cedarish chocolate with a hint of fresh leather.
Overall Rating: 84 points

Kaldi's Best Sustainable Coffees Organic Fair-Trade Sumatra Gayoland
Origin: Gayo growing region, Aceh Province, northern Sumatra, Indonesia
In the aroma cedar, spice, papaya, and a hint of semi-sweet chocolate. Delicate in the cup, with very sweet citrus notes, pink grapefruit perhaps, and a distinct cedar character with a continuing hint of chocolate. Rather heavy finish for such a light-footed coffee.
Overall Rating: 87 points

Coffee Tea Etc. Organic Fair-Trade Sumatra French Roast
Origin: Gayo growing region, Aceh Province, northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Review Date: January 2005
Rich, low-key, smoky, with an agreeably mild musty ferment that reads in aroma and cup as raisins and semi-sweet chocolate. In the aroma complex, in the cup balanced but a bit simple; surprisingly clean, soft finish.
Overall Rating: 87 points