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!

Within 15 minutes after getting home with my box of beans, I was already at the stove and roasting them too!  I was so excited, because Kenya is my favorite origin for coffee.  The coffees from there tend to have wonderful fruit flavors as part of the flavor profile of the beans, if you roast them right.  Earlier this year, I had some coffee beans from the Eegads Estate in Kenya, and they had a wonderful pink grapefruit flavor to them, which I dearly loved.  Next, I got some Getthumbwini beans from Kenya, which were rated very highly, these had a lemony flavor to them.  They were great too, although I liked the Eegads more.

These Green Coffee Beans are Decaf beans, and they really are quite brown!

Yesterday, I received two different beans that originated in Kenya.  One was “AA Nyeri Tambaya” and the other bean was “Nyeri Ndiani -Kiagundo WP Decaf.”  This is my first time to purchase any decaffeinated green coffee beans, I did it more as an experiment.  My wife is bothered by too much caffeine, so I decided to give these a try.

These beans scored very high when cupped by the experts!  The Tambaya scored 93 when cupped, which is the best score that I think I’ve ever had for any of the coffees that I’ve purchased. The Kiagundo Decaf scored an amazing 90.2, which is very high for a decaf!

When it comes to flavor, here is what the experts say about the Tambaya beans, this is what you should expect, if the beans are properly roasted:

An elegant cup with pink grapefruit, jasmine, light brown sugar sweetness, Mandarin orange, and warming spices.  Apricot and Earl Grey tea-like finish.

And, for the decaf, let’s have a look at the flavor profile of the Nyiuri Ndiani-Kiagundo WP Decaf beans:

Vivid brightness, brilliant fruited aromatics and flavors, red apple, plum, strawberry, pineapple, caramel, molasses sweetness, cinnamon, clove spice.

So far, I have done some minor sampling of these beans, and they are both very good.  I just roasted them both yesterday, so I am not drinking very much of it yet, giving it more time to rest more and develop a fuller flavor profile.  But, the initial tastes are very promising!  I can certainly note the mandarin orange in the tambaya beans, a nice citrusy flavor, almost juicy.  The light brown sugar flavors are also quite pronounced.  This is really nice.  The decaf is also nice, although if I drink them side by side, the tambaya is much better at this point.

So, I am visiting Nyeri, Kenya, but is through my coffee cup!  That’s a little cheaper than actually going there too!

Bottoms up!