African Kahawa Blend — Complex Medium-Dark African Coffee

Roast: Medium-Dark  |  Cup: Toffee, caramel, chocolate, raisin, green apple, red fruits, cherry, black currant, soft floral finish

Kahawa is Swahili for coffee. It's the right name for this one, because there is a lot going on in the cup.

Most blends aim for balance and land on "inoffensive." This one goes the other way. It's a very complex medium-dark roast of bright, full-flavoured African coffees, and the tasting list runs long because the coffee genuinely delivers all of it — toffee and caramel up front, chocolate underneath, then raisin, green apple, red fruit, cherry and black currant arriving in layers, finishing soft and floral.

It's also worth knowing how it's made. Coffee cherries here are often hand picked and then processed by hand at the farmer's own home. Quality standards are high and growers hold to them: environmentally friendly washed processing, beans left in the sun to dry, then hand sorted and hand packaged.

That is a lot of human hands for a bag of coffee. It's why it tastes the way it does.

Brew it: pour-over or drip if you want to chase the fruit. French press for the toffee and chocolate.

Pairs with: something with a lot going on. Save the simple books for the Brazil.