Rwanda Coffee week!

August 29, 2016

Last week we talked about Rwanda coffee, so here is full series. Enjoy it!

Overview

Altitude Range: 1400 – 1800 MASL
Language Spoken: Kirwanda, French
Harvest: March – July Coffee
Production: 246,000 bags (Crop 2013 – ICO),
Common Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai
Avg Farm Size: Mostly small farmers with an average of 0 – 4 hectares.

Near the gigantic lakes that dominate the geography of the mountainous central-east region of Africa, at or near the equator and just to the east of the geographical center of the continent. Particularly important in this coffee geography is Lake Kivu, which influences the coffees of Rwanda.

The coffees of these regions, they are all high-grown though typically not extremely high-grown (accounting for their moderate yet vibrant acidity); they are almost universally produced from well-established local variants of the great heirloom Bourbon variety of Arabica, accounting for their complex and engaging aromatics and flavour. They are produced by small holders making it attractive to programs that seek to improve the lives of small-holding farmers through encouraging speciality coffee production!

The best coffee beans are processed, usually by the classic ferment-and-wash method, at often recently established “washing stations” or wet mills, making them relatively clean and consistent. In all cases, transporting these fine coffees out of these landlocked regions is difficult, often causing quality problems, but there are motivated speciality coffee producers in these areas and they are of extreme interest to develop there transport system.

Since 2002, Rwanda has being changing the world perception about their coffee to be positioned as a speciality coffee producer. Since this moment, farmers have seen the value in producing speciality coffee, and the prices of the cherries have increased. Coffee represents an important exporting product for Rwanda economy, and from 2002 to 2006 the exportation of coffee grew a 30% per year.