Rwanda has a relatively modern relationship to growing coffee in comparison to other origins, with coffee plants arriving in 1904. Now as one of the top 30 coffee producers in the world, with almost 500,000 micro farms that export millions of pounds of coffee a year. High elevations deliver some delicious yields with varied profiles, blueberry muffin notes, kiwi, rosehip, are all among the flavours we've gotten from past crops.
*click here to buy our current coffee from this origin*
2024
Green tea, blackcurrant, and honey - that’s an interesting cup of Rwanda.
We’ve been buying the coffee from Valentin Kimenyi’s washing station Gasharu for a couple of years now, and we’re always impressed not just by the experimental lots, but also the washed. This washed Bourbon is a testament to that; clean with a high sweetness, the education Kimenyi offers to locals farmers brings about higher graded cups and a better outcome for the farmers themselves.
Whilst the washing station sits at 1670masl, the surrounding farms that bring their coffees to Gasharu Central Washing Station sit at 1600 - 2100 masl in the Nyamasheke District. Stumping (the cutting of older tree branches to make way for healthier, new ones) helps drive the high quality of the coffees, and once the cherries reach the station they’re processed by an experienced female workforce.
2023
All of our coffees are nice. Obviously. We expect them to be nice and we’re not surprised when they are. However some impress us a little more than we were expecting, this washed Red Bourbon from Rwanda was one of them.
The Nyamasheke Hills washing station collects the cherries of 600 farmers whose farms sit from 1750 masl to 1900 masl; and the output is a selection of high quality coffees. Station manager, Louis Ndereyimana, was himself a farmer before opening the washing station, which helps to maintain the quality with this experience as both farmer and processor.
As an espresso there’s more creaminess, almond, but still juicy; which carries over into the filter experience too - lots of bright juiciness and red currant, alongside a little bit of green tea on the tongue.
Gasharu is a washing station managed by Valentin Kimenyi with an experienced female work-force, they do a wealth of good work for the community and have a focus on the rejuvenation of old trees (a practice called stumping which you can read more about here *link to stumping blog post*). Knowledge and education brings higher graded cups and a better outcome for the farmers, whose farms all sit at around 1700 - 2100 masl.
This washed Bourbon is a beautifully clean, candied cup with lots of juicy orange peel.