Here they are, and not your average Rwandan coffee at that! This lot is a double drop, and one we would highly recommend buying together. We are beyond excited to share the rare chance to try a Yellow Bourbon from Rwandan, and the chance to try it processed in two different ways. A unique experience and one we are grateful to share thanks to our friends at Raw Material. You may well have brewed up many a Rwandan, and most likely they have all been of the Red Bourbon variety. Well, here is the opportunity to taste how this change in variety affects the flavour profile - Yellow Bourbon tends to offer a cleaner, sweeter, and more juicy cup - sometimes a brighter, more citrus-toned cup, or one with more tropical fruits.
Limited stock from the off, so be quick on these two. Only 20 retail bags available on our website as 250g whole bean bags, so move quickly. The cup profile is like a mouthful of honey, highly sweet while being slightly floral, slightly fruity and slightly earthy. A beautifully balanced cup, a lingering and complex citrus note throughout, with slight hints of citric bitterness like a pomelo. Again the butterscotch, toffee and caramel vibes are strong, with the long finish reminding us of sucking on a Whether's Original.
RUGALI
Built in April 2016, Rugali coffee washing station sees an annual production of approximately 54,000kg of milled green coffee each year. The drying conditions at Rugali are ideal for ensuring optimal post-pulp drying, where coffee is laid on the drying beds between 12 pm and 3 pm, to ensure maximum exposure to the sun during the warmest time of the day.
Rugali has become an impactful example of a successful washing station for the specialty coffee market. It is a station that has in just a few years produced coffees that have been used in competitions worldwide and put the Nyamasheke District on the map for high-quality processed Rwandan coffees.
The station is located close to its smaller sister station Kilimbi. These two stations were the first stations in Rwanda to legally export natural and honey processed coffees. While production of natural and honey processed coffee is still monitored strictly by NAEB, the elevation of Rugali naturally lends itself to producing coffee in these styles.
THE VARIETY GARDENS
Since the rebuilding of the Rwandan coffee industry post the genocide of the 1990's, Rwanda has been known solely for the Red Bourbon variety and initially for the washed process, the primary reason for this being access to the large commercial market which is based on clean washed coffees.
Muraho Trading Company has, since it's inception in 2016 been focussed on serving the Speciality coffee market with high quality coffees and as such they were instrumental in working with NAEB (the agricultural board of Rwanda) in beginning exports of other processes, natural, honey, anoxic etc....adding value to the coffees and returning that to the producers.
The variety gardens are a continuation of this project, managed by MTC they are a series of plots in Nyamasheke and Nyabihu focussed on growing varieties other than Red Bourbon. They are designed to conduct a thorough assessment to assure that the varieties are viable both agronomically and sensorially over many years before consideration is made to passing out to smallholder producers.
PROCESSING
All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. Next, coffee is fermented in dedicated concrete fermentation tanks for an average of 12 hours. During this time, the fermented parchment is agitated several times through the day by way of ceremonial foot-stomping.
After fermentation, coffee is released into a large serpentine grading channel. This process also separates parchment into different density grades. During the washing process, parchment is continuously agitated to encourage lower density parchment to float and to clean any residual mucilage off the parchment. Once the parchment is separated into grades, it is given a final post-wash rinse. At this point, coffee is taken to a pre-drying area where the parchment is hand-sorted removing any insect-damaged, discoloured or chipped coffee. The parchment is laid out to dry and turned on a regular basis throughout the day for 30 days.
RWANDA
In Rwanda, Raw Materials work alongside Muraho Trading Co. This partnership helps affiliate co-operatives increase their quality of production, fetch a higher price for their coffee, and introduce them to new markets. This will be a continuous work in progress in the coming years, as Raw Materials gain a greater understanding of the particular challenges Rwandan coffee producers face.
Through this process Raw Materials can develop a model that creates incentives which generate producer buy-in, all the while maximising impact. Raw Materials supply coffee from across Muraho’s washing stations, which are located in the Nyamasheke, Gakenke, and Nyabihu regions of Rwanda.
(In partnership with Raw Material)
