Rwanda Rusizi Nyakarenzo

Beans: Rwanda Rusizi Nyakarenzo
Varietal: Bourbon
Elevation: ~1800 masl
Process: Washed
Retailer: Sweet Maria's
Pre-Roast Weight: 235 grams
Roast Attempt: 44th
Roast Date/Time: September 6, 2021, 0800 CDT

As I say often enough, I really like East African coffees, and those from Rwanda and Burundi often seem to be especially good.  Yet this is only the second Rwandan I've roasted, possibly due to the harvest cycle and when the beans are on offer on the Sweet Maria's site.  (I've actually had this batch for a few months already, only just now getting around to trying it out.  Fortunately green beans keep.)

As usual, I started on the one-pound setting to give me 18:00 on the timer, with manual control and 100% power to the heating element (P5).

Chamber Temperature

16:00 - 138
14:00 - 215
13:00 - 240
12:00 - 266
11:00 - 284
10:00 - 278

It was a cool morning and I was curious to see if starting early would allow me to get in before air conditioning use started draining the available power.  To this point, it seemed like a little bit, but not hugely.  My Kenyan roast from August 1 had basically the exact same numbers as above and that was in the afternoon.  The yellowing phase started around 10:30 on the timer (7:30 into the roast), so I increased the drum speed but kept power on P5.  These beans were set to be a light roast so I wanted to keep the heat as possible regardless of whether the available power might have let me drop to P4 like I always used to.

Exhaust Temperature

10:00 - 194
9:00 - 278
8:00 - 320
7:00 - 343
6:00 - 359
5:00 - 374

This was a faster heating curve than I'd seen in months.  By comparison, my previous roast to this (at 12:30 in the afternoon) didn't get to 374 until there was 1:00 left on the timer.  First crack actually started slightly earlier than I would have expected, at about 6:00, when the A temp hadn't yet hit 360 (granted, it was close).  I waited a minute until the crack appeared to be done, and then went right into the cooling cycle, opening the door after 90 seconds to accelerate cooling.  I wanted this one light and bright, so the fast roast was what I was hoping for.  This also seemed to be the most flaming chaff I'd seen for a while - I suppose you probably notice it more if more of it is happening at once, which is what you'd expect out of a faster roast where more beans are opening up in very short order.

Complete Roast Time: 13:00
Post-Roast Weight: 206 grams
Loss Percentage: 12.3%

That should be just over the line into a light roast.  I'm sure the beans went through first crack, so I'm not too worried about underdevelopment, but I guess we'll see.  These are supposed to have a delicate flavor so I definitely didn't want to overdo it.

Rwanda Rusizi Nyakarenzo

These were the beans on Wednesday morning, two days off roast.  I don't know how different these pictures ever look, but in person the beans were the epitome of a bang-on light roast - distinctly light in color but clearly finished, without the pebbled look of underroasted beans.  I brewed 60 grams of beans with a liter of water in the Chemex (ground to 4/5, one click finer than my usual Chemex setting because I forgot to change it after grinding for the auto-drip machine yesterday), yielding 32 fluid ounces of brewed coffee after an eight-minute brew time.

TASTING NOTES: This was indeed the light, tea-like coffee that was promised.  Some nice fruit sweetness lingered around the cup as well, with hints of apple and raisin, as well as a honey note.  (Honey and apple, perfect tasting notes for a coffee I was drinking on Rosh Hashanah!)  The acidity was bright and prominent with a lightly tannic character, befitting the tea flavors, though any specific flavor associated with it was more indistinct.  Body was on the lighter side but definitely not thin.

VERDICT: Pretty much nailed this one.  It was a bang-on light roast; the flavors were finished but there was virtually no roast character in the profile.  A sweet, delicate coffee that lived up to its billing.  I like to think I'm a pretty tough critic on myself when it comes to getting roasts right or wrong, but there's really nothing to criticize here.  I followed my exact plan and the beans did just what I wanted them to!

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