Good morning and welcome to today’s review of one of two Rwandan coffees S&W Craft roasting currently have available. Things have been a little quiet from me because of travel and trying to stain and seal my deck (which can only be done EARLY morning or in the evening), so I’m excited to get back to talking about coffee with you!
Purchase this coffee for an amazing $15.85/16 oz (1 pound!)
Other reviews in this series: Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Organic Worka Single Farm Natural Gelgelu Edema | Guatemala Ayarza Wine Series Natural | Kenya Nyeri AB Giakanja
S&W CRAFT ROASTING RWANDA DUKORERE KAWA BUKURE WOMEN’S COOPERATIVE NATURAL
Another long-named coffee from my friends in Coatesville, Indiana! I do like, though, that you know what you’re getting from S&W’s names, so a long, descriptive name is right up my alley. S&W Craft Roasting is owned by Nick and Charlie, located in the tiny (around 555 population!) town of Coatesville, to the west of Indianapolis. S&W are one of my favorite roasters, always sourcing excellent coffees and roasting them well. They have unmatched value, too, with 1-lb (16 oz) bags running under $16 in almost every case! Their website is nothing fancy, nor is their packaging and labeling, but these compromises mean they can turn a profit and put more money into their roastery to increase production and quality (which is already very high), AND do it at a price that is extremely nice on your wallet. This is an easy compromise, in my book! In researching this women’s cooperative I found other roasteries selling this same bean at $20/12oz, so S&W’s commitment to high quality offerings at almost crazy prices is no joke.
This morning’s coffee is one of two they are currently roasting from Rwanda. Coffee in Rwanda originally came from the forced growing of coffee during colonial times as a cheap, abundant commodity to shovel into the mouths of Europeans. Between the tradition of low-grade coffee and the horrific genocide wars that I remember well from watching the news as a kid, Rwanda’s bounce back is nothing short of a miracle, and I’m always impressed by specialty coffee coming out of that tiny African nation. This coffee is a lot of Bourbon cultivar grown by the Bukure Women’s Cooperative Society, a farmer’s co-op, and processed by Nova, a high-quality collection point, washing station and processor for the co-ops in the area. Coffee grows around 1800-2200 meters above sea level there. Nova Coffee is run by a woman named Agnes Mukamushinja, whose background was in running a pharmacy with her husband. They applied the same precision principles to their coffee processing as they did to pharmacy and the results DO make it into the cup, as evidenced by today’s excellent selection. S&W’s website has a great write-up with a lot more information about the co-op and washing station, and you should check it out.
My Tasting Notes
The fragrance from the freshly ground beans is really nice, with loads of sweetness and berry notes coming from the dry grounds. The cup aroma is just as nice, with lots of berries, probably leaning mostly toward strawberry, for me, and some caramel. Taking my first sip from the cooling cup, this is a medium+ bodied coffee and strawberry is definitely the first flavor to hit my palate. There’s also a big caramel sweetness here and some milk chocolate happening. All of these flavors pretty much hit at the same time, so I’ll see if I can try to separate them out a little and give some more description. I have to comment, too, on the body and texture of this cup. I may even go heavy- here, but it has a dairy-like weight on my tongue like drinking milk and really coats my entire palate. If this coffee were a beer, it’d be a mlik stout for sure! All this sweetness and heaviness could be cloying, but the fresh berry notes keep that from happening, offering flavors like strawberry as well as some acidity to brighten the cup and balance it. I’m a sucker for natural coffees, in general, and this one is hitting right in my wheelhouse, so I’m really enjoying it! The berry notes are definitely strawberry and maybe some blackberry, too. The brightness of the berry flavors is what takes me to blackberry. I always associate blackberry as berry notes plus florals, and while I’m not getting hit with a specific and obvious floral tone here, I think there are floral notes flitting around the cup. There is a little bit of dairy sweetness in the cup, giving a slight lactic vibe to the cup, and I think that is enhanced by some fermentation notes coming from the natural processing. The Achilles heel of natural coffees is this fermentation flavor, which to some unlucky people tastes like actual trash. I’m among the lucky, however, and I really like fermentation flavors in coffee, so this doesn’t bother me at all. Some naturals can make it into the cup with virtually no fermentation flavors, but this isn’t one of them. I think it adds interest and dimension to this coffee, for me, so I like it. This coffee finishes sweet and has a nice, lingering aftertaste of caramel, berries and slight ferment. This is like dessert in a cup!
And, if you’re worried about S&W’s 1-lb bag sizes, you can always portion them and freeze some, but for pourover, drip, this coffee holds up amazingly well. My bag was roasted 2 months ago and I am re-visiting it this morning as I type out my notes and story and it’s every bit as good as it was two months ago. Granted, if I didn’t have 20 other bags of coffee I was juggling right now this bag wouldn’t have lasted longer than 2 weeks for me, but just sayin’! 🙂
What S&W Craft Roasting Have to Say About This Coffee
S&W’s tasting notes state, “this cup boasts aromas of blueberry, flavors filled with dense florals like hibiscus and roase, a little Rooibos tea in the body and a clean finish. This is a very nicely bodied cup… if you’re really precise with your brewing you may be able to tease some raspberry or strawberry out of this, but it’s not overt so I don’t want to list it in the main cupping notes. This is a monster of a cup with tons of complexity, hard to believe you can pack so much flavor into one small sip.”
So, there you have it, high agreement in our palates on this one for sure! I must’ve gotten lucky with my trusty ol’ brewing recipe because this was close to being a berry bomb for me!
Nicholas G Smith
I was shocked to discover how much more fruit came out of this bean with a few weeks of age on it… It was incredible! I’m very sad this it’s almost gone, it was one of our fastest sellers.