Rwanda Washed Bourbon Flavor Description Which Rwanda Coffee Brand is Best

The award record of Mushonyi Processing Station is truly astonishing. Besides winning the COE Cup of Excellence championship in 2010, they secured four lots in 2011 alone, taking championship, 12th place, 16th place, and 28th place.

Rwanda can be described as a rapidly developing specialty coffee producing country in East Africa. In addition to the fresh memories of its tragic genocide story, the quality of its specialty coffee has also been improving very rapidly. This year we have cupped several Rwandan coffees with fresh, clean textures and very elegant, refined acidity.

Flavor Notes for This Batch

Red apple, cherry, cinnamon and honey, excellent sweetness and balance, with cinnamon, almond, and chocolate aftertaste.

Hand Brew Preparation

Hand-brewed Rwanda: 15g coffee, medium-fine grind (Fuji RY grinder setting 3.5), V60 dripper, water temperature 90-92°C. First pour 30g water, 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway, then slowly pour until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Dazhen Coffee FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)
Ingredients: In-house roasted
Shelf life: 30 days
Net weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Taste profile: Sweet coffee beans
Roast level: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar content: Sugar-free
Origin: Rwanda
Coffee type: Other

Coffee Details

Rwanda West Province Rutsiro Mushonyi CWS Bourbon

Country: Rwanda

Region: Rutsiro, Western Province

Altitude: 1827 meters

Rainfall: >1500mm

Bourbon Variety

Bourbon coffee (French: Café Bourbon) is coffee produced from the Arabica coffee Bourbon cultivar. Bourbon coffee was originally cultivated on Réunion, which was called Bourbon Island (Île Bourbon) before 1789. It was later spread by France and connected to the African continent and Latin America. It is now one of the two most popular Arabica coffee production regions in the world. Bourbon coffee is typically grown at altitudes between 3500 and 6500 feet (1062-1972 meters).

Variety: Bourbon

Related: Heirloom

Origin: Bourbon Island

Best grown at: 800 meters and above

Type: Heirloom

Commonly found in: Various coffee-growing regions worldwide

Main color: Red, yellow, and orange, but primarily red

Bean size: Medium

Leaf characteristics: Broad and short

Processing method: Washed, sun-dried on raised African beds

Rwanda Coffee Processing

Like many African countries, Rwanda coffee is primarily produced by small-scale farmers. During the harvest season each year, farmers gather ripe coffee cherries and send them to processing stations. Farmers pick ripe coffee cherries and concentrate them at processing stations for processing. First, manual selection ensures no unripe or damaged fruit is mixed in. Next the fruit skin is removed, followed by a 12-18 hour washed fermentation in a cool, low-temperature environment. Then the adhering pulp is cleaned off in channels. During drying on raised beds, station members manually turn and carefully tend to the beans, ensuring that under sufficient sun exposure the parchment beans do not lose moisture or dry unevenly until the moisture content stabilizes below 14%.

Origin and Direct Trade

We have also introduced several specialty coffees from Rwanda's Nyamasheke region before. This carefully selected Mushonyi comes from the Rutsiro region, located north of Nyamasheke, also situated along Lake Kivu. High altitude, fertile volcanic soil, and an excellent climate create premium coffee. We will continue to deeply explore this gem of a coffee region in Rwanda. This batch is a direct trade lot purchased from the processing station, the freshest batch from the 2015 harvest season (approximately June to September).

Variety: BM-139 (Bourbon)

Processing Station: Mushonyi Processing Station

Farm owner: 1756 member smallholders (each smallholder farms about 253 trees)

Flavor: Red apple, cherry, cinnamon, honey

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Rwandan washed Bourbon shows the clean, elegant side of East African coffee, and FrontStreet Coffee's African lineup offers several ways to keep exploring that profile. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedingding, a washed Ethiopian G1, shares the same clarity with jasmine, citrus and lemon acidity and a green-tea sweetness. FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato turns up the intensity: grown in Thika at 1550-1750 meters from SL28 and SL34, given the classic 72-hour double washed fermentation and a light roast, it opens with dried cherry tomato and florals, then drinks with bright, solid acidity, snow pear and black plum, and a clean finish of brown sugar and green tea. If you want the fruitier end, FrontStreet Huakui, a naturally processed Ethiopian bean, brings strawberry, passion fruit and jackfruit with low bitterness and a juicy body, and FrontStreet Colombia Sidra adds passion fruit, grape and apricot with a cocoa aftertaste.

For this Rwandan washed Bourbon, FrontStreet Coffee suggests 15g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio with 90-92°C water, a medium-fine grind on a V60, a 27-second bloom and a steady pour to 225g, finishing in about 2 minutes. The warmer water lifts the red apple, cherry and cinnamon notes while the controlled pour keeps the cinnamon, almond and chocolate aftertaste clean and balanced.