Rwanda – Muhari Washed

Description

The Story

A proud partnership between Gihanga, Queen City Roasting, and Coffeebar.

Gihanga is a coffee export project led by Audace Ngabonziza (Ngabo) and Jean de Dieu (Kevin) Nkunzimana. Their focus is on community-led specialty coffee production that is beneficial for both producers and the local environment, in addition to linking producer communities to the international market through high-quality and affordable coffees.

The Muhari station is located near the shores of Lake Kivu in Rwanda’s mountainous Western Province. This region is known for specialty coffee production and the Muhari station lives up to this billing. Through support from Gihanga Coffee, the technical and environmental assistance provided to local farmers is building a sustainable foundation for coffee production in the community. Such assistance includes agricultural inputs like compost and organic pesticides as well as a community-funded nursery to cultivate not just coffee trees but indigenous tree species that provide a multitude of important environmental services for both producers and the wider community.

This processing of this coffee, the cherries are hand-sorted and then floated for grading upon collection; cherries are then de-pulped at the end of the day’s collection, fermented for 12 hours, washed, and then placed for sun-drying on raised beds till optimal moisture loss has occurred at which point the parchment is stored till dry milling in Kigali.