Counter Culture Coffee Humure-Byumba Rwanda
This past summer I was fortunate to be given a pound of Rwandan coffee from Barrington Coffee Roasters. I was immediately impressed by its deft combination of fruit and depth. Since then, I’ve kept my eyes open for Rwandan coffees from the various roasters that I generally keep tabs on (Intelligentsia, Terroir, Gimme!, and Stumptown to a lesser extent). Vary rarely have any of them offered coffees from Rwanda, leading to the impression that these are somewhat rare coffees for them to get their hands on. Or, and this is probably the more correct answer, the timing of my looking was simply not right. Rwandan coffees are harvested in the summer, and so will generally make their way to the market several months after that. So theoretically, it should be right about now that they start to appear in roasters’ portfolios.
So I was thusly pretty excited when we got a pound of Counter Culture’s Rwandan coffee as a Christmas gift. Counter Culture is a roaster who I’m pretty interested in and have not yet had the chance to try any of their coffees. From what I’ve seen and read, they have a great reputation for working closely with farmers to establish good working relationships, and they produce some great roasted coffees. The Christmas gift included two pounds of their coffee, the Rwandan and a Kenyan micro-lot, both very exciting looking. But it was the Rwandan that I was the most excited about, and I could hardly resist the temptation to dive right in and brew a cup of it.
This coffee is produced by farmers in the Humure community, located in the Byumba province. A washing station was built in this community recently as part of the PEARL project (http://www.rwandacoffeepals.com/pearlproject.php), an effort aimed at improving the lives of Rwandan farmers through agriculture-based initiatives. The washing stations have been built throughout Rwanda, and are credited by people such as Peter Guiliano of Counter Culture and George Howell of Terroir Coffee with having led to the vast improvement in the quality of Rwandan coffee.
Counter Culture gives this data regarding its production:
- Varietal: French Mission Bourbon
- Altitude: 1700-2000 meters
- Harvest: Summer
If this coffee is any indication, their right on the money. This is a great coffee. It has lots of depth to the flavors, the mouthfeel is fabulous, and the coffee’s weight is well balanced with its flavors.
The nose is interesting, with notes of blueberry, walnut, anise, and something almost minty. The palate is very softly textured, with a creamy sweetness to it. Delicate flavors of caramel and cocoa stand out, but in general this is a very dry coffee, not overly sweet. Finish has a slight flavor of mushrooms (in a good way) accompanied by nutmeg and cocoa. Like I said, this coffee is very nicely balanced and is very easy to drink on a coldish winter day.
An email newsletter that I just received from Terroir Coffee indicated that they recently received their Rwandan coffees and will be roasting them in mid-January. That sounds pretty exciting, and I may try to snap up a pound of that. Something to look forward too!
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