Bwenda, Kibumbwe, Nyamagabe, Southern Province Rwanda

Flavour contribution: Sticky dates, kola nut, butterscotch, candied orange peel, jammy berries, winey acidity.

Passing through Nyungwe forest and past lots of cultivated eucalyptus we first met with Bernard Uwitije at Gitega Hills in Nyamagabe. He has been working with Rwanda Trading Company since 2016. In 2018 he established a new station in Kibumbwe called Bwenda, to serve the 850 contributing smallholders in this area. Typically, the farmers here grow coffee alongside cassava, sorghum, beans, potatoes and bananas. There are 15 collection points for the farmers to deliver harvested cherries to before they are collated and taken to the wet mill for batch processing. After hand sorting, floating and depulping with a Penagos eco-pulper, around 30% fruit mucilage is left on the coffee’s parchment layer. This is broken down during an 8 hour fermentation stage before being fully washed, soaked and ultimately sun-dried on raised beds for around 15 days.

Bernard grew up in Maraba, now an internationally famed coffee producing region. Understanding the challenges involved in coffee production there is an emphasis on supporting the contributing smallhold coffee farmers. Bernard is supporting his community by paying for a health insurance scheme and school fees for the producers’ children. They also host agricultural training seminars to improve yield and quality from the coffee trees, and operate a small demo farm. Every season they are donating coffee tree seedlings for the farmers to renovate and increase their coffee production and therefore their potential income. 

La Magdalena, Pitalito, Huila, Colombia

Flavour contribution: Caramelised sugars, panela, marzipan, cooked apples, syrupy body, vanilla
aftertaste.

Featuring across our single orign range and in the perennial El Nevado, coffee from La Magdalena features top scoring producers in and around Pitalito
in Colombia’s Huila region. New drops of coffee from La Magdalena always excites us in the roaster, as they are delicious, versatile and a pleasure to roast.

Fertile soils with volcanic ash deposits coupled with the high altitudes, quality varieties and agronomical training and support from Caravela all lead
to a group of coffee growers who are reliably producing clean, sweet lots that we feel make for very juicy, complex espresso. This espresso combines Caturra and Castillo cultivars, which are hand harvested, traditionally depulped and fermented before being fully washed. Each farmer may practice variations on fermentation, size of batches and for different periods, so we can’t be hugely specific with any fermentation details here. Some of them then use raised beds in a polytunnel to dry their coffee, whilst others use their rooftop patios which can be shaded from the sun or sheltered from the rain by sliding a corrugated iron cover over the drying coffee.

Salkantay Reserve, Huadquiña, La Convención, Cusco, Peru

Flavour contribution: Nougat, candy floss, ripe plum, raisin cookies, cinnamon and milk chocolate.

On the cupping table when we first tasted lots from the agricultural co-operative group called Huadquiña they all impressed us with great structure, sweetness and clarity of flavour. This particular coffee from the Salkantay community was earmarked by the quality team on the ground as a top-scoring out-turn, and is the result of a combined effort from 8 small-scale coffee producing families with farms of only around 1-2 hectares in size. Mixed cultivars of Typica and Bourbon are grown up to altitudes of 2,000 metres amidst a wealth of biodiversity. The growers working with the Huadquiña co-operative are working organically and harvesting is all done via Mingas (communal work reciprocated amongst neighbours). Coffee trees are tended to organically, with each producer applying homemade compost and manually clearing away weeds. The farms themselves are located in the La Convención province, ranging from around 1,800 to 2,000 metres. After harvesting the coffees are manually depulped before being traditionally fermented in water for up to 20hrs, fully washed and dried on raised beds for between 10 and 20 days.