What a blind cupping said about our coffee, faults included

Most estates tell you their coffee is good. Very few show you what happened when someone with no stake in the outcome tasted it without knowing whose it was.

In August 2002, Kenneth Davids and Chris Palmer cupped fifteen Indian coffees for CoffeeReview — eight submitted by the Coffee Board of India, seven sourced independently by American roasters. The tasting was blind. Two of the fifteen were ours, and they placed third and fourth.

The scores

Both coffees finished on 86 points out of 100.

India Full City Roast broke down as aroma 8, body 8, flavour 8, acidity 6. Davids described "superb aroma, intense, sweet dark-roast character with shimmers of tart grapefruit and milk chocolate." Palmer found it opened "with nutty, caramel candy" over a smooth body.

India Dark Roast took the same 86. Palmer wrote that the roast "brings out sweet creamy coconut tones without contributing a smoky flavor."

The parts nobody quotes

A score is easy to put on a website. The rest of a blind assessment is not, which is exactly why it is worth publishing.

On the Full City Roast, Davids wrote that the roast character "pleasantly dominates in the cup but turns charred in the finish." Palmer noted it cooled "to a touch of earthy, metallic flavor." The two tasters were three points apart on it — Davids gave it 84, Palmer 87.

The Dark Roast drew sharper words. Davids called it "impressively full-bodied, but bitterly monotoned and heavy rather than round," and scored it 83. Palmer, who scored it 86, observed that "most of the India sweet pepper flavor has been roasted out."

That last line is the useful one. Both criticisms point at the roast, not at the bean — a dark roast pushed far enough to flatten what the cup was carrying underneath. The tasters were describing a decision made after the coffee left the estate.

Why a twenty-four-year-old result still matters

It does not tell you what this year's crop tastes like. Nothing from 2002 can, and any estate implying otherwise is selling you something.

What it tells you is narrower and more durable: this ground, farmed by this family, has produced coffee that stood up in a blind field against the best the Coffee Board could put forward. The estate has not changed hands since — it has been the same family since 1900, and the same two estates at 3,400 feet under the same shade trees.

The article closed by pointing readers to nandipuracoffee.com. That domain went dark for years. It is live again, and it seemed right to start here.

If you would like to cup the current crop rather than read about a lot from 2002, tell us what you are looking for and we will send a sample. If you would rather see where it grows, visits are by request.