Our Rwanda Coffee has a lovely fruity flavour profile:
- Aroma: Stone Fruit
- Acidity: Medium
- Body: Mellow
- Flavour: Red currant and raspberry, lemon drizzle, morello cherry and milk chocolate, bold and juicy
This particular lot is very special as comes from a large number of small-holders, the majority of which look after as little as 200 coffee trees. The coffee beans are harvested and then delivered to a communal washing station where they are wet-processed, graded and sorted. The coffee company is known as Inzovu. This coffee is a Natural process Red Bourbon.
These fruity flavor profiles are a result of the country’s good growing conditions. There are around 400,000 smallholder producers in Rwanda (NAEB), with most farms sitting at 1,700–2,000 m.a.s.l., according to Sweet Maria’s.
The small holdings are usually less than an acre in size. Plus the country has only been growing coffee since the early 1900’s.
Often it is difficult to get coffee from Rwanda as it is a land locked country. This means that it has to pay much more to export their coffee.
We get this coffee through Falcon Specialty Coffee, along with many other of our coffees. Find out more about them HERE.
If you love this coffee and want to try something similar then we would recommend our Kenyan or Ethiopian coffees.
Rwanda Coffee: Karambi Mountain
£7.50 – £22.00
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Product Description
- Additional Information
Karambi Mountain 310
Cup Score: 85
Cup Profile: Crisp red apple, Blackberry, Vanilla with hints of Maple syrup
Altitude: 1600
Process: Washed
Location: Karambi cell, Kirambo, Lake Kivu
Varietal: Red Bourbon
Just a few miles inland from Kirambo at the edge of Lake Kivu, is the Karambi washing station, named after the nearby village and surrounding sector. Tucked onto steep and largely inaccessible slopes, the site is just over an area of 2.5 hectares. Station manager Anton and accountant Claude greeted us on a hot and humid day. The air was thick with moisture after the rains of the night before. Geckos skittered across rocks on the walk to the site, and the helicopter thrum of a locust taking off nearby filled the air.
Karambi was established in 2016 and RTC took ownership the following year. 4 staff are employed full time with the addition of 60 further staff during the harvest, of whom 90% are women. 1500 farmers contribute cherry to the station and all have successfully participated in RTC’s training program. Since 2017, annual production has doubled from 220 tons of cherry processed to an expected 400+ this year. At the time of our visit at the end of May 2022, the station was on 292 tons processed. The farms surrounding Karambi are all within 3 kilometres of the station, located on steep slopes. On average farms are 4 hectare in size, with approximately 8000 trees per farm.
The reason that production volume at Karambi was relatively low this year, when compared to other stations of a similar size, is because the station shares local farmers with neighbouring station Gesharu. In many of Rwanda’s coffee growing regions, the government has sought to ensure local farmers have access to supply chains through expanding the number of washing station facilities in a given area through the Coffee Value Chain Development Project, an initiative co-funded by the European Union. Consensus opinion seems to be that while this creates more access and opportunities for farmers to sell cherry, it can be counter productive for washing stations and exporters who must compete for volumes of cherry.
Read more about RTC’s farmer training program here:
https://www.falconcoffees.com/agronomy-training-program-in-rwanda/
We get this coffee through the Falcon Specialty coffee along with many other of our coffees. Find out more about them HERE.
If you love this coffee and want to try something similar then we would recommend our Kenyan or Ethiopian coffees.
