Long-time Phoenixers will have surely noticed our growing affinity for coffees from Rwanda’s Akagera Station. Five years ago, we began purchasing washed separations from the Kobakanya Cooperative. Last year, we made our first purchase of a natural-processed separation from their Ikizere program growers. When this year rolled around, it was a no-brainer to bring back both of those coffees again, and we also had the chance to bring in a number of bags of this special bourbon separation that underwent a 100 hour anaerobic fermentation before being processed naturally. 

For the uninitiated, “anaerobic” can be a bit of a misnomer and umbrella term that caught on for a range of processing methods before there was much industry consensus as to how to actually approach communicating extra fermentation steps. In general, if you see “anaerobic” on a coffee bag, it means that somewhere in the process of the coffee being picked, hulled, washed, and dried, the coffee was fermented in an oxygen-free environment, however it’s at the producers discretion whether the fermentation step comes pre or post hulling or washing. Sometimes, extra yeasts or even fruits are added (these are often called co-ferments) to the fermentation tanks. In other cases, producers just rely on naturally occurring wild yeasts (not dissimilar to natural wines). In any case, the fermentation process allows for the creation of complex and exciting acids/flavors without any unnatural additives. 

In this specific coffee’s case, the best-of-the-best cherries from the Akagera station are selected and sealed in tanks with the skin and fruit still completely intact. Extra yeasts are not added. The Akagera fermentation chambers are not vacuum sealed, so there is initially a reservoir of oxygen in the tanks. As the fermentation progresses, the oxygen is used up and replaced with carbon dioxide, which naturally releases through one-way valves. To this effect, it’s more representative to call this process a low-oxygen fermentation, but the proverbial ship has sailed on the hair-splitting front, so instead of subjecting folks to weeks of “well actuallies”, we’re just going to roll with “Anaerobic” as a process descriptor. After–you guessed it–100 hours in the tanks, the coffee is unsealed and treated as a traditional natural coffee; sun drying on raised beds in cherry for weeks before being hulled and prepared for export.

This lot consists entirely of Red Bourbon grown between 1600-1900 masl in the Nyamasheke District of Rwanda. It was hand picked, hand sorted, and floated to separate for ripeness. Whole cherry is sealed and fermented for 100 hours before being turned and dried on raised beds for 30 days to hit a moisture target of 11%.

Relationship: Core (5 years)

What we taste: Blue Raspberry, Mango, Tropical Fruit, Sweet, and a little Funky

Net weight: 12 ounces