Cannonball Coffee is a coffee roastery that is based in Dorset, UK. They are captained by a Vet of the British Army, Duncan whom while on a tour in Afganistan was inspired by the Danish Army’s way of drinking strong black coffee that had flavour. 

Cannonball coffee are slightly different to many roasteries in the UK and have focused on a particular area of the speciality coffee industry. They aim to produce strong coffee in terms of caffeine content while not sacrificing taste. 

Strong coffee is a little bit of a grey area in speciality coffee when people typically say they like strong coffee, they mean strong tasting, bitter, over-roasted coffee. But caffeine pretty much stays the same however the coffee is roasted. However caffeine content does change when different types of coffee. 

Robusta coffee is something that isn’t seen in many speciality coffee shops. It is the second most grown coffee in the world behind Arabica and typically is either used in commodity coffee to give depth and body to espresso blends. The majority of Robusta is grown in Vietnam but other origins have started to sprout up and experiment with this coffee plant. Although a large percentage of robusta is sold at the commodity price for coffee there are a few farms and cooperatives that produce high-quality robusta coffee that compete with Arabica. 

One of the origins that speciality robusta coffee has taken off is Rwanda. Two big advantages of growing Robusta are the fact that it can grow at low altitude and it is resistant to leaf rust. Although Rwanda is a mountainous country the security of having a crop that is resistant to leaf rust makes it worthwhile producing a well processed Robusta. 

Cannonball stumbled across a Rwandan robusta that had the flavour attributes of some Arabica coffee, while also holding the caffeine strength that they were seeking. 

Maximum Charge coffee from Cannonball Coffee is a fully washed Rwandan robusta coffee. I haven’t recently tried many robusta coffee’s and isn’t something I would usually go for, however, I love trying different things and there’s only so many fruit-forward washed Ethiopians you can drink. 

The initial fragrance of the coffee was that of many South American Arabica coffees, chocolatey and smokey. When ground, the coffees aroma was slightly more woody and earthy it reminded me a little of monsooned Indian coffees. 

The brewed coffee was deep in colour and fragrance, with the rich tones that you would associate with robusta coffee. The taste was full in body and started with dark chocolate, it has a full mouthfeel and although it has the bite of dark chocolate it doesn’t have the bitterness that many ‘strong’ coffees have but rather is smooth and has a pleasant aftertaste. 

As the coffee cools it still holds the dark chocolate notes while evolving earthy flavours that work together to give the coffee an unorthodox complexity for a robusta. 

The coffee for me worked well as a shorter drink. I brewed it using a few different methods but favoured either as an espresso or as an Aeropress but only half-filling with water. It worked really well with milk, showcasing the dark chocolate.