AMAHORO - Peace

Location: Nyaruguru district, Southern Province
Altitude range of farms: 1550 m to 1850 m
Altitude of the washing station: 1550 m
Varieties: Red Bourbon
Average yearly rainfall: 1377 mm
Average temperature: 17,9 °C
Process: Fully washed. The farmers pick their ripest cherries and bring them to the washing station. They are sorted (removing the green and overripe ones alongside any foreign matter) and floated in water tanks so that we can remove the floaters (of less density and therefore quality). The selected cherries are taken to a cherry hopper before pulping with a McKinnon machine using fresh or recycled water. The beans then undergo a dry fermentation stage for 8 to 10 hours. There is a partial washing and removal of mucilage and then another fermentation in water for 8 to 10 hours. The beans are then rinsed in water channels and taken to a pre-drying shed where we start a gentle drying process whilst the wet parchment is sorted. We finish the drying process on African raised beds with constant turning and sorting to remove defects. There is a final sorting stage after dry milling to prepare the coffee to export.
Cup profile: Floral, chocolate, citrus. Medium tartaric acidity and medium body

The land of a thousand hills
Rwanda is known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills" and this coffee comes from a single hill in the region. I name it Amahoro, which means Peace, to represent the peaceful lives the Rwandese people decided to have and the spirit they want to cultivate since the horrors that happened in the 1990s. I also like to separate coffee lots by hill because the different microclimates always yield different cup profiles. I also do this to increase the traceability of each lot, to make it easier for me to identify problems and to encourage healthy competition among farmers. If the ones from one hill know that the ones from another hill received better second payments because of the quality of the cherries then they will put extra care into picking the following season.

The increased traceability has yet another benefit. Sometimes roasters want to support the communities behind the coffee they bought. Knowing exactly where it comes from helps me direct them towards the projects that will help that community. They can also meet the community when they visit and see the hill where the coffee was grown.

[The land of a thousand hills]