Rwanda Dry Process Macuba

Macuba dry process proves to be a deeply sweet dry process coffee, with fruited accents, and brooding low tones when roasted dark. The lighter roasts smelled of molasses and dark chocolate, accented by berry and winey hints. At City+, the hot coffee had a flavor of spice cake with raisins and dates, molasses, and red berry highlights, cooling to an accent note of plum wine in the finish. My dark roast was almost to Full City+ (35F post 1st Crack), which mellowed out the fruit a bit, though it was far from buried. The roast bittering is the flavor you taste first - a smokey bittersweet note - but dark fruits are tucked behind that bittersweet layer, and begin to come into view as the coffee cools down. This is the kind of dry process I love as espresso - bittersweet, with a flash of acidity and syrupy fruit. The 'fruit' will be polarizing, which is why I'm not adding it to our "Good for espresso" category. In my assessment, Full City is the perfect roast for espresso. Shots are intensely bittersweet, with hints of tart berries and fruit jam, burnt caramel, and a hint of spiced rum in the aroma.