I have known my friend Kris for many years. I'd count, but I only have so many fingers and toes. We went to Indiana University together. I had the honor of being part of her wedding party. She and her husband Mike have three wonderful kids. There are two things Kris and I share: our love of running and our love of coffee. Kris takes her love of coffee a bit further than I do. She roasts her coffee at home. Every now and then she is kind enough to share some of that coffee with me.
Today I wanted to review one of the coffees she recently gave me, because you home roasters out there need to try this. Kris gets her coffee from Sweet Maria's. I believe every home roaster is familiar with the company. If not go to www.sweetmarias.com to learn more.
Last week Kris gave us a small bag of Rwanda Kivu Kanzu. According to Sweet Maria's, this coffee comes from the southwestern part of Lake Kivu in the Nyamasheke District. The coffee goes through wet or washed process.
From the website:
This year's lot of Kanzu is more fruited than last, and with an elevated sweetness both aromatically and in cup profile. The dry fragrance of light roasts have a nice scent of cherry juice, light brown sugar, and apple butter with cinnamon and all-spice. Dark roasts have a sweet cocoa powder smell along with toasted caramels. Pouring hot water brings up an amazing mix of fresh caramel and dark fruits, like plum and raisin. Breaking the crust reveals a sweet smell of praline nut and vanilla bean. The cup is juicy, flat out. Flavors of sweet citrus and developed sugars are propped up by 'hefty' body. At City+ there's a rich caramel flavor as well as panella sugar, with an ever so slight floral nut in the cooled cup. Pulpy citrus flavors emerge as well, which is balanced out with a clean, malic acidy. Full City roasts produce more of a layered chocolate profile, along with apple and pear. The finish is sweet like brown sugar, and has a density that is like red honey.
So how did Kris do with this coffee. This was a wonderful coffee. There was a brown sugariness to the coffee. I know she didn't over roast this coffee. At first I thought it might be too light, but no, she got it just right. Mark and I have spread this coffee out over a few days, because we didn't want to finish it. Alas we will.
On our Cher strength scale, this is not a strong packs a wallop coffee. This is one that hits you a bit later. If you've seen the great Pee Wee Herman's Christmas Special, you know that once Cher leaves the playhouse, only then does Pee Wee realize she was there....DUH. This is a DUH....I got you. We'll call it a 6.5 out of 10 for strength.
Kudos to Sweet Maria's for finding and developing this coffee. Kudos to Kris for roasting it perfectly and providing an excellent cup of coffee.
Charlie
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