Dominican Republic Ramirez Estate Aged Natural – Red Rooster Coffee

Red Rooster has been a favorite roaster of mine for a while now and I always like to try the experimental or unique coffees they release. A few months back when I saw a coffee from the Dominican Republic that featured an “aged natural” processing, I was immediately intrigued. The slow aged natural process involves the “cherries ferment[ing] for 24 hours in a sealed environment before spending the next 18 days drying. After that, the coffee is stored in the dried cherry for 8 months, allowing the fruit’s natural flavors and sugars to permeate the bean.”¹ I don’t think I have ever had a coffee that was allowed to dry that long, so I was immediately excited to give it a try.

The coffee began with a unique fragrance that is rich with chocolate and dark fruit notes and also slightly earthy. The flavor was incredible with notes of complex chocolate and rich fruit notes (strawberry, pomegranate). It was incredibly jammy with a silky smooth body. The sweetness was fruit-toned with chocolate undertones, which created an incredibly complex sweetness in the cup. The sweet chocolate lingered into the finish and the flavor profile was unique & complex with a lot of depth and evolution.

The Bottom Line

The coffee felt so familiar and yet so unique. It shared elements with many other naturally processed coffees I’ve enjoyed while also having an earthiness and richness that moved beyond what I expected. Red Rooster delivered again on a fun, unique and delicious roast.