Rave Coffee Roasters Review
Discover Rave Coffee Roasters
These guys are beasts in the speciality coffee industry. They have been around for a while now and I even recall hearing about them before I started my journey into speciality coffee.
The ethics and brand values of Rave Coffee Roasters are apparent as soon as you click onto their website or any of their social media accounts. They are extremely laid back and want to make their customers feel at ease right away, they are one hundred per cent coffee people and often visit the origins of their coffee.
I had a chat to their roaster and green buyer Brooke who has a wealth of experience in the industry and is super friendly and personable. They have an air of approachability and cater to everyone, whether you’re a seasoned vet like Brooke or a Newbie to the scene, there will be a coffee available geared to your tastes.
They are also involved in a couple of very interesting projects, one is a research programme funded alongside a number of roasters throughout the world to gain a better understanding of leaf rust and begin to eradicate this coffee disease from certain areas of the coffee-growing world. The other is a program to combat the unsustainability of speciality coffee in a couple of Colombian coffee growing regions. Around half of the farmers in the Pitalito group sell their washed coffee in the wet form to drying station intermediaries.
In the past, families would dry their own coffee and sell it on the commodity market, not for a high or predictable price, but at least capturing that valuable step of the process. Wet selling is a new situation, brought about by climate change, which has exacerbated an already challenging situation. Rainy seasons continue far longer than before, rendering traditional farmer-owned drying facilities unsuitable.
Today, more modern and costly driers are required. Intermediaries have now come in and bought the wet coffee off the farmers for extremely low prices.
The challenge now is to bring a stop this step in the chain by facilitating infrastructure and providing facilities so that farmers can process their own coffee.
Both extremely important humanitarian projects that without the funding of businesses like Rave coffee roasters just wouldn’t happen.
The Costa Rican coffee that I received from Rave roasters was an exciting prospect - I have always loved Costa Rican coffee. It is one of the biggest players in the speciality coffee industry in terms of quality. Much of the infrastructure in Costa Rica is down to the coffee industry which started to boom in the early twentieth century, that said there are now hundreds of coffee farmers that have highly knowledgeable and passionate coffee farmers who are able to produce such high-quality coffee. Some of the most vibrant coffees that I have tasted have been from Costa Rica, they pioneered the honey processing technique and boast some of the most complex coffees in the world.
Rave Coffee Roasters Review
The Candelilla coffee from Rave coffee roasters was a pleasure to drink - The fragrance on opening the coffee typical of many Costa Rican coffee, fruit-forward and berry-like aromas bursting out the bag.
The brewed coffee starts with a slightly darker note than the initial fragrance suggests, treacle and brown sugar layer together quite nicely. The coffee does hit the sweet spot of your palate and bring with it the waves of fruit that were apparent in the aroma. The coffee has a medium body and fairly low in acidity which enables the sweetness to shine through. It doesn’t have a particularly dominant flavour note like some watermelon or grapefruit tones that are so significant in some Costa Ricans, however, the fruit and berry flavours alongside the sweet medium body unify the coffee into an incredibly approachable coffee. The coffee cools into a more full mouthfeel and almost a sense of blackberry tartness.
Great as always prepared as a pour-over. I would also recommend you cup the coffee when you receive the coffee and then after a week or so. I always find that honeys and naturals evolve and do peak in flavour a little longer after roasting compared to fully washed coffees.