Union Roasted Coffee Maraba Rwanda - Wholebean

Sweet and delicious
The world’s first speciality coffee from Rwanda. Delicious as both espresso and filter. Fruity, full bodied and perfectly balanced.

More about this coffee:
For espresso drinkers, this coffee has a crispness of grapefruit and redcurrant but a richness of chocolate truffle. Try with milk to make this taste sweeter with a softer hint of ripe fruits, vanilla and a caramel ice cream finish. What's not to love! When brewed as filter expect a hint of orange, redcurrant, toffee and a sweet lingering after taste.

Varietals:
Red Bourbon

Maraba, Rwanda:
The Maraba co-operative have a very important role in Union’s history, being the first co-operative that Union partnered with back in 2001. A USAID-funded development project was launched to improve the livelihoods of poor rural farmers through production of high-quality coffee following the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Union were the first commercial partners of this project, becoming the first coffee company in the world to source speciality coffee from Rwanda.
Rwanda is commonly nicknamed ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’ - a small country with a hilly landscape allowing you to see for miles. The high altitudes make for the perfect locations to grow speciality coffee. Maraba coffee is grown up at 1,700 metres above sea level.
From approximately 300 initial members in 2001, the cooperative has expanded to over 1,500 members, of whom about 35 per cent are women. Union has worked with the cooperative to fund processing facilities and to provide training in growing high quality coffee, allowing farmers to earn more for their crop. The premium Union pays has contributed towards health insurance for cooperative members, improved housing with hygienic flooring, tile roofing and furniture, and economic stability in the local area through the creation of shops and local banks. Being able to eat three balanced meals a day has resulted in improved nutrition and health.
There has been a transformation in Maraba. What was one of the poorest regions of Rwanda, has now got growing economic stability, a bustling town and strong community spirit.

Flavour category:
chocolate & caramel
High quality coffee has wide ranging, naturally occurring taste notes. The dominant flavour profile in this coffee is Chocolate & Caramel. Brought out by the roasting process – caramelisation happens towards the end of the roast. Generally the darker the roast, the more dominant the chocolate and caramel flavours are.
fruit
High quality coffee has wide ranging, naturally occurring taste notes. The dominant flavour profile in this coffee is Fruit. Many coffees have fruity notes, not surprising considering that coffee beans are seeds of a fruit. Naturally processed coffees are often fruity as the method enables more of the sugars in the fruit are absorbed in the beans.

Roast:
This coffee is a medium roast. Roast level influences the flavour and body of coffee. Darker roasts are fuller bodied, lighter roasts brighter. A medium roasted coffee bean is medium brown in colour. It retains many of the flavour profiles of the natural bean but also gains some sweetness and body from a longer roast.

Quality score:
84.0
Coffee scoring over 80 on Speciality Coffee Association scale is considered High Quality, Speciality Coffee.

Best brewed as:
This coffee is best brewed as a cafetiere (French press).
This coffee is best brewed as an espresso (coffee shop type machine or a bean to cup).
This coffee is best brewed as a filter (cafetiere, pour over, aeropress, drip, etc.).
All Union's coffees can be brewed using any method, but this is Union's recommendation for a method which suits the coffee particularly well.

Processing method:
This coffee was processed using the washed method.
Post-harvest processing influences the taste profile. Washed coffees are brighter, naturally processed are sweeter and honey processed are somewhere in between.