Rwanda Cyato – Vincent Rukeribuga – Anaerobic Natural Processed

Our first single farm Rwanda coffee! A rare gem and an exotic offering being anaerobic natural processed. Very highly rated lot but far from your normal Rwanda coffee. Very sweet, floral and fruity with high acidity.

Vincent Rukeribuga owns and operates his own farm located in Kamonyi village, within the Cyato region of Rwanda. He started out as a coffee farmer in 1989 with only 100 seedlings, and slowly expanded his production over time. According to Vincent, he noticed that his neighbors were able to support funding higher education for their children through coffee production, and was determined to do the same. Vincent’s attention to detail in cherry selection and cultivation of his coffee plants was realized as he was delivering coffee to a local mill. This is why they picked Vincent’s coffee to develop their anaerobic  high end offerings.

Once a week Vincent delivers freshly-harvest cherries to the mill. The cherries are promptly sorted and floated in water to remove defects and then fermented for 24-72 hours in sealed tanks, depending on the ambient conditions and factors such as sugar content that relate directly to fermentation inside the tanks. After this process is complete, the cherries are then moved to raised beds to dry in the sun for an average of 20 days — they are turned every 45 minutes to ensure an even moisture content throughout the lot.  Once cherries are dried, they are stored in a cool and dry environment before being hulled, cupped, and then milled for export.

Tasting Notes: A stellar new-wave coffee; highly rated and exotic. Full of citric, floral and fruit notes. We thought best served in the light to medium roast range. A very sweet cup at any roast point. Lighter roasts are the most complex tasting; stronger citric/floral acidity, very fruit forward ranging from grape skin to strawberry, balanced with a classic Rwanda spiced (herbal) chocolate undertone. Medium roasts build a much creamier cup profile, just a hint of crisp floral upfront that fades into a  strawberry like fruitiness, balanced with that spicier chocolate dark tone. Dark roasts themselves are a bit flatter but still very sweet edged, hardly fruity but makes up for it with the fuller bodied more robust chocolate and spice notes.

Roasting Notes: A higher chaff coffee but will roast pretty even for a natural, keeping it in the easy to roast category.  A very refined natural processed, not old world crazy two toned like some.  Shoot for a classic light to medium roast if you like more fruit and floral tones, any signs of second crack, cool it out right away. Setup time is important, on these complex naturals, most think they are best between day 5-14 after roasting. We thought it plenty tasty to start drinking after 24 hours, but did improve as it setup further.