Description
One never knows when the good coffee will arrive, we are towards the end of the Rwanda season but found a very stand up lot everyone loved. Similar to our last offering, we have been getting some stellar cups from Buf Cafe this year.
This coffee comes from Buf Cafe and is 100% Bourbon variety. The famed Buf Cafe washing station is in the mountains near the village of Karaba, in the Ginkongoro prefecture in south-central Rwanda. Buf Cafe started operation in 2000, after funding aid from the Rwandan Development Bank and USAID’s PEARL project.
Tasting Notes: A very nice and clean Rwanda coffee. Bourbon is known for being a little winy and it can be seen in this cup. Lighter roasts get nice and floral with more of a cranberry winy acidity than citric floral, balanced with some hints of a dry chocolaty factor, some acidity but not over the top. Medium roasts really start to develop more of a chocolaty factor and reduce the acidity of the cup to a smooth medium bodied treat. Works nicely at darker roasts as well, much more potent chocolaty spice noted with some added smokiness.
Roasting Notes: Like a lot of the Africans, these beans darken up quickly, even before first crack they kind of look like a medium roast. Make sure you see the expansion in size and the chaff coming off before you start to judge color. Lighter roasts you will still have to end the roast with a little splotchiness on the beans, you will see some outside edges of a single bean slightly darker than the plump inside of the bean – a little chaff may be stuck on the beans still. This is okay and will be tasty as long as you like some acidity. Medium roasts are more when the each bean is a single color, will start to show some signs of sheen on the surface. Darker roasts tend to get oily quickly so usually any signs of second crack, we would cool it out.
Buf Cafe is a private washing station, owned wholly by the Muhirwa family, processing coffee cherry from two distinct cooperatives in the Ginkongoro prefecture: Cobabakagi (1300 members) and Terimbere Kawa Yacu (between 400-600 members). They also collect cherry from farmers in other regions, siphoning away outside cooperative output by placing collection sites within the operating zones of other established groups.
Buf Cafe operates two separate washing stations – Nyrusiza and Remera. This particular lot comes from cherry milled at the Nyarusiza station. Processing here follows the Rwandan standard, with a floating tank sort, 8-12 hour dry fermentation, second sort for weight using water shoots, then a 24 hour soak prior to hand washing and hand sorting, concluded by placement on raised drying beds on the mountain valley floor. Similar practices are followed at Nyarusiza. Buf Cafe’s dry mill facility is located in Karaba.
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