MUSAZA LOT 18

Suitable As: Espresso & Filter Brewing
Best As: Espresso (Black / Milk) or Filter (Black)

Flavour Description: Complex, Grapefruit, Honey, Tropical Fruit, Boozy Berries

Producer: Rwamatamu
Country: Rwanda
Region: Kibuye
Variety: Red Bourbon
Importer: Omwani
Processing Method: Anaerobic Natural

ABOUT THIS COFFEE

Founded in 2015, Rwamatamu Coffee is a family-owned and operated business that aims to combat poverty by generating employment opportunities within the local community.

The estate spans 20 hectares of coffee farmland, where it grows its own crops and sources cherries from affiliated co-operatives, local producers, and smallholder farmers. After being meticulously processed, sun-dried, sorted, and packaged, these cherries are exported as a premium product.

Rwamatamu’s coffee farm and washing station are located in the Western province of Rwanda, where the landscape consists of picturesque rolling hills flanked around Lake Kivu in Nyamasheke District.

This region provides a tropical highland climate with an average temperature of 14 to 24 c and regular rainfall. This makes arabica coffee to flourish and result in a dense, hard bean with superior coffee flavour.

The farm is positioned on 1600 up to 2000 meters altitude, on a rich volcanoes soil. The harvest season is January to March.

Coffee from Rwamatamu is sun dried and handpicked to a high standard. Currently they are in the process of gaining their organic and fair-trade certifications. They work to have a positive social and economic impact on farmer communities, focusing on women in particular.

Husband and wife duo, Rutaganda Gaston and Mukantwaza Laetitia, established Rwamatamu Coffee to support their family. Throughout their children's upbringing, they were actively involved in the estate's operations. Daughter Marie Bernice was especially engaged in tasks like facilitating negotiations, creating educational materials, and managing marketing documents.

Rwamatamu work together with cooperatives of coffee farmers who live in the area. 80% of their employees are women. Their goal is to build healthy relationships with the community based on common values and goals. This is done by committing to a regular purchase of beans and investing in the growth of employees. They also commit to a set standard of quality each year.

As of 2023, Bernice and her husband Luke have continued building on the already strong foundations of Rwamatamu, taking over the operations of the estate as her parents retired. This is the fourth harvest in a row that we have worked with Bernice & Luke, and it's a joy to have these coffees on our offer list once again!

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RWAMATAMU

Rwamatamu’s coffees are really special ones for us to release.
Firstly, they always seem to up their game year on year, with brighter, fruitier and more floral coffees than the previous years, with improved irrigation, sorting, screen separating and other farm practices.

But secondly, because they’re astoundingly great people.
Bernice and Luke use to live very close to us in York, which is how we first met. Over the course of several months, we developed a great friendship which would lead to us hanging out on a regular basis; going to the local climbing gym, meeting for coffees, house parties, surprise visits to the roastery etc. In spite of their busy schedule, they always made time for us.

It was a bittersweet moment when Bernice and Luke moved back to Rwanda to take over the farm-level operations from Bernice’s parents (Laetitia and Gaston). But on the bright side, it has given us a very good excuse to travel out to Rwanda!

We’re in regular cahoots with Bernice and the Rwamatamu team, and always get very excited when it’s time to taste - and that time is now.

This particular coffee has undergone an anaerobic processing method. The way this works is that you take coffee cherries and place them into a sealed, sterile tub with a one way valve. As the fermentation begins to take place, carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct. Because CO2 is denser than Oxygen, the Oxygen is displaced from the tub via the one way valve. Once all of the oxygen has been displaced, the environment becomes anaerobic. This type of fermentation is usually done for 48-72 hours, after which time, the cherries are evacuated and dried on raised beds.