Microfarm Project: Rwanda Gashonga Red Bourbon

After its success, and our first specialty coffee Nicaragua Santa Maria de Lourdes was no longer available, we followed up with another specialty coffee Rwanda Gashonga Red Bourbon from the Ruzisi area west of Rwamda.

The Gashonga processing station, is located in a small cornet west of the countries, in the Rusizi province of lake Kivu. It is made up of 1592 member- producers who farm their coffee at an altitude of 1683 meters.

A look at Rwanda Gashonga

• Processing station: Gashonga
• Altitude: 1683 meters
• Area: West province, Lake Kivu
• Process method: Wet method
• Variety: Red Bourbon

Flavor

High intensity, dried plum, spice and black chocolate aromas, complicated acidity, rich body and pronounced sweetness.

Rwanda

Rwanda is a state with ideal conditions for the farming of high quality coffee as its climate is affected by high altitudes, regular rainfall, volcanic oil and a good organic soil composition that leads to an abundance of the Bourbon variety. The coffee is farmed in most of the country’s regions but mostly in the area around lake Kivu. The majority if Rwanda coffee farming is made up of small producers (over 500.000) who farm around one acre per family. Gashonga from where the coffee in question originates is located in a small corner west of the country close to Congo and Burundi.

Harvest

To begin harvesting the coffee cherries, they must reach an appropriate level of maturity, which relates to the correct concentration of sugars in the fruit. The level of maturity is tested with a brix refractometer. The harvest is done manually. The coffee is then gathered by the small producers and reaches the Gashonga processing station where it is mashed.

Process

This particular coffee is wet processed. The coffee reaches the processing station and there the mature beans are separated from the ones that are not ripe before they are led to the fermentation tanks where they are left for a period of 12 hours. When this process is completed the beans enter water canals where they are separated once more depending on maturity and they are cleaned of other sticky substances. The washed beans re-enter wet tanks were they remain submerged for 18 to 24 hours.

The beans are afterwards transferred to elevated drying beds where the selection of the quality beans is done by hand. The immature seeds are more obvious as they are still wet. The first drying process last around 6 hours before the beans are gathered and placed in thick mattresses for 14 to 20 days of the dry season (this season depends on weather and temperature). The dry coffee mattress is left for another month before the beans are led to a mill, where the bad beans are removed and the rest are packed in GrainPro to be exported.

Collectible bag of Rwanda Gashong

Rwanda Gashong is available in a collectible bag of 200g in coffee beans, so that you can enjoy the unique experience at home! The bag is triple coated with a release valve to better maintain the coffee fresh!