Jelly Baby - Rwanda

Tastes like: Red Grape & Green Apple Gummies.

Jelly Baby (the name we’ve given to this beaut’ of a coffee) is back! It's a anoxic processed micro-lots which we recently procured from the Rwandan District of Gakenke. 

Jelly Baby really stands out. As a direct result of its processing, it’s incredibly aromatic, with strong candy sweetness, grape and red fruit flavours, with a strange but delicious wine gum vibe to finish. It's fruity, crisp, and weirdly wonderful. It’s a coffee we already can't get enough of and it’s quickly becoming this season's favourite. 

For the processing in brief: the whole cherries of the fruit were fermented in a sealed environment where the oxygen was removed (hence the term anoxic - meaning free from oxygen). This basically provides two things: a sterile and controlled environment for the cherries to ferment in, which gives the farmers more control over the outcome of the processing. And secondly the cherries are able to be soaking in their own slowly decomposing juices which provides a shitload of flavour. 

Processed by Muraho Trading Co. and inspired and imported by Raw Material. These somewhat experimental micro-lots are pretty mind blowing when it comes to flavour, add a lot of value to the origin side of the supply chain, and give producers far more control when it comes to the final product. 

So it’s a win-win, for everyone.

And for the geeks out there we’ve outlined a few more specifics about the processing below:

1. The cherries are picked and sorted - to remove floaters and under ripe cherries. 
2. These clean cherries are then placed into a very clean fermentation tank, with a large plastic sheet covering them. 
3. Cool water is then poured over the plastic sheet, the weight of which forms a seal and creates a vacuum as the air is pushed out of the bottom of the tank. 
4. The crux or the genius of this method is the water. While it creates the vacuum it also acts as a kind of buffer as it works to maintain a stable environment of the coffee cherries to ferment away in peace. The temperature of the water layer is monitored closely and maintained at a constant 29 degrees celsius. Drawing the excess heat away from the fermenting pile of cherries, and allowing them to keep a prolonged two days fermentation. 
5. After the two days the cherries are then removed, rinsed and placed on raised beds to dry for five weeks. Being constantly turned every half hour to ensure even drying and reduce risks of spoilage. 

All this means that the final result is a more intensely fruity coffee, which we have found to be incredibly sweet, with those interesting but delicious candy flavours resulting from the anoxic fermentation. Both Jelly Baby and Lemon Head exhibit a ton of sweetness, flavours we’re absolutely stoked with, and we’re super keen to share them with you all.