Coffee Shrub
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Flavors shift as the coffee cools, making it a fun one to take your time drinking. A backdrop of burnt sugar and milk chocolate are accented by notes of dried stone fruits, cranberry, and blueberry. City to Full City+.
Compared to the wet process lot we bought from Murambi, this natural ("dry process") coffee has pronounced fruit and chocolate characteristics. The ground coffee at City and City+ roast levels smelled of dried berry and chocolate milk powder (like Nestle Quick), and a hint of malt. Pouring the hot water, the grounds had a surprisingly clean sweetness, with accents of dried stone fruit, and well-defined chocolate. In the brewed coffee, top notes are built on a platform of complex sweetness, and layers of cocoa. The profile shifts quite a bit with roast level, and while the coffee cools, making it a fun one to take your time drinking. Suggestions of dried fruits pop into view at City roast level, such as dehydrated peach, apricot, and cranberry, all sort tucked in between creamy chocolate flavors that came off like milk chocolate, and malted chocolate ice cream. Full City roasts have notes of dried berry and a creamy mouthfeel, along with a mix of high cocoa solids chocolate and blueberry. This carries over into espresso, with berry toned shots giving way to opaque bittersweetness, and a slightly metallic tang in the aftertaste.
Murambi is an impressive operation, a privately owned collection site in the Kiganda area near the Mubarazi river. The coffee processed at Murambi are from the surrounding hillside villages ("collines"), which there's talk of separating in the future, but this year was all blended together by day of delivery. Most of the farms are around 2000 meters above sea level and entirely planted in Bourbon. They mostly produce fully washed coffee using the traditional Kenyan method, but this is a dry process batch, often referred to as "natural". Dry processing involves leaving the cherry intact during the entire drying stage, which extends the time it takes to sufficiently dry the coffee to anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. This tends to dim high notes/acidity, as well as impart fruited flavor notes on the cup profile, which can certainly be said about this lot. A few years back the station received a cash premium at the year's end for the coffees they exported, and the mill owner invested in 450 goats that were distributed to as many farmers who work with the station. The program is for the goats to both help with building out an organic farming system, as well as an added source of revenue for the farmers and is still in place today. It is also worth a mention that Murambi won the Burundi Cup of Excellence competition in 2012.
Region | Murambi Hill, Kiganda |
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Processing | Dry Process (Natural) |
Drying Method | Raised Bed Sun Dried |
Arrival date | March 2024 Arrival |
Lot size | 25 |
Bag size | 60 KG |
Packaging | GrainPro Liner |
Farm Gate | Yes |
Cultivar Detail | Bourbon |
Grade | A1 |
Appearance | .2 d/300gr, 15-17 Screen |
Roast Recommendations | City to Full City+ |
Type | Farm Gate |
Recommended for Espresso | Yes |