We currently have 4 lots of Mahembe coming in soon and one lot from a CWS (Coffee Washing Station) called Gitesi. Again this year it’s all exceptional coffees according to our standards.

Our coffee (Mahembe) being hand-sorted at the RTC dry mill in Kigali, Rwanda

The four Mahembe lots are all slightly differentiated in flavor, but they all have that mature and warming dark fruit notes. I have never seen any producer in Rwanda processing such dark red and evenly-matured coffee cherries before. And it’s really noticeable in the cup. Gitesi is a new small private wetmill we discovered on the cupping table recently. This specific lot of 45 bags was simply too good to not try it out and buy it. Of course we know that this producer have been doing good practices and great coffees for years, but we haven’t tried it for actual purchase before

The view from the hill around the Motherland Farmers washing station

Motherland Farmers

As many of you also know we are involved in setting up a new estate and Coffee Washing Station in the Butare/Nyamagabe area in the south. This is based on collaboration between a Rwandan landowner and a group of Norwegian private investors and enthusiasts. The location is perfect from 1700 – 2000 meters in an area where I have previously cupped the most complex Rwandans ever, and we definitely aim at producing Rwandas best coffees. The first coffee trees at the estate are two years old now. We have also initiated farmer training with the local cooperative of coffee growers. The wetmill is just constructed and we will be ready to produce coffees here from the beginning of the 2014 harvest.