Horsham Coffee Roaster: Rwanda, Liza washing station, Natural

This is one of our Relationship Coffees.

We first visited Rwanda in 2014 and over the last few years we've developed some very close relationships within the Rwandan coffee community. In 2018 we visited Liza washing station for the first time after discovering their coffee during the 2017 harvest cupping.

The washing station is owned by Jean Paul (far left in the above picture). He is a second generation coffee farmer who has worked for many years as an agronomy consultant both in Rwanda and the Congo. His farm has about 6000 trees and he processes coffee from his own farm and from several hundred local small hold farmers within the community. The quality he produces is outstanding and this is due to his dedication and commitment to training local farmers and focusing on very careful hand sorting at the washing station. Jean Paul produces a variety of different microlots specifically for us, these include washed coffees and bespoke experimental process coffees.

We are committed to supporting them with an open and transparent working relationship and ensuring that they are paid a fair price. This fixed price model ensures that farmers are paid a fair price year on year for the great quality coffee that they produce. This is usually between 1.5 and 2 times the fairtrade price depending on the specific microlot.

Coffee is hand harvested by small hold farmer members and then sorted carefully to remove defects before it is laid to dry on raised tables. These raised tables ensure even drying of the coffee to avoid mold growth. The layer of coffee is usually no more than 1 inch thick and is moved regularly to make sure that the coffee dries evenly. During the early stage of drying the coffee can be hand sorted to ensure defects are removed.We are very happy with the results this year and this coffee is well rounded and juicy with a thick, syrupy body. We get notes of red grape, cherry and raisin. There is still a nice bright juicy orange note that is very typical in Rwandan coffees.