Hits: 47
Beans: Gitesi, Bourbon, Natural, Gitesi, Rwanda.
Shop: Single Estate Coffee Roasters, Webshop, Maasdijk, The Netherlands.
Single Estate Coffee Roasters – Gitesi: Background information.
Gitesi is a private washing station owned and run by a father and son team, Alexis and Aime Gahizi. The washing station was built in 2005 and began processing coffee in 2006. It is located in the Gitesi sector in the Western Province of Rwanda.
They have very strong relationships with the farmers in the local community. There are over 1,800 coffee farmers who deliver cherry to Gitesi. There is a bonus system based on performance, which is paid out to the farmers at the end of the year. This 2nd payment is depending on what the parchment is sold for and gives the farmer a good incentive to increase the quality on the farm.
They also setup distribution of cows to local farmers every year to provide an alternative income stream, and a source of organic fertilizer. The first born calf of each of these cows is then given to another farmer. This helps to distribute more cows to more farmers and unifies the farming community.
Being the younger generation, Aime is the real star of the show at Gitesi washing station. Always trying to push their production and infrastructure to the next level. Having a degree in engineering he created a comprehensive water purification system, which also models for other washing stations. This is the first year they did a natural process and with great success.
Gitesi: Opening the package.
The Single Estate Coffee Roasters coffee always comes in a modern, minimalistic and chique white package. The package has a degassing valve and a ziplock to ensure the freshness of your coffee. On the front you will find the logo of the company, the country of origin, name of the coffee, variety, process, roasting date and some tasting notes.
On the back you will find an explanation of the companies’ values and how they operate to ensure an honest trade with the farmers.
When you open this package and stick your nose in, be prepared to stay like that for a couple of seconds. The intense blackberry aroma that comes forth is nothing short of amazing. Just by smelling this coffee, you will know what to expect in your cup. If you bite down on a bean, you will notice how crispy it is and that there is no sourness or bitterness to be found. Just a fruity blackberry flavour. Yummy!
Single Estate Coffee Roasters: Tasting the Gitesi espresso roast.
I have reviewed this coffee on my Rocket Giotto Evoluzione R and the Fiorenzato F64 Evo grinder. When preparing this coffee, I invite you to try different brewing times. There is a distinct Lime aspect in terms of mouthfeel and flavour that will allow you to extract this coffee a little longer. This will ensure a less fruity taste but will enhance the raw cocoa aspect that you will find.
When grinding this coffee there is no escaping the blackberry aroma. When you brew this coffee you will find this same aroma filling up the room. The crema on this espresso roast Gitesi is thick and creamy.
There are a few things that you will notice when taking your first sip of this coffee. The Lime sourness and flavour will immediately stimulate all your tasting buds. Your mouth will start to produce a lot of saliva and the word that comes to mind is ‘juicy’. When you swirl the coffee in your mouth and slurp oxygen, your tasting buds will be overloaded with the blackberry flavour. In your mouth you will recognize this coffee as velvety but with a raw touch to it. The Lime aspect and Blackberry flavour mingle perfectly and it will take a long time before this experience stops.
As you swallow this coffee a raw cocoa flavour and mouthfeel pops up and feels delicious in combination with the Blackberry. When the coffee is hot, a short spike of pepper-ish hotness will pop up in your throat. Breathing back oxygen, via your closed mouth, through your nose will even give you a soft but very sweet Mon-Cheri flavour (this is a cherry dark chocolate bonbon). It’s not that you will have a distinct cherry flavour but if you know the Mon-Cheri bonbon, you will immediately know what I mean. The coffee will keep pulling saliva for a long time after and the flavours will get even sweeter over time. The acidity is quite high in this coffee and feels citric bright when it’s hot.
In a latte based drink this coffee performs outstandingly! The flavours really complement the milk and the froth with its fruitiness, yet the cocoa aspect gives a little punch to the espresso inside. What a treat to drink this!
Gitesi: The verdict.
The readers from the Netherlands already know that Single Estate Coffee Roasters (home to World Aeropress Champion and Dutch Barista Champion Wendelien van Bunnik) is a great roastery. The quality of their coffee is always of a high standard and this Gitesi is nothing short of amazing.
It starts when opening the package and discovering this blackberry aroma…and from there its one big blur of intense aroma’s and flavours.
The Lime aspect gives opportunity to play with the extraction time of the coffee. Alternating between more fruitiness and more bitters will make this an exciting coffee for purists. Don’t get me wrong; beginners will have the easiest coffee on their hands with this Gitesi…simply because it is very hard to screw it up. Thank you for roasting this coffee Single Estate!
As a courtesy and to #supportyourlocalroaster I’ve added the link to their webpage if you want to buy their coffee. It’s a non-paid link. |
This roaster also ships internationally!