Artist Series 2020 from Carta Coffee Merchants worthy of a gallery!

Artist Series 2020 from Carta Coffee Merchants is worthy of a gallery. The latest offering from Carta is fantastic! This time around I did a tasting with a panel of coffee enthusiasts. Two twenty somethings, my charming wife and of course an old duffer like me. We started our adventure by grinding up the coffee, we were greeted with a heady aroma of earthiness and tobacco. Everybody was very impressed with the aroma, and were highly impress with the taste and body of this intoxicating blend. The comments started with “Wow! This is awesome!” to “this is as smooth as a smooth criminal”. 

The final confirmation of the quality of this Kona is that there was a demand for a second pot, and talk of a third pot. We decided against the third pot due to fact we were already vibrating from the caffeine. The gallery part of my head line is the high quality art by Norman Kekki, he captures the feel of coffee farm, and he has over the years has made outstanding illustrations of the farms of Carta Coffee. Kekki is well known for his field illustrations. Kekki is a grad from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco. He holds a BFA, and is based in California. I just love his art.

Now on to the review. Here is what we found.

Aroma:

We all picked up on the earthiness from the rich volcanic soil of Hawaii. The subtle smokiness of the tobacco notes and hints of fruit and chocolate. As the coffee cools down we managed to pick notes of spice and caramel

Flavor:

At first taste, we all agreed the Artist Series had a very mellow wine like flavor, owing to the rich volcanic soil that gave the flavor of earthiness, combined with the smokiness of tobacco to give it that wine like flavor. Nuttiness, and caramel were there as well. Chocolate notes really stood out when we added dairy to our cup. Quite delightful.

Body:

This is where we were all greatly impressed. The body is thick, whole, well rounded and very, very velvety. Smooth and bold, without being overpowering.

Acidity:

This is the best part of this coffee. Naturally sweet, no bitterness at all, it did not matter how long the coffee sat, the low acidity kept the cup nice and fresh. The citrus notes in this coffee lend to the finish, a nice clean finish, no off putting after taste.

Overall:

It was a qualified big thumbs up from all four of us at the coffee table. We all agreed this Artist Series 2020 from Carta Coffee Merchants was the best to date. A coffee that will please everyone and make some new converts to drinking Kona Coffee.

Every year Carta Coffee Merchants come out with some high quality coffee and the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher. A coffee company to keep an eye on.