This fine Tuesday we’re back in Africa with Queen City Collective Coffee’s Rwanda Hingakawa, a coffee produced entirely by women in this formerly war-torn nation. Let’s get right to it!
Purchase this coffee directly for $15/10oz (280g)
Other reviews in this series: Ethiopia Kochore Tore
QUEEN CITY COLLECTIVE COFFEE RWANDA HINGAKAWA
Before founding Queen City Collective Coffee, owner/roaster Scott Byington spent 10 years in Africa doing various humanitarian work projects. Life took Scott to Denver, Colorado, the “Queen City of the Plains,” and about two years ago he founded his coffee roasting operation. Until now, he has worked out of Bellwether, a multi-use space in Denver, but it looks like Scott’s on the verge of realizing bigger plans to move Queen City Collective Coffee into a new space shared by The Novel Strand brewery. Exciting times! Perhaps seredipitously, given the name Queen City, Scott is particularly proud of his coffees that were grown entirely by women, and this morning’s coffee is one of them.
In fact, the women who produce this coffee were the inspiration for Queen City! This morning’s coffee is a mix of washed Bourbon and Jackson varieties grown around 1800-2100masl by the Hingakawa Women’s Association in Rushashi, Rwanda. The HWA was formed as a farmer’s association within the Abakundakawa Cooperative. It’s designed to give revenue premiums back to the women who are members and is an attempt at gender equity in the coffee sector of Rwanda’s economy. Queen City buys directly from the association and sales of this coffee supply additional revenues back to the women of the HWA. They use that money to buy goats, organic fertilizers and even to build a community center.
As far as flavors go, Queen City says this coffee reminds them of “baking spices and vanilla.” I am using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of Third Wave Water in a notNeutral Gino dripper with Kalita 185 filter. My grinder is a Knock Aergrind. Taking my first sips I am greeted by a medium bodied coffee that has a creamy, dairy-like mouthfeel that coats my palate. As the coffee cools it really opens up, so give them one some breathing room to get the most out of it. I get a brown sugar sweetness to the cup that is quickly followed up with a blood orange juice citrus “acidity” (yeah, this is citric and other acids at work, but it tastes sweet like orange juice and fruity more than “bright” or “acidic.”). This acidity component is the star of the show for me and it’s a really big, mouth-filling flavor that is delicious. This coffee is like drinking a mellow, fresh-squeezed glass of OJ, for my palate! Into the second half of the sip I get baking spices and hints of vanilla into the sweet finish and aftertaste.
This is a really delicious coffee. It’s not super complex, but there is enough going on to hold my interest and have me analyzing it some. It’s very drinkable and is nicely balanced. It has a big mouthfeel and is just a great drinking coffee. The orange becomes a little more pronounced and maybe a bit “sharper” as the cup continues to cool, but it still doesn’t read as “acid” as much as it does “orange juice.” I love this one!