Tasting notes

 - Oolong Tea, Blackcurrant & Watermelon

Brewing

We suggest using this coffee for filter brew methods, such as a pourover, aeropress, chemex or batch brew (or similar). It's roasted a bit lighter to accentuate the delicious fruitiness and acidity that we love.

Origin Information

Country : Rwanda

Province : Northern Province

District : Gakenke District

Sector : Ruli Sector

Washing Station : Ruli

Elevation : 2002 MASL

Variety : Red Bourbon

Processing : Natural Anaerobic

Farmers: 105 female cooperative members

Washing Station Owner : Dukunde Kawa Cooperativ

Growth Story

This specially prepared microlot was produced using coffee cherry from 105 smallholder farmers who deliver to bustling Ruli washing station, the largest and busiest of three washing stations owned by the Dukunde Kawa Cooperative. The site sits at an elevation 2,002 meters above sea level and is located close to the town of Musasa, in Rwanda’s mountainous Northern Province.

Unlike most coffee-producing countries, where land size is used as a measure of scale, farms in Rwanda are often very small, and production capability is determined by the number of trees a farmer tends to. The majority of producers who contribute to the Ruli washing station own a couple of hundred trees, planted on one tenth of a hectare of land, along with subsistence food crops like maize, beans and sorghum and livestock like cows, goats and chickens.

ANAEROBIC  PROCESSING AT RULI WASHING STATION

The team at Dukunde Kawa takes a huge amount of care in processing its coffee. For their natural and anaerobic processed coffees, Dukunde Kawa cooperative members are taught to select the heaviest and juiciest coffee cherries, as these are the ripest and have the highest sugar content.

• On delivery, the cherries are inspected and sorted by hand to ensure only the very best fruit is processed. They are then sorted by weight in water (and any floaters are removed) to ensure only the densest cherries are selected.
• After sorting, coffee cherries are placed in oxygen-deprived tanks (this is achieved through candle burning or a distillation process) and hermetically sealed.
• The coffee ferments for a period of 100 hours (around five days), allowing for microorganisms present in and on the cherries to break down sugars and mucilage into complex metabolites, enhancing the acidity, body and overall flavour profile of the coffee.
• Once the desired level of fermentation is achieved, cherries are removed and laid out to dry in the sun for about 50-60 days, depending on weather conditions. As coffee dries, it is sorted again for defects, turned regularly and protected from rain and the midday sun by covers, ensuring both even drying and the removal of any damaged or defective beans. During this period the coffee is also turned several times a day by hand to ensure the coffee dries evenly and consistently. As with most washing stations in Rwanda, women do the majority of hand-sorting.
• During the final stages of the drying process, cherries are laid out in raised beds under cover.
• After reaching their target humidity readings, the coffee is then transported to Dukunde Kawa’s purpose-built warehouse prior to final milling and hand sorting at the cooperative’s dry mill.