keaton violet

Rwanda Karongi Gitesi - Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters

Not only is this my first bag of coffee of 2012, it’s also my first coffee from Wrecking Ball. Here’s a little about them from their website:

Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters is a coffee roasting company in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re working on quickly becoming the area’s most recognized purveyor of sustainably sourced, expertly roasted specialty coffee, presented with unparalleled service.

Sounds good to me. Wrecking Ball is made up of Trish Rothgeb and Nick Cho. They both have résumés the size of texas and are well respected in the world of the coffee bean. I had the pleasure of meeting Nick a couple of months ago when he gave a presentation he called ‘Brewing Revisited’ at La Marzocco’s headquarters in Ballard. It was an inspiring conversation that disrupted many of my preconceived notions on brewing coffee. I’ve been meaning to try coffee from them for a while and I hadn’t had a chance until last week, when a friend of mine picked up this Rwanda from one of my favorite places in the world to drink coffee, Milstead & Co. in Seattle. 

I especially love the feel of this bag. It reminds me of a sack lunch I used to take to school, but, instead of a peanut butter sandwich that my mom made, it’s full of freshly roasted coffee from Rwanda. I love the drawing of the wrecking ball and I love the way this bag feels in your hands. It’s also biodegradable which is awesome. 

The first thing I do when I get a bag of coffee is open it and smell. I almost passed out from the incredible aroma. Brown sugar and sweet molasses are the two things that come to mind. After making this coffee a few different ways I found that the Chemex liked it best. This coffee’s mouth feel is like velvet and it tasted like cashew butter and raspberry jam. It was absolutely delcious from beginning to end. I’m not qualified to rate this coffee on any kind of number scale so I’ll just say that the way this coffee made me feel is the way Denison Witmer’s “Are You a Dreamer?” album makes me feel: calm. This a feel good coffee and it will do just that. 

Check out Wrecking Ball here. Buy this coffee here. 

12oz. - $17.00