Tasting notes: sarsaparilla, brown sugar, anise

Origin: Rwanda

Farm: multiple smallholder

Elevation: 6000 feet

Variety: Bourbon

Process: natural, sun-dried on raised beds

Our newest Rwanda is a finely textured natural process coffee from the Kamonyi District in the country’s southern province that boasts a multitude of interesting herbal flavors.

The typical parcel of land held by Rwanda’s myriad coffee farmers is so small as to have historically been measured by number of trees rather than acreage, and since emerging from the horrors of genocide in the 1990’s the government and NGOs have aided these smallholders by implementing best practices and establishing local cooperative-run washing stations.

The Nyamiyaga washing station serves about 3000 farmers from the surrounding villages whose farms average less than 3 acres each reaching altitudes of 6000 feet. This lot of natural processed Bourbon cultivars are selected by first submerging the cherries to remove low density floaters and then constantly turning and examining the pulped beans for size and defects while drying for a couple of weeks on raised tables protected from rain and covered in the midday sun.

My first taste of this natural Nyamiyaga triggered nostalgia because my favorite beverage growing up in Appalachia was “birch beer,” a soft drink associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch made from birch trees the way maple trees are tapped for syrup. Cupping this Rwanda took me right back. For the unfamiliar, think sweet herbal flavors like sarsaparilla, sassafras, even root beer.

Nyamiyaga brings other herbal notes besides birch extract, with anise (black licorice) the most prominent among them, and hints of vanilla, brown sugar and flavors of darker fruits like wine grape and blackberry jam. These sensations are supported by a peppery, malty textured mouthfeel, marshmallow-y body, and a sparkly, soft drink-like liveliness.