Mille milliards de mille saveurs

The land of a thousand hills is full of superb coffees, such as this delicacy from the Gitesi region.

Super complex, balanced and syrupy, with hints of tangerines and seductive floral aromas

Cupping: 88+

We have wanted to share a coffee from this country with you for a long time. Then we fell over  tasting this beauty, so delicate, so complex. We then simply acknowledged "here it is".

Origin

Gitesi, Rwanda

Variety [Arabica]

red bourbon

Method

Washed

Altitude

1800m

the origin

This coffee comes from small family farms in the community of Gitesi, in the district of Karongi, in western Rwanda. The coffee is fermented and washed in the Gitesi washing station, which belongs to Alexis Gahizi and his son Aimé. Growing coffee for several generations in the region, they fought to keep the washing station in activity. Despite the initial difficulties, they believed in their project and bet on quality and sustainability to succeed in building a sustainable business serving the community. Aimé Gahizi has notably created a very complete water purification system to ensure that the water used to wash the coffeecherries does not pollute the soil and water, while limiting CO2 emissions as much as possible. This purification system is used as a model for future water purification systems.

Alexis and Aimé also offer various support programs for farmers in the community. These include the provision of a coffee tree nursery, quality bonuses, various training courses, particularly on the production of organic fertilizer from coffee pulp or the cross-production of other fruits and vegetables in order to provide additional incomes.

The coffee harvest in the region generally runs from May to July. Small family farms generally take care of the picking of coffee cherries themselves. Once picked and sorted by the farmers, the cherries are received and their quality checked. If necessary, a second sorting is then carried out. The cherries are then placed in a tank of water before pulping, which removes the pulp and about 70% of the mucilage. Then the coffee is  fermented dry for 10 to 12 hours. The cool climate of the region allows the fermentation process to be well controlled. After that, the parchment coffee is graded and washed in channels, before being rinsed with clean water.

Following this, the parchment coffee is dried first in the shade. And sorted again manually at this stage, where the defects are easier to distinguish. Then the coffee is dried on African beds covered with shade net for up to 15 days.