Rwanda Mbare Natural One Roast
Rwanda Mbare Natural
Here is another beautiful, naturally processed coffee from Gaston and Leatitia. If you have been on this journey with us for a while, you may recall our first natural from Rwanda, years ago, from Epiphany and Samuel. The coffee was a big risk, but (in my memory) it was perfection! This often makes me wonder what angle we judge things from, too.
Mbare is a new chapter in the Rwandan coffee storybook. Rwamatamu is run down and in need of much renovation and investment.
We think this is completely delicious brewed as filter coffee. It will take work, skill and decent kit to make this sing in espresso, as it is quite light. It needs to be brewed hotter and ground finer than a traditional espresso. In return, you get a vibrant espresso.
Top Trumps:
Roast: One Roast
Cup Profile Filter:🥣
Based on 60-65g per litre
|Aromatics: Super sweet ripe fruit| Body: Medium| Acidity: Soft citrus|
Mbare natural opens up like a fruit tea should. Ripe soft fruit sugars fuse with a light body and a hint of citrus on the finish. The fruit is deep, with a soft acidity. The sugars increase to become akin to fermented honey and a hint of lime. I am going to use a broad brush here and suggest many of the Summer fruits that you might find in a Pimms #1 are there. On cooling, you might find crab apple sours with that lingering citrus. This is a busy coffee (lots going on), and I am not “wish-cupping”.
I am going to hold off on recommending this in espresso unless you can brew 95C and above and have a grinder with a broad range.
Cup profile Espresso:
9oz Milk-based drink. When cool, this is like a boozy fool, like dessert. Chocolate milk when cool.
6oz Milk-based drink. Sweet, creamy ripe fruit, limey.
In espresso, I recommend longer extractions of 17g -18g of coffee into 50 g+ of espresso liquid. Extracting in the late 20 seconds and beyond. Our best shots have been in the 33-36-second range. Light, like white tea, lychee, white sugars, lime finish.
Farm Stuff
Rwanda Mbare coffee washing station is a new chapter in Gaston and Leaticia’s coffee journey. Rwamatamu was founded some 10 years ago and needs refurbishment. It made more sense to buy a new station, closer to the capital (Kigali), for transportation. As well as having newer and better facilities, Mbare should help process more and possibly even better coffee for the future.
Mbare can mean marketplace or a gathering of things.
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