Junto Rwanda Batoya Island Intango – This is the second Rwanda we have tasted from Junto – also from Baho Coffee. I don’t think of Junto as being a gatekeeper of excellent Rwanda but they do continue to surprise me and blow me away with the flavors they are bringing out of them. Bugoyi is the name of the washing station – located on the western border of Rwanda on Lake Kivu. Bugoyi collects cherries from around 1300 local farmers. The term “Intango” comes from the old style of clay pots that have been used by Rwandan farmers for centuries to ferment fruit. The resulting fermented juice was claimed to provide strength to warriors before a battle (I think we all get a lil liquid courage when we sip on some fermented juice 👀). This is a Low Oxygen Natural, but not fully anaerobic. The clay pots are not sealed, however as the whole cherry 100hr fermentation takes place, CO2 takes over the pot and pushes O2 out of the tank. Due to the nature of clay and how the pores change over time, the flavor profile here is truly unique to any other coffee in Rwanda or the world because of the microbes, yeasts, and bacteria that live in the porous clay. After this stage, the cherries are then moved to raised beds to dry. The cherries dry from 20% moisture to around 11%, this takes around 80 days. After this the seeds are milled and sent to us for roasting :). I tasted plum, strawberry, and herbs. It is most definitely a natural… It has a lovely brown sugar lingering finish though and I will for sure try to brew it differently and probably try it as espresso to get as much out of it as I can. I ground it one click finer than my typical starting point and used a 15.5:1 water to coffee ratio. My bloom only lasted about 35 seconds, and then I poured four pulses spaced out by 30 seconds. My final brew time ended at 3:00.
Junto Ethiopia Sedaqa Layered Fermentation – Sedaqa is a new washing station for us in the subscription. It is located in Bona Zuria in southern Sidama. While researching this farm it seems that everyone copy/pasted a standard write-up from an importer starting with “All sites have a claim to beauty since they are in the countryside of Ethiopia. But the Sedaqa Olonso site stands out for its simple breathtaking beauty that unfurls”. I couldn’t even find a picture of the beauty though! Anyway, this is a newer washing station that opened in 2019. The washing station is the processing home for about 300 local smallholding farmers. The cherries are dropped off and pulped, then put in fermentation tanks for 24-72 hours. After this, natural channels through the farm that come from rivers are used to fully remove the mucilage from the seed. After washing, the seeds are dried on raised African Beds, and turned manually by the station workers. Most of the cherries come from the local coffee gardens that only produce a few sacks of coffee per year. Due to the demand in specialty coffee, the farmers are being paid better, and Sedaqa is able to invest more in their community. These gardens are located at a staggering 2350 MASL. This cup was delicious and clean. I tasted orange marmalade and jasmine. The cup was balanced yet tart and lactic. Acidity is on point. I ground this six clicks coarser than my standard starting grind (I should probably just call 6 coarser my “Ethiopia Grind”. I brewed this with a 15.2:1 water to coffee ratio and had a weird pour. I basically did two blooms. My first bloom was short, only 1.5x the weight of the ground coffee and it lasted 25 seconds. Then I poured about 3x the total amount and let is bloom for another minute. So at the end I was at 1:30, and had 100 grams of water in the bed that started with 18 grams of coffee. I then poured two quick pulses with tight circles spaced out by 40 seconds. My final brew time was 3:10.
April Ecuador Pillcocaja Red Honey Ethiopia – BACK AGAIN with the Pillcocaja bangers! This farm is quickly becoming one of my favorites in the world and I have only ever had it from one roaster. Ana Maria and Nicolas are the owners of the farm and do all processing on site. The farm is located in Yunguilla Valley in Azuay, Southern Ecuador. The farm is located at 1650 MASL, and all the coffee trees grow under much larger native trees to the region. Until 2013, PIllcocaja was dedicated to growing and distilling sugar cane for liquor. After this, they landed a contract with Nestle to produce a huge lot of commodity gar-BAGE, but had special land with high quality soil to grow specialty. This led to April forming an extremely special relationship with Pillcocaja. I tasted melon and kiwi. Clean with excellent acidity. Possibly my favorite Pillcocaja I have ever had. I ground this one 3 clicks coarser than my typical starting grind and brewed it with a 15.8:1 water to coffee ratio. After a 40 second bloom, I poured four pulses spaced out by 35 seconds and finished my last pour at 2:45. The final brew time was 3:40.
April Costa Rica Volcan Azul Yellow Honey Marsellesa – Ok, so now this is like the 12th time we have had Alejo Castrok’s coffee from Volcan Azul so I will spare the grimy details of how the beautiful relationship sprouted between Patrik Rolf and Alejo Castrok. Importantly, this is a fully anaerobic Marsellesa, a varietal created as a hybrid between Catuai and Sarchimore. These are both super common varietals in Costa Rica. Sarchimore has excellent durability to leaf rust, and Catuai is just a fuckin winner. The resulting Marsellesa is a super durable plant that produces delicious sweet coffee. This coffee has great acidity as well. In the cup, I tasted blackberry, cardamom, Apple Pie, and a light, fruit-forward Cabernet. I ground this one right at my typical starting grind size and brewed this with a 15.8:1 ratio. I poured four pulses spaced out by 30 seconds after a quick 35 second bloom. The bloom dries out super fast and there is no reason to extend any further for this coffee. I finished my last pour at 2:40 for a 3:15 drop time.
Stimulus Coffee Club 