PT's Rwanda Bufcafe

From just a quick assessment of this coffee, I got nice hazelnut notes on the palate, balanced by semi-sweet chocolate. I've been nursing a cold for a few days, so I'm not trusting my taste buds too much right now, and I'll probably re-review this coffee when I'm not full of phlegm.

The roaster, PT's Coffee, says this about it:
"A sweet honeysuckle aroma combines perfectly with this coffee's pronounced acidity. Strong notes of passion fruit and green apple shift elegantly to an earthy herbacious finish with a creamy body that leaves a long, pleasing finish."

It was rated 91 by Ken David's CoffeeReview.com, with a blind description of "Lush tropical fruit mixes with citrus and flowers in the aroma. Bright acidity; smooth and silky mouthfeel. The fruit and floral aromatic characteristics continue elegantly into the cup, ending cleanly with a slight hint of chocolate in the long finish."

Like I said, can't really taste too much right now, but I wanted to write about it today for a different reason. I like PT's Coffee, they have some great offerings, especially their Ethiopian Beloya offerings.

But I wanted to talk a minute about how this coffee came to me. I used to belong to a coffee club run by Great Coffee. The company checks out CoffeeReview.com's monthly reviews, and sends members one of the coffees that Ken Davids' ranked high that month. I was a member for about a year, and in that time, was sent a lot of different coffees from a variety of roasters. But after a while, I noticed that the coffees often arrived at my door long after they were roasted.

As I became more of a coffee geek, I realized that coffees often taste the best within the first two or three weeks after they were roasted (some insist that beans are ideal for espressos within 3-5 days after roasting). So I decided to drop my membership because I figured I can get enough fresh roasted coffee from the numerous and high quality roasters in the SF bay area.

BUT I still get e-mails from GreatCoffee.com about deals they have. The most recent one offered two half-pound coffees, the PT's Rwanda Bufcafe, and Coffee Klatch's El Salvador 100% Bourbon, for a total of $10, shipped!!!! Shipping has been expensive this year, so the free shipping really got me to sign on for the deal. I placed my order on Oct. 31, and it arrived yesterday, Nov. 10. To my dismay upon opening the box, I saw that the Rwandan coffee was roasted on Oct. 15, basically a month ago, and the Coffee Klatch El Salvador has no roast date whatsoever on the package.

I know this post may sound incredibly bitchy to some people, but there's a real difference between coffees that are fresh roasted and roasted a month ago. My two Terroir coffees that I've been drinking for the past month were roasted on the same date, and I've seen their vibrancy slowly fade the past week or so. I'm disappointing to get these new coffees so late in their lifecycle, despite the price I paid.

Oh well.