This week, we are stoked to announce the release of our first single origin Rwandan of the season, and to bring on another Chiroso from Unblended's wonderful selection. Note: Subs will receive an email announcing the 3 upcoming unique coffees with more details, separate from this. No repeats from today's regular release!
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Rwanda Busanze Natural
In the southern province of Rwanda, within the Nyaruguru district, lies Busanze washing station. Busanze operates as a privately owned station, supported by the surrounding coops that it buys cherry from. This low-intervention natural was selected as a separation from the KUN cooperative, with 81 total smallholder farmers contributing to the lot. After being floated and sorted for defects, cherries were simply left out to dry on patios with ample turning to promote even drying. In the cup, we find notes of strawberry rhubarb pie filling, orange blossom and lime while hot. As it cools, bergamot and lemon zest come to the forefront with a nice supporting oolong tea body in the finish.
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Daniel Hernandez Chiroso Washed
In our time working with Unblended, it's incredibly interesting to see the growth and innovation of the producers that they work with. This lot from Daniel Hernandez jumped off the table with screaming florals and ripe, fresh fruit, and as previously mentioned, any coffee that gets a "wow" or a "holy shit" on the cupping table is an instantaneous buy for us. Through his work in the PEC(Coffee Excellence Program) in Colombia, Daniel works diligently to help his neighbors increase the end cup quality and tighten up farming and processing practices. This is something we hugely admire, as we believe that open collaboration and the old saying "a rising tide raises all ships" is the only path forward in specialty coffee. Daniel's farm El Tigre sits at just over 2000m in the outskirts of Urrao where he and his sister Natalie also grow avocados and other fruits. As part of his pursuit of quality improvements, Daniel installed raised drying beds a couple years back and currently has the processing and drying of his coffees very well dialed, undergoing careful cherry selection before being washed for just 24 hours, leaving the resulting cup clean and crisp. As a result, we find a beautifully layered cup full of pomegranate, elderflower and rose while hot. As it cools, the cup brightens into a lovely green apple crispness, accented by jasmine and raw honey.