I’ve been really impressed with Two Rivers coffee and this morning I have a coffee from a new origin, Zambia, that I’ve never explored before. Slurp!
Purchase this coffee directly for $17.50/12oz
Other reviews in this series: Ethiopia Walichu Wachu | Costa Rica Perla Negra
TWO RIVERS ISANYA & KATESHI
Two Rivers is a cafe and roastery located to the northwest of Denver in the town of Arvada, Colorado. Owner Eric Yochim took a huge leap of faith in 2010 when he bought out Novo Coffee’s location in Arvada, which was struggling at that time. Eric’s background was in fine dining and not coffee, but the gamble paid off. In 2015, Two Rivers doubled the size of its operation to allow more customers at any given time and the cafe is well respected for their coffee, service and what looks like an excellent food menu.
I’ve very much enjoyed the Ethiopian and especially the Costa Rican coffees I’ve had from Two Rivers, and this morning I’m taking a look at Isanya & Kateshi, a Zambian coffee. I do believe this is the first coffee I’ve reviewed from Zambia, so I’m excited! Zambia is a landlocked country in south-central Africa bordering the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the northeast, Zimbabwe to the south, and a whole bunch of other countries I’ve chosen not to name. Apparently, most of the Zambian coffee appearing in North America is grown on relatively large estates, which is a departure from the smallholder farmers working in co-ops model we see in a lot of other African countries. The Isanya and Kateshi estates are found in the Northern Province’s Mafinga Hills, where the highest altitudes in Zambia can be found. Kateshi is near the capital and grows 800 hectares of coffee above 1300masl while Isanya is located near the border with Tanzania and grows 1600 hectares above 1500masl. These coffees were processed at the Kateshi mill and this lot consists of Bourbon that is washed. Two Rivers gives us tasting notes of, “Watermelon, peach, pear, lime, cherry.”
I am using my standard pourover method of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin brewer. Filter is Kalita 155 and I’m using a Knock Aergrind.
This is a medium-light bodied coffee and, sure enough, the first flavor hitting my palate is watermelon! Watermelon tends to be a challenging flavor note for me to find in coffee, but it’s definitely here, although, for my palate, it is a fleeting flavor note that doesn’t linger for long. Coming in right behind the watermelon note is a peach-but-almost-apricot note. For me, peach tends to be a little sweeter and a little bolder while apricot notes in coffee reads a little “thinner” and has a mild tartness associated with it. This flavor is somewhere between the two and it brings a lot of high notes to the cup, in addition to the inherent sweetness of peach. There is a light honey sweetness anchoring the bottom end of this coffee, and it’s more there for balance for these brighter, fruitier notes. Mid sip there is a little bit of cherry juice character to this coffee, hitting the sides of my tongue and lending some structure to this cup. In the background of all these beautiful fruit flavors is a light lemon-lime acidity. There is some of the sweetness of lemon candy with just a hint of the bitterness that, for me, comes with lime. This lemon-lime acidity is especially prevalent in the finish of the sip and immediately after I’ve swallowed this coffee. The finish is sweet and the watermelon and peach lingers lightly on my palate in the aftertaste.
What an amazing coffee! Wow! This coffee is very fruity, but those fruit notes register as sweet and “cool” to my palate, thanks to the predominate watermelon and peach flavors, rather than the more acidic fruitiness that dominates some coffees. It’s bright without being harsh. There is nice complexity to this coffee but it’s an easy drinker and, in fact, I am really finding myself taking big gulps of this coffee to keep chasing that watermelon note and that delightful lemon-lime acidity. This is an absolute winner and another great example of Two Rivers’ excellent roasting! If this is the type of coffee that Zambia has to offer, I hope to find another one soon!