This 100% Red Bourbon lot was produced using coffee cherry from 41 smallholder farmers who deliver to Cyarumbo washing station. The washing station is located in the Huye Sector of Huye District, in Rwanda’s Southern Province. It is owned and operated by the Abahuzamugambi Ba Kawa Maraba Cooperative (known as ‘Maraba’), who own three other washing stations in the district.
Ancila Mukarusine is a coffee farmer and member of Maraba Cooperative and one of the many seasonal workers at Cyarumbo – Rwanda’s first specialty-focused washing station!
This is a peaberry lot, which refers to the size and shape of the beans. Normally coffee seeds develop as a pair with flattened facing sides, but sometimes just one seed develops and forms an oval shape to occupy the entire space within the coffee cherry. This is called a peaberry and these small and round coffee beans are carefully selected and separated out from the rest of the crop during the milling stages.
These are little beans with a big flavour! We purchased our first micro-lot of Rwandan peaberries in 2017 and have been consistently impressed with these lots ever since.
ABOUT CYARUMBO WASHING STATION
Founded in 2001, Maraba Cyarumbo was Rwanda’s first specialty-focused washing station established by a cooperative. Prior to Cyarumbo being built, most Rwandan farmers produced sun-dried natural coffees, or washed coffees that were pulped by hand using stones — with very few protocols for quality control. Transparency along the supply chain was non-existent, and farmers had no access to the international market or fair prices for their crop. Set up as a model operation, workers at Cyarumbo were key in showcasing the best practices needed to maximise quality potential to the country’s ailing coffee industry. To say they were successful at this is an understatement, as Rwanda has gone to open over 300 washing stations since then!
Cyarumbo is located in the Huye District of Rwanda’s Southern Province and sits at an elevation of 1,680 meters above sea level. The washing station services 568 members of the cooperative, who grow coffee locally – some with farms as high as 2,200 meters above sea level. The area has ideal growing conditions for high-quality coffee, with high elevations, good rainfall and steady temperatures year-round. Day to day operations are overseen by the station manager, Aphrodice Twagirayesu, while Christine Ilibagiza serves as head of QC. A total of five permanent staff and 115 seasonal workers are employed by the washing station – most of whom are women.
