Coffee of the month - Rwanda Liza Washed
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Varietal – Red Bourbon
Preparation – Washed
Location – Near to Kamembe, South West Rwanda
Altitude – 1600+ masl
Importer - Horsham Coffee Roaster
Our coffees from Rwanda are directly traded with producers and we are able to offer full transparency and detailed information on these coffees. For more information on how we source coffees take a look at our Transparency Report.
We first visited Rwanda in 2014 and over the last few years we've developed some very close relationships within the Rwandan coffee community. We first visited Bwishaza co-operative in 2015 and have been buying coffee from them every year and have been working directly with Liza since 2017.
Producer Overview:
Liza washing station is owned by Jean Paul (far left in the above picture). He is a second generation coffee farmer who has worked for many years as an agronomy consultant both in Rwanda and the Congo. His farm has about 6000 trees and he processes coffee from his own farm and from several hundred local small hold farmers within the community. The quality he produces is outstanding and this is due to his dedication and commitment to training local farmers and focusing on very careful hand sorting at the washing station. Jean Paul produces a variety of different microlots specifically for us, these include washed coffees and bespoke experimental process coffees.
Harvesting and Processing:
Coffee is delivered daily during the harvest period (February to June) by small hold farmers. Usually, they deliver anything between 10 and 100kg depending on the size of their farm.
After delivery coffee is floated in water. Defects tend to float and the good quality cherry will sink. After flotation coffee is pulped to remove the fruit and then fermented dry in tanks for about 12 hrs
After fermentation, the coffee is washed to remove mucilage and then moved to dry in the shade.
Drying takes place in two stages. The first stage is done undercover to allow hand sorting to take place and gentle drying to avoid parchment cracking. After 48hrs of shade drying the coffee is moved to raised tables to dry in the sun until reaching 12% moisture. Each days processing is kept separate to create separated lots.
After the coffee has dried it is stored in a cool stored room and samples are sent away to be roasted, cupped and graded in Rwanda and also sent to us to be sampled. Once we've selected the lots we've like to purchase the coffee will be dry milled. This process involves removing the parchment layer and further sorting to remove defects.
Tasting Notes:
Orange, Caramel, Black Tea. A lovely well-balanced coffee that is great as espresso and filter and works well with and without milk.