When I roasted this, I started drinking after 24 hours rest.  At that time, I had a half cup for sampling.  I liked it.  It has a light fruit flavor.  I enjoy fruity tasting coffees, and this one had what I liked.  I took my second taste after 48 hours of rest post-roast.  This time I made a full cup.  Wow!  It was a fruit BOMB.  It was like this stuff exploded in my mouth.   Unmistakeably, it tasted like Grapefruit!  My goodness, this was the most unique coffee I had ever tasted, and I liked it a lot.  After drinking a full cup of this coffee, my tongue still had a grapefruit taste a full hour after I finished the cup.

This stuff was wonderful.  I roasted only a quarter pound for starters.  I like to roast small batches, because I feel more in control of the roast.  Get too many beans in the pan, and sometimes the roast can get away from you.

Just a couple days, and I was ready for another roast of the Kenya beans.  This time, I decided to do a half pound batch.  I usually don’t roast a half pound at a time, like I said, I find it easier to control the roast of a smaller batch.  But, I really enjoyed this coffee, and wanted a bit more of it.  Out of an abundance of care, I messed up the roast!  In fear of making it too dark (darker roasts tend to kill off the fruit flavor that I enjoy so much), I under roasted it instead.  I tasted it a couple days later, and indeed, it was not good.  Acid was way too strong.  Oh, I was so upset, because I was wasting a half pound of my new favorite coffee.  After a week, I still had these beans sitting there in the bag, I just decided to try them again, fully expecting that the acid would still be way too much.  I had resolved to throw these beans away and start again.  But, wait….

Surprise!  The acid had faded, and the fruit was nice.  So, even under roasted, by letting these beans rest a full week, the nice flavors started showing themselves again, and the coffee was very good.

My recommendation on these beans is to go for a City+ roast, or maybe a Full City.  No need to go beyond that.  Keep it somewhat light, and the brightness and fruitiness will be great!  I have already ordered some additional Kenya beans.  This particular bean is out of stock, but I ordered another one from Kenya that should be similar.  I can’t wait to try them!

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!

Work?  Yes, work.  remember, I have to drink the stuff now!  I mean, a very dedicated coffee drinker like me can’t just roast the beans and then forget, I have to put the scientific process into play and give the beans some taste testing.  Hey, it’s a tough job, but somebody must do it, right?

You see, when you roast coffee beans, you don’t get to go brew a cup of joe right away.  I guess you can if you want to, but if you want the best cup of coffee, first you need to let the beans rest for a few days, and degas.  Degas?  Yes, you see, coffee beans have gasses in them after you roast them, and over a short time of a few days or so, the gases escape the bean, and leave a better flavor.

My strategy is this.  When I roast a new bean that I’ve never tasted before, after 24 hours I brew a half cup of it so that I can taste it.  I brew another half cup for tasting on the second day.  On the third day and forward, I brew a full cup each day.  You would be surprised, the flavor of the beans can change very drastically from day to day.  This is why I do it this way, so I can see on which day the bean reaches it’s peak of flavor.

So, since I roasted these new beans, I am on the 5th day post-roast.  I have been following my day-to-day procedure of tasting the coffee that the beans produces.  Over the next few days, I will share with you my “cupping notes” on each of the beans that I received last week.

Just a quick note.  In coffee, “cupping” is a science.  There are expert cuppers who taste the brew and they come up with lots of different descriptions, and notes about the beans.  I am no scientist.  I simply brew the coffee and prepare it the way I like it, and drink it.  While drinking it, I decide what I think, but it is not scientific, and I am no expert.  Well, let me change that.  I am the world’s leading expert on what  I think, but beyond that, no.  So, don’t look at my ipressions as absolutely fact or anything like that.  Just what Bob thinks of the bean.

Delicious!

I can detect a smoothness to the flavor and a fruity taste as well.  I would classify this as a slight cherry flavor, with an aftertaste of nuttiness.  A definite winner in my book.

Now I am debating if I should go back for another shipment of these beans.  I only bought 3 pounds for this sampling, and I like them.  Maybe I should get 15 pounds this time, since that is the next amount for a shipping price break.  I’ll give it a few days thought before making a final decision.

Green Coffee Beans from Brazil

As of right now, I would rate this as a tie for my favorite coffee.  The other coffee that it is tied with?  Yirg, from Ethiopia.  They are two totally different flavors, but both are very enjoyable.

Brazil Moreninha Formosa 2008 Crop – it’s a winner for me!

Because of my tenuous connection with the Island, I was excited to taste the Sulawesi beans.  I actually roasted these beans a little beyond where I intended to go, to the point that after a day rest some of the beans had a little oil on them.  Oil on the beans is generally not a good sign.  But, I was holding out hope.  So, after 24 hours rest, I made a half cup.  First taste, and I wasn’t sure what to think.  I had my wife take a sip, and she immediately called it.  She said it tasted like mud.  Indeed, she was right on.  It tasted like you were drinking a cup of very liquid mud.  Somehow, though, I liked it.  It was certainly unique.  In addition to the mud, the early cups had a smokey flavor to them too.  Smoke faded pretty quickly, though.  After about 4 days, the mud flavor faded as well.  You could still taste a distinctive earthy flavor, but not quite as muddy.

I reviewed the professional cupping notes for this bean, and the cupping experts called this bean an earthy flavor.  For me, mud, or dirt is earthy indeed, so Feyma called it correctly in my book.  She has a very good palate, and can often pick out flavors that I might miss.

The next time that I roasted this bean, I didn’t go as dark… no oil on the beans.  The muddy flavor was way, way muted compared to the first experience.  I like the muddy flavor, and next roast, I will take them quite dark again and see if I can get the mud back again.

What’s the old saying?  Here’s to mud in your eye. Another one… your name is mud! Well, my name may not be mud, but my coffee tastes like mud… and I like it!

Again, with this bean, I roasted them to a Full City+ level, just up to the second crack.  As I said in previous articles, this is a little darker than I normally go, but for this bean, I think this is a good level.

For this bean, I found that after one or two days resting, there was little flavor in the cup.  It really takes 3 to 4 days post-roast rest for this bean to begin developing some flavors, and after more like 6 or 7 days, I began finding a unique flavor.  I actually started tasting a bit of a saltiness or a bit of a spicy flavor in the cup after 6 or 7 days.  First sip was like “oh, what is that, not so good” because it was not what I expected.  But, a few more sips and I was won over.  I liked it, and I continue to like it a lot.

This Mexico bean is enjoyable.  My advice is to let it rest for nearly a week after the roast.  Full City+ level on the roast too.  I believe this would make a nice “everyday” coffee.  Very flavor neutral, except for the slight bite of salt or spice in there.  Overall, I enjoyed it greatly, and will be roasting some more soon.