Cupping Coffee: Rwanda, Gaseke , Natural presented by Green Coffee Supply

Gaseke station’s position above the Nyakabuye Valley gives it optimal sun exposure, creating consistent and controlled drying conditions. This natural advantage, combined with the careful work of both farmers and the station’s employees and manager, creates a superb Natural coffee with all the flavor you expect of a high-quality Rwanda.

The route to Gaseke washing station follows the borders of Burundi and Congo in the southernmost corner of Western Rwanda. The station, built in 2016, enjoys incredible views of the Nyakabuye Valley below. While the elevation of Gaseke is slightly lower than many of the stations along the shores of Lake Kivu, Gaseke’s orientation offers it maximum sun exposure, a precious resource necessary for this method of drying cherry and parchment.

There are 396 farmers who work the land surrounding Gaseke and deliver cherry to the station. Of those farmers, nearly one-quarter are female and another one-quarter are youth.

Gaseke’s symbiotic relationship with another nearby station, Mashesha, allows the area’s coffee production to have its cake and eat it too. Since Mashesha sits at a lower elevation at the bottom of a hill it has focused on producing larger volumes and have fewer specialty lots. Gaseke, which has optimal sun exposure, focuses more on producing specialty lots and thus, produces smaller volumes.

The benefits from the collaboration of the two stations are twofold. For the farmers, Mashesha and Gaseke, with their different needs, represent two very different markets and enable farmers to sell a much larger portion of their cherry. For roasters, the two stations mean that coffee from this area will be both plentiful and high quality, which satisfies every need and price point. 

Cherry is handpicked by farmers and brought to Gaseke daily. Cherry is sorted to remove defects and then laid to dry on raised beds. The drying cherries are regularly sorted to remove any damaged cherry and sifted to ensure even drying. The station’s position gives it excellent sun exposure that enables consistent and controlled drying.

Today, smallholders propel the industry in Rwanda forward. The country doesn’t have any large estates. Most coffee is grown by the 400,000+ smallholders, who own less than a  quarter of a hectare. The majority of Rwanda’s coffee production is Arabica. Bourbon variety plants comprise 95% of all coffee trees cultivated in Rwanda.

Varietal: Bourbon
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1,486 meters above sea level
Producer: 396 growers working with RWACOF
Subregion: Rusizi, Western Province
Harvest Period: March – June
Coffee Grade: Scr.15

Blending Coffee A: Ethiopia, Haru Suke Yirgacheffe Grade 1, Washed.

Haru Suke is a washing station in the village of Haru, Yirgacheffe. The station is renowned for its excellence, having won the Ethiopia Taste of Harvest competition in 2018 and producing consistently high scoring lots. This is due to the management’s highly strict and uncompromising standards including but not limited to: extremely selective handpicking, extra hand sorting and grading, Brix measurement to inform harvest, and measurement of both moisture and water activity after drying.

Haru Suke sits at 1,991masl and processes cherries from 2,820 local smallholder farmers who typically cultivate Jarc sub-varieties 74110, 7412 and 74165 of traditional Ethiopian heirloom varieties on small garden plots around their homes.

Varietal– Various Heirloom varieties.
Processing– Fully Washed & SunDried on raised African beds.
Altitude– 1990- 2200 masl.
Producer– Various smallholder farmers selling to the Primrose Haru Suke Washing Station.
Region– Oromia, Ethiopia.
Harvest period– October- January.

Blending Coffee B: TANZANIA, Itumpi AB Grade,  Washed.

This AB fully washed top lot is sourced from Itumpi AMCOS (Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Society) in Mbozi district, Songwe region. The co-op was founded in the 1970s under the name ‘Umajaa’ but changed its name to Itumpi in 1994. Today the group has 160 registered members who deliver ripe cherry to a central washing station for processing, which opened in 2019 and has elevated the coffee quality significantly. Exports from nearly every coffee growing country in Africa are lower now than they were twenty years ago. The most notable exception is Ethiopia, where coffee exports have reached 3 million bags, nearly double the number in 1997. Less dramatic, but nevertheless unique for Africa, is the strong and steady growth in Tanzania. Taking the average number of bags exported annually 2007-2017—to account for crop fluctuations—Tanzania experienced an increase of 11 percent over the previous 10 years. That might not seem like much until you consider that only two other African countries have experienced growth by the same measure, Ethiopia (37%) and Uganda (1%). Tanzania broke the million bags exported ceiling for the first time in 2009 and did it again in 2013. This increase in exports has coincided with a near 600 percent increase in domestic coffee consumption over twenty years. The only coffee growing country to experience a more dramatic increase is Vietnam, where domestic coffee consumption has grown by 700 percent over the same period.

Varietal– KP423, N39, Compact
Processing– Fully Washed & Sun Dried on raised African beds.
Altitude– 1500- 1700 masl.
Producer– 160 smallholder farmers, The Itumpi Coop
Region– Mbozi, Songwe, Tanzania.
Harvest period– June- October