The perfect coffee to cozy up with this winter, this natural red bourbon offers warming notes of plum, honey, and baked stone fruits. It comes from Gisheke Washing Station in Rwanda’s Nyamasheke District, overlooking the serene Lake Kivu. Around half of the cherries processed at Gisheke are delivered by boat from farmers living on the nearby islands – passing by herds of cows that swim between the islands to graze!
Gisheke Washing Station overlooks Lake Kivu, a large lake bordering Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Approximately 628 family farmers from Mushungwe island and two other nearby islands deliver coffee cherries to the station by boat. The cherries from Mushungwe island comprise approx. 40% of the cherries processed on the station. The station is located at 1650 MASL, but the coffee delivered to it comes from farms as high as 1850 MASL.
The station is run by Muharo Trading Company (which was set up by two brothers, Karthick and Gaudam Anbalagam) which purchased the station in 2017. At that time it was in a run-down state, so they gave it a major make-over in early 2018, turning it into an ideal station for processing high quality speciality coffee. The current manager of the station is Emmanuel Tuyizere, and it has three full time staff.
Gisheke’s location between two steep hills allows consistent wind flow through the station, which is perfect for drying natural process coffees, like this one. After being floated, to remove any defective cherries, the whole cherries are slow dried on raised mesh drying beds in the sun for approximately 40 days until they reach the desired moisture content.
This coffee landed in the UK in November 2024. We purchased this coffee from Raw Material, who work with Muharo Trading Company (MTC) to import coffee processed at their washing stations in three regions in Rwanda. A key objective of Raw Material is to develop a buying model that maximises the impact on Rwandan coffee producers - through higher payments, knowledge sharing and, through MTC, investing in the local community and community assets (such as distributing fertilisers, delivering seedling, and loans to assist families with the payment of school fees).
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