Rwandan coffees always feel like they come up a bit short against their other East African counterparts. While good, they never seem to be able to compete with the best of Ethiopian or Kenya. This washed Rwandan from Kaldi’s though surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. It’s rich, luscious profile and clean fruit profile was incredibly fun to explore and delicious to enjoy.
The coffee begins with a fragrance of rich chocolate and dark berry notes. The rich chocolate carries through to the flavor where I also tasted notes that reminded me of deep berries and vanilla. The mouthfeel was incredibly luscious and full-bodied, which supported the rich flavor profile. The coffee wasn’t incredibly sweet, but did feature a nice caramel and brown sugar sweetness. The finish reminded me of lemon citrus, which was a nice lift of brightness and the end of a heavy and lush cup.
I always love when coffees work in a variety of brew methods and offer a lot of flexibility. This Rwandan excelled there and was wonderful in pour over, AeroPress (especially iced) and really any brew method I threw at it.
The Bottom Line
While this Rwandan likely didn’t stand up to my favorite Ethiopian or Kenyan coffees, it was quite impressive. It and a few others I have had recently have definitely started to change my assumptions of what is possible from Rwanda.
