Raspberry, Cherry, Black Tea
Sourced from eleven smallholder farmers in Rwanda's Nyamasheke district, the Karengera is a washed Red Bourbon with a clean, fruit-forward character - raspberry and cherry up front, a floral lift from jasmine, and black tea keeping the finish grounded. It rewards a slower brew, though it holds its own as an espresso too.
Bright, fruit-forward Rwanda in bloom
The Rwanda Karengera comes from eleven smallholder farmers delivering cherry to the Karengera washing station in Nyamasheke, a district in Rwanda's Western Province where volcanic soils and altitudes between 1,500 and 2,000 metres do a lot of the heavy lifting. The farms are small - around 610 trees on average - and the Red Bourbon variety grown here responds well to those conditions, producing fruit with a clarity that the washed process brings right to the surface.
In the cup, that clarity shows up as raspberry and cherry up front, with jasmine adding a floral lift and black tea lending a clean, slightly tannic structure that stops things tipping into sweetness for its own sake. Toffee rounds it out at the finish. It's a bright, expressive coffee that holds up well across brew methods - filter or Aeropress will let the floral and fruit notes breathe, while espresso pulls out something a little richer and more structured. With an SCA score of 86, it sits comfortably in specialty territory, though it wears that lightly.
If you tend to enjoy coffees that are clean and fruit-forward without being sharp or austere, this one is worth your time.
About the Roaster
Copper Coffee Roasters started in 2019 in a small Richmond office, where a recruitment business and a growing obsession with great coffee shared the same desk space. That obsession has since grown into a roastery in Cobham, Surrey, three coffee shops across south-west London and Surrey, and a range built around helping people find their way into speciality coffee without the fuss.
