Rwanda Kirunga Lot 15 One Roast
Rwanda Kirunga Lot 15
Sometimes, the best natural processed coffees don’t shout, out of your cup as being too much. It could be “Too farm yard!” or ” Too boozy” and dare I say it, overly ripe to the point of ferment. Rwanda Kirunga Lot 15 is nuanced and sweet, with balanced ripeness. If you compare this with Aladinos, you might find similar amounts of ripe sugars. One is grown on volcanic soil on some of the highest ground in Nyamashake and the other is a slow-ripening washed coffee, from the highlands of Peru. Both are (in my completely biased opinion) great examples of where they come from.
With Lot 15, I found myself feeling something was missing at first. I have had trade customers coming in and really enjoying it too. You may know that my conscience is the biggest questioner (challenger/ hater) of James Gourmet. So back to the drawing board, we went with profiles. I might not be the easiest to work with, but you know that feeling when there is more to come from a coffee and you have 2 choices. Albeit selfishly, I have no regrets about this coffee (now).
Top Trumps:
Roast: One Roast
Cup Profile Filter:🥣
Based on 60-65g per litre
|Aromatics: Vibrant, wild & juicy | Body: Light to creamy | Acidity: Gooseberry/ citrus|
Aromatically the promise is high acidity, but the cup contents are soft and ripe. In a cupping bowl, this is like a fruit punch, with individual fruit flavours “popping out”. There is so much going on. On cooling there is a pink fruity phase, with subtle chocolate and a red grape-like finish. All I want to do now is repeat the process.
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. Green and yellow plum, a touch of tannins and a little rum-like finish.
6oz Milk-based drink. More defined stone fruity acidity.
In espresso, I recommend longer extractions of 17g -18g of coffee into -50g+ of espresso liquid. Extracting in the late 20 seconds and beyond. Our best shots have been in the 33-36-second range. Wild ripeness, gooseberry acidity, cocoa and a long lingering finish.
Farm Stuff
Kirunga is the Kinyarwanda name for a volcano. Unsurprisingly, this coffee is very highly grown, which brings with it some positive attributes to the cup. The slower ripening at an altitude typically brings softer acidity too. These cherries were delivered to Rwamatamu, which is a family-owned and run business, founded in 2015 with goal of contributing to the fight against poverty by creating local job opportunities.
In recent times, Gaston and Laetitia have bought a new mill. This is called Mbare and will be our next Rwandan natural.
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