09/28/2026
Let’s talk tasting notes.
At Prodigal Coffee , Mark and I have tasted 7,000 coffees together over 4 years, and we are as calibrated as two people can be. Over those 7,000 samples, we have NEVER had the exact same four tasting notes for a coffee. We usually have the same score +/-0.25, but never the same exact notes
AXIL COFFEE ROASTERS , one of Australia’s most respected roasters, markets their WASHED Banko Gotiti as “ apricot, blood orange, baked apple, and black tea.”
Those are very specific tasting notes. If you said them to me, I would assume the coffee is washed, especially because of the black tea tasting note. I have never described a natural as being reminiscent of black tea, and I have never experienced anyone else ever having done that either.
Specialty Coffee Factory Outlet, who claimed their Banko is “ the exact same coffee” as Axil’s, marketed theirs with THE EXACT SAME FOUR TASTING NOTES. And, by the way, it turns out SCFO’s coffee is a natural. So there is no €}%!!! way those notes would be accurate.
What adult with an IQ over 50 could possibly believe SCFO *didn’t* copy Axil’s tasting notes, especially since their marketing tried to directly use Axil’s reputation to boost their own lower-quality junk?
Note: SCFO never had any evidence that their Banko was the same as Axil’s. For reference, there are 10 or so washing stations in Banko, servicing about 2,000 smallholders per washing station. That means there are potentially 20,000 distinct producers of “Banko Gotiti” coffee. I can tell you from experience that even amongst the grade one BG’s, some are glorious, 88-point coffees, and some are rather common 85-pt specialty coffees.
