Climpson & Sons - Seasonal Espresso: Christmas Edition

Our goal with the seasonal espresso is to develop fantastic and innovative single origin roasts that work well with shorter milk drinks, but are talking points as espresso.

Fresh Crops, Fresh Ideas - We've been witness to some truly extraordinary coffees in the seasonal espresso the last few years; our continued emphasis on farm-to-roaster relationships ensures we see the best quality, seasonal coffees coming from the same farms ever year.

For the second year running we are excited to return to coffee from the Musasa Dukunde Kawa cooperative, this time featuring as our Christmas Edition.

Ruli was the cooperative's first washing station and helps in processing cherries from more than 2,000 small scale, local farmers. With most farmers owning less than a quarter of a hectare of land working as part of a cooperative allows for their harvest to be combined and processed centrally. As a result members of the Musasa Dukunde Kawa cooperative have moved away from the lower paying commodity focus and now receive improved prices for outstanding specialty grade lots.

The Ruli washing station is incredibly precise and takes great care in maintaining high quality processing standards. Cherries are hand-picked only when fully ripe and then pulped and graded the same day. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight and then graded again using flotation channels that sort the coffee by weight. The wet parchment is then soaked in water for between 18 and 24 hours to stabilise moisture content. Washed beans are moved from the wet fermentation tanks onto the pre-drying tables, where they are intensively sorted under shade for around six hours. Next, the beans are moved onto drying tables for around 14 days, where they are sorted again for defects, turned regularly and protected from rain and the midday sun. After reaching 11% humidity, the coffee is then stored in parchment in Ruli’s purpose-built warehouse prior to final dry-milling and hand-sorting at the cooperative’s brand new dry mill in Kigali.

Each coffee that arrives is also cupped by Musasa’s team of expert cuppers along with the Q-graders of their exporting partner, Rwashocco. Lots are usually separated out by days. Upon delivery as cherry, the coffee receives a paper ‘ticket’ that follows the lot through all its processing. This ticket bears the date of harvest and the grade of the coffee – a lot labelled ‘Lot 1-06/04 -A1’, indicates this was the first lot processed on April 4 and of grade A1. This simple but effective practice is a crucial tool in controlling quality and ensuring the traceability of lots. In addition to the great work that the cooperative does with quality improvement and assurance, they also have various social programs that greatly contribute to the livelihoods of their members. School fees and medical insurance are provided along with training in quality and productivity in cultivation of coffee.