Horsham Coffee Roaster: Rwanda, Liza, Dry Fermentation, Washed

For every kilo of Rwandan coffee sold we will ensure a tree is planted in the Gishwati-Mukura forest in Rwanda. For more information visit our OneTreePlanted page.

We first visited Rwanda in 2014 and over the last few years we've developed some very close relationships within the Rwandan coffee community. We first visited Liza co-operative in 2017 and have been buying coffee from them every year.

Liza washing station is owned by Jean Paul, a coffee farmer himself who also works with around 500 other local farmers. The washing station traditionally focused on producing speciality washed coffees in lot sizes of 50 x 60kg bags. We still buy these larger lots as the cups scores are very good and they make up a large part of our blends. In addition to the large lots they also produce smaller bespoke experimental process coffees for us.

The Liza dry fermentation microlot is just 300kg in total and has been vacuum packed in 30kg boxes to ensure freshness. For this experiment we asked the producers to focus on hand sorting the cherry delivery to ensure as many defects were removed before using flotation to further remove any under-ripe cherry and contamination. This was then followed by pulping and a dry fermentation which took place for 24 hrs to break down the mucilage left on the coffee after pulping (the other commonly used method is a wet ferment with water). Dry fermentation exposes the coffee to more oxygen compared to the wet fermentation method. The difference in oxygen exposure during fermentation can make a significant difference to the final flavours. After this the coffee is washed to remove the mucilage and carefully sorted again by hand while drying. The results of this careful processed microlot are outstanding. We love the well balanced, clean and juicy fruit notes with excellent caramel like sweetness.

Brewing