RWANDA Specialty Coffee - Nyamasheke - Washed

Rwandan Coffees
Like most African coffee-producing countries (with the exception of Ethiopia), Rwanda was planted with coffee by European colonial interests to supply the expanding market back home. High-yielding, low-cost varieties were introduced in the 1930s and mandated by Belgian colonists to farmers, offering little in the way of incentives or quality development: coffee was intended to be a cheap commodity available in abundance, and the colonial government had strict export mandates, in addition to imposing high taxes on producers, virtually enslaving them to the industry. About 75% of Rwanda's land mass is used for agriculture, and over 35% of its population are subsistence farmers, many of whom depend on coffee for at least part of their income.
While coffee became a staple agricultural export in the 1990s (despite very low market prices), its production, along with the national economy as a whole, was devastated by the genocide in 1994. Nearly a million people were killed in the national tragedy, which stagnated development and slowed progress for nearly a decade. Targeted programs initiated by the government in the early 2000s encouraged Rwandans to use specialty coffee as one means of recovery and creating a new agricultural market niche.
The construction of the first washing plant with support from USAID in 2004, and the country was the first to host a Cup of Excellence auction, bringing international recognition to the "Land of a Thousand Hills" as a potential producer of exceptional quality.
Today, this small country (about the size of Maryland) contributes less than 0.2% of the global coffee supply, but its reputation for premium quality and unique characteristics—not to mention the incredible story of its development as a specialty coffee origin since the genocide—has earned Rwanda a significant place at the table among African origins.

Rwanda Coffee Profile
Trips to the Lake Kivu region yielded phenomenal hauls, both from washing stations like Kabrizi and Kigeyo on the lake's eastern shores, and from Gishamwana Island, a seeming coffee paradise where the plants are grown, processed, and ground in an environment still untouched by the same pests and pests that accumulate on the mainland.
We are pleased, proud, and privileged to work with producers who are currently producing some of the cleanest, most dynamic, and high-quality coffees the country and its remarkable terroir have to offer.