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TASTES LIKE: CANTALOUPE, MAPLE SYRUP + RASPBERRY
Medium Roast. Available in 340g bags only
REGION: Cyato Sector, Nyamasheke
FARM: Abadatezuka COOP
VARIETY: Bourbon
ALTITUDE: 1900 - 2200 m.a.s.l.
PROCESS: Natural
ABADATEZUKA COOP
Abadatezuka Cooperative is a group of smallholder farmers in Rwanda's Western Province who deliver their coffee in cherry to the Cyato Washing Station, which is located in the Cyato sector of the Nayamasheke district in that region. The producers here grow coffee at elevations all the way up to 2,200 meters above sea level, and the washing station is located at 1,850 meters above sea level. Coffees are brought to the Cyato washing station from the surrounding areas of Kivoga, Kageyo, Rusumo, Gatare, and Nsinduka.
One interesting facet to coffee here is that the native honeybees that live in and around the Nyungwe forest where the coffee is grown are said to be responsible in part to the "unique profile" this coffee has. The bee-assisted pollination, fertile ground, and cool lake-affected climate thanks to the area's proximity to Lake Kivu contribute to the flavors found in the cup. The farmers use no synthetic inputs, either as fertilizers or as pest control.
PROCESS: NATURAL
Naturals in Rwanda are picked as ripe cherries, float sorted to remove debris and under/over-ripes, then dried on raised beds. Coffee is turned regularly on the raised beds to ensure even drying, resulting a uniform and clean natural cup profile.
VARIETAL: BOURBON
A Typica-related variety that is the result of a natural mutation of Typica-derivative coffees cultivated in Yemen and transplanted to Île Bourbon (now called Réunion Island).
REGION: WESTERN PROVINCE
Bordering Lake Kivu and the Nyugwe Forest, the Western Province of Rwanda is a very abundant and tropical area. The soil is a mixture of sandy and black humus at extreme elevations have allowed for small producers and washing stations to turn out specialty coffee at volumes that Rwanda has never seen before.
MICROLOT
Microlots from Rwanda are traceable to the cooperative and washing-station level, and are selected on the basis of cup quality. These lots are separated out from the larger bulked day lots that the washing station produces, and represent the highest quality Rwandan offerings.
SOURCING RWANDA
Our travels to the Lake Kivu region have resulted in phenomenal lots both from washing stations like Kabrizi and Kigeyo on the lake’s eastern shores, and Gishamwana Island, a seeming coffee paradise where the plants are grown, processed, and milled in an environment as yet untouched by the same diseases and pests that crop up on the mainland.
We have been pleased, proud, and privileged to be working with producers there who are currently producing some of the cleanest, most dynamic, and highest-quality coffees the country and its remarkable terroir has to offer.
We love Rwandan coffee, and we are excited to share the very best of it with you.
ABOUT RWANDA
Like most African coffee-producing countries (with the exception of Ethiopia), Rwanda was planted in coffee by colonial interests from Europe in order to supply the booming market back on their home continent. High-yield, low-cost varieties were introduced in the 1930s and made compulsory to farmers by Belgian colonials, offering little in the way of quality incentive or development. Coffee was intended to be a cheap commodity available in abundance, and the colonial government held strict mandates over exports in addition to imposing very high taxes on growers, practically enslaving them to the industry. Roughly 75 percent of the land mass of Rwanda is used for agriculture, and more than 35 percent of its population are subsistence farmers, many of whom rely on coffee for at least a portion of their income.
While coffee became the staple agricultural export by the 1990s (despite very low market prices), its production, along with the national economy in general, was devastated by the genocide in 1994. Nearly 1 million people were killed in the national tragedy, which stalled development and slowed progress for nearly a decade. Targeted programs initiated by the government in the early 2000s encouraged Rwandans to use specialty coffee as one of the means to recover and create a new niche agricultural market. The erection of the first washing station with USAID support in 2004, and the country was the first to host a Cup of Excellence auction, bringing international recognition to the “Land of a Thousand Hills” as a potential producer of exceptional quality.
Today, this tiny country (roughly the size of Maryland) contributes less than 0.2 percent of the global coffee supply, but its reputation for special quality and unique characteristics—not to mention the incredible story of its development as a specialty-coffee origin since the genocide—have earned Rwanda a significant place at the table among African origins.
