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87

Starbucks Coffee

Rwanda Blue Bourbon Black Apron Exclusive

Roaster Location:Seattle, Washington
Coffee Origin:Rwanda.
Roast Level:Dark
Agtron:37/40
Review Date:April 2008
Aroma:7
Acidity:7
Body:8
Flavor:8
Aftertaste:7

Blind Assessment: A paradoxical coffee, thin and subdued, but with considerable suggestions of richness and complexity. In the aroma muted suggestions of night flowers, butter, black cherries. In the cup lean but silky mouthfeel and delicate hints of spicy nut, cocoa, more flowers and cherry, perhaps of a rather dullish aromatic wood. The flavor persists nicely into an otherwise short, fast-fading finish.

Notes: The coffee cooperatives of Rwanda, benefiting from superb growing conditions, traditional varieties of Arabica and support from aid agencies and coffee idealists, are beginning to produce coffees that rank among the world's finest and most distinctive. Bourbon is a prestigious heirloom variety of Coffea Arabica. This is the April 2008 offering in the Starbucks Black Apron Exclusives line of distinctive seasonally available coffees. Visit www.starbucks.com for more information.

Who Should Drink It: Starbucks watchers or convenience shoppers. An obviously interesting green coffee that perhaps lost energy from origin to cup. Put away the Charbucks cliches, however, because I would not call it over-roasted, just dulled either by fading or perhaps by very slow roast profiling.

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This review originally appeared in the April, 2008 tasting report: Special Reserve is Dead. Long Live Special Reserve.

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About the Author: Kenneth Davids

Kenneth Davids is a coffee expert, author and co-founder of Coffee Review. He has been involved with coffee since the early 1970s and has published three books on coffee, including the influential Home Roasting: Romance and Revival, now in its second edition, and Coffee: A Guide to Buying, Brewing and Enjoying, which has sold nearly 250,000 copies over five editions. His workshops and seminars on coffee sourcing, evaluation and communication have been featured at professional coffee meetings on six continents.

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