This delicious coffee was scored an impressive 82.75 by the independent coffee graders of the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America), higher than most non-decaffeinated speciality coffees! The only thing you’re not losing is sleep! Flavour and aromatic notes of chocolate, plum, cream and blackcurrant. Rebuild Women’s Hope is a cooperative established in 2013 on the banks of Lake Kivu. The varietals used are Blue Mountain and Kent, grown at altitudes up to 2000 metres.
This delicious coffee is grown on heirloom varietals that yield milk chocolate with great supporting notes of lime, orange, and caramel. The citrus character from Sidamo really adds another dimension to the cup. The coffee was scored 82.75 by the independent coffee graders of the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) higher than most non-decaffeinated speciality coffees! The only thing you’re not losing is sleep! This coffee is washed, with beans removed from the cherry through a de-pulper, before passing through a fermentation phase for 12-36 hours. Once this is finished the cherries are washed in clean water and then dried on traditional raised beds or occasionally patios. Local smallholders grow heirloom varietals known locally by names such as Kumie, Diga, and Wilsho.
Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffees are famed for their beautiful fragrance. The coffee taster's lexicon is used to it's full in striving to describe some of the aromatics that are glimpsed in the coffee's aroma, both roasted and brewed. One of perhaps the most unusual is that of black tea. Others include: tangerine, stone fruit, red currant, lime, raspberry lemonade, floral, lemon, sweet, lavender, jasmine, blueberry, blackberry, bergamot, apricot, almond, wildflowers. It might be a surprise to find that it still smells and tastes of coffee! The coffee grown in this lush, green, mountainous area at altitudes up to 8,000 feet is referred to as 'garden coffee' due to most of it being grown on small-holdings of less than 1 hectare producing something up to 5 sacks of coffee beans.
No collection of coffee would be complete without a prizewinning offering from Kenya. Recently, coffee from this co-operative won the Specialty Coffee Association's Blind Cupping Competition, scoring 98 out of 100. Some notes on the flavours when medium roasted included: Vibrant grape acidity, sugar cane sweetness, tropical fruit, pineapple, blackcurrant, mandarin, orange, nectarine, apricot, stone fruit, brown sugar, rhubarb, pink grapefruit, rose florals, lime, milk chocolate, nectarine, black tea, honey and fresh cherry. Our Kenya coffee is grown by the smallholder farmers of the Bisembe co-operative in Kisii County, a mountainous region of western Kenya famed for evergreen farms.
As with other fine African coffees, the coffee taster's lexicon is put to good use in describing the character. Notes of blackberry, baking spices, caramel, cranberry, raisins, berries, citrus, cream, lemon, strawberry, grapefruit, floral, cherry, vanilla, caramel, tangy orange, berry jam, lavender, honey, sweet black cherry and figs are described. Rwandan coffee is not mass produced as we know it in the west. It is known as the land of a thousand hills. Many farmers grow their produce on hillsides and within lush, untamed valleys on very smallholdings. This batch scored an incredible 87 judged by the Speciality Coffee Associatuon's independent coffee graders.
Tanzania, like Kenya and Ethiopia, can produce some of the world's most complex flavoured coffees in the world. This coffee bean at a medium roast reveals a clean and balanced cup, with big, syrupy body, bright, lively acidity and notes of apple juice, orange peel, butterscotch, caramel, dark chocolate, peach, flowers, sweet lemon, black tea, kiwi, cranberry, stone fruits, nectarine, plum, cranberry, blackberry, marzipan and vanilla. Sourced from the Majinja Farmer Group.
