OK, the other day, I promised to share my cupping impressions on the variety of coffees that I recently received.  So, I’ll start doing that today.

Let’s start with…

Rwanda Cup of Excellence #18 – Nkundiye Innocent – Bufcoffee Nyarusiza

For the purposes of the article, from here on out, I will simply call this coffee Rwanda CoE for short.  I roasted these beans to the point where I was just hearing the start of the 2nd crack (an audible popping sound, almost like hearing popcorn pop).  This level of roast to people who know coffee is called Full City+.  Full City+ is about the darkest that I usually enjoy my coffee.  For fruitier coffees, I enjoy it even lighter than this.

After roasting the Rwanda CoE beans, I let the beans rest.  Resting the beans means that you didn’t grind them and drink them until after some time has passed.  This allows the gasses in the beans to escape, and generally produces a better cup of coffee.  My practice is that I usually start by making a half cup of coffee with the newly roasted beans starting 24 hours after the roast, and then every 24 hours.  As a beginner in the art of roasting coffee beans, this gives me the opportunity to see how the coffee changes flavors as each day passes.  And believe me, it does change flavor!  After only 24 hours rest, the Rwanda CoE had little flavor at all.  By the time it had rested 4 days, the beans were very tasty.

I found that the Rwanda CoE beans had a kind of maply flavor, or a molasses flavor.  Very enjoyable.  Professional cuppers give coffee a score of up to 100 points after cupping a bean.  I’m not an expert, so for now I will not be scoring, but just giving my impression.

The Rwanda CoE is an expensive coffee bean, for me at least.  Most coffees that I purchase are in the $3 per pound price range.  The Rwanda CoE was more around $9 per pound (these prices are before shipping).  So, it is about triple the price of most of the coffees that I drink.  It is a flavorful bean, but personally, I would not say it is worth three times the price of other coffees that I drink.  I would probably spring for a pound or two of this from time to time in the future, but it would not be my normal cup of coffee.   Nothing wrong with the flavor, but I can get just as much enjoyment from a non-premium priced bean.

That’s my impression!