Rwanda
Kamigeri

Washed process Bourbon

Flavour: barley sugar, blood orange jam

Body: Acidity:

Rwanda, where this week’s coffee originates, is another relatively new country to specialty coffee.

Until the year 2000 most Rwandan coffee was low quality and sold to the domestic market. In 2001 moves were made to start privatising coffee farms and establishing private washing stations, and now there are over 300 washing stations across Rwanda.

This work by the Rwandan government together with foreign partners in the coffee trade (such as Nordic Approach, once again our sourcing partner for this coffee) has helped lift the quality rather than the quantity of crops. This increased quality has allowed Rwandan coffee to compete on the world specialty coffee market, and has meant an increase in the price per kilogram.

According to research by the World Bank, the average export price of Rwandan coffee nearly doubled between 2003 and 2008.

It takes a lot of people to bring you coffee

In the case of the coffee you’re drinking this week, the beans came from almost a thousand smallholder farmers, who each have relatively small crops of less than 200 trees.

One tree produces an average of 1.7 kg of coffee cherries, meaning it takes hundreds of farmers, in some cases even thousands, to produce and deliver enough cherries to a washing station for one ‘lot’ of coffee.

Rwanda has around 500,000 coffee farmers, and over 4,000 new jobs were created by the new private wet mills between 2001–2006.

Sourcing and ingredients

100% Bourbon coffee beans, provided by Silo / Nordic Approach and roasted by us on Gadigal land / Sydney.

Country grade: Unknown ?

Packaging

Bag: ABA Certified home compostable
Label: Recyclable
Valve (on bags larger than 250g): General waste
Coffee ordered online is shipped in a recyclable cardboard box

Brewing this coffee

We recommend brewing this coffee 15–49 days post-roast. If pre-ground, brew as soon as possible. Our advice on storing coffee.

1:3
dose:yield
ratio

To brew on espresso, we recommend using 20g of beans (dose) to get 60g of espresso out (yield), during 24-28 seconds.

g dose

g yield

View the how to brew espresso (single origin) guide.

1:16.7
beans:water
ratio

To brew in infusion/fed brewers (V60, Chemex) use a ratio of 1:16.7 ratio of beans:water.

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:14.3
beans:water
ratio

To brew in immersion brewers (plunger, AeroPress, Kalita, batch brewer) we recommend using a 1:14.3 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:12
beans:water
ratio

To brew as cold brew we recommend using a 1:12 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

Producer: Epiphany Muhirwa
Country: Rwanda
Region: Nyamagabe
Altitude: 1700 – 2000m above sea level
Varietals: Bourbon
Process: washed
Harvested: June 2014
Body: Light
Acidity: Bright
Tasting notes: Barley sugar, blood orange jam
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Varietals

Bourbon varietal

A natural mutation of the Typica varietal, Bourbon is named after Reunion Island (then known as Il Bourbon) where the French cultivated the Typica plants which naturally mutated.

The location

Coffee from Rwanda

Since the genocide of 1994, coffee has come to represent a symbol of recovery and regrowth for Rwanda.

The Southern and Western Region region of Rwanda

Centred around 3 main areas; the Huye mountains, the Nyamagabe region, and the Nyamasheke region in close proximity to Lake Kivu

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.