Last week we wrote about how to taste coffee and pull out different flavor notes. We have highlighted today our current house brew coffee: a Rwandan single origin. First, you have to order our house brew, either as a pour over or as our batch brew, but make sure to order it black for this tasting, and be sure to ask the barista what the roast of the day is for your future reference. A pour over will cost a bit more than the batch brew because it is individually brewed for you by our barista. Either order is appropriate for the tasting. Our espresso roast, by contrast, is a blend of roasts from different regions.
What Does Rwandan Coffee Smell Like?
Once your coffee is made, the first thing to do is take a good long sniff of the coffee. When doing this, the first word that came to my mind was a hint of a rich smoky scent. When I asked our barista, Sarah, what she thought, she said “it smells like coffee.” And that is fine! It should smell like coffee. That may be all you think at first, but try to think if there is any other word that describes that particular smell. It may take you several sniffs.
What Does Rwandan Coffee Taste Like?
Now it’s time for the initial taste. What came to mind immediately with the Rwandan for me was that it was a mild, slightly bright, taste. Our Rwandan roast tasted lightly roasted to me. For mouthfeel, it seemed thin with a clean feeling in the mouth. Write your thoughts down as they come to you. It may seem difficult to find the words to describe what you taste, feel, and smell, but with time, this will be easier.
As the coffee cooled, the Rwandan roasted coffee had definite sweet yet lightly acidic notes, possibly even a bit floral. The flavor notes were definitely fruity, but grasping the actual fruit flavor was not easy. I spoke with our barista, and she said citrusy, but then we both decided that instead of a punch of citrus, it was more of a tart berry, specifically like a tart blueberry. I loved this description of the acidic, yet sweet, flavor of the Rwandan roast.
Finally for the aftertaste, the Rwandan coffee was pleasantly sour. My overall assessment of the Rwandan roast is that it is a complexly flavored coffee that is also delicate. If you have difficulty pulling the flavor notes out of the coffee roast, it may be that it there are many flavors happening at once. I tasted no bitterness and no umami.
Tell Us What You Think!
We hope that you come in to Beans and Butter and try our Rwandan house brew and share your thoughts with us. It has become one of my favorite roasts that Michael Simmons has roasted.
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