I used to say my taste was all in my mouth. Now I'm not so sure. I've been drinking Cafe Santo Domingo almost exclusively for over a dozen years now. I bring several pounds back to the U.S. on every trip and gift some of it to family and friends. They think they're getting an exotic gift but in reality I bring it back 'cause I go through a lot of coffee and at my rate of consumption it is far cheaper to bring back Santo Domingo than to by store brand here locally. On my last trip to La Sirena in Sto.Dgo. there was quite a selection of Monte Alto coffees right next to the far larger display of Santo Domingo coffee. After recalling threads here on where to find good coffee I picked up several bags. (large, small, regular, organic, whole bean, etc). I had my housekeeper switch to the Monte Alto for the remainder of of my stay and was well pleased with it.
Well, I just got home (near Boston) and decided to do a side by side blind taste test with freshly opened bags of ground Monte Alto and Santo Domingo. I brewed two identical sized cups in the same coffee maker with identical amounts of milk and sugar. I did detect a very very small difference between the two. I thought one was just the tinyist bit more mellow than the other. Thats the one I picked as being the Monte Alto....... WRONG! Turns out I prefered the Cafe Santo Domingo over the Monte Alto. Since the Santo Domingo was around $RD180/lb and the Monte Alto was around $RD270/lb I guess I'll stick to Cafe Santo Domingo. Cheaper than retraining my taste buds!