African Coffees
We currently have one awesome African single-origin coffee.
Rwandan 'Mbilima' has flavor notes of coffee blossom, nectarine, and green tea - with a juicy and syrupy body.
This coffee comes from the Dukunde Kawa cooperative, a respected producer group in Rwanda. The co-op is certified by Fair Trade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, and more, and over 80% of its workforce is women. Their farms and washing stations are in the Northern Province, where specialty coffee is less common than in the west and south. Dukunde Kawa started in 2000 with just one wet mill, before most washing stations even existed in Rwanda. Since then, they’ve won sustainability awards from the Specialty Coffee Association and placed high in Rwanda’s Cup of Excellence. Today, the co-op has over 2,000 farmer members and four washing stations - Mbilima is one of them.
Dukunde Kawa opened the Mbilima washing station in 2005 to make it easier for farmers to deliver coffee cherries during harvest. The next closest station was so far away that the long trip hurt coffee quality. Mbilima and its farmers earned organic certification in 2015. The station sits at 2020 meters, making it one of the highest in Rwanda, and benefits from mineral-rich volcanic soil and lush surroundings. Because of the high elevation and local climate, harvest here progresses slowly and lasts into October, multiple months past the majority of the country.
In the late 2000’s, one of East Africa’s most successful coffee interventions, P.E.A.R.L. (Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda Through Linkages), helped Rwandan coffee grow throughout the international market. P.E.A.R.L. was a sweeping infrastructure and education investment targeting large regions of Rwanda whose coffee was for the most part processed at home and exported with little traceability. The program was designed and led by the University of Michigan, Texas A&M, and a host of Rwandan organizations. They built washing stations and organized remote smallholders into cooperative businesses capable of specialty partnerships. They revitalized legacy bourbon coffee varietals. The snappy acidity, stone fruit flavors, and fragrant herbaceousness found in Rwanda’s coffee is still completely unique to bourbon produced anywhere else in the world.
AROMA: coffee blossom, maple syrup
FLAVOR: nectarine, tangerine
BODY: juicy, syrupy
FINISH: green tea, brown sugar
REGION: akanduga, gakenke
VARIETY: local bourbon cultivars
PROCESS: washed, then sun-dried
PRODUCER: dukunde kawa co-op
ALTITUDE: 1500 – 2100 meters above sea level
CERTIFICATION: organic
You can also try our blends that have african components:
This is a refined blend of washed coffees from Africa and Latin America. Pompadour is best appreciated black or with just a touch of milk, and is fantastic as straight espresso, in a cappuccino, prepared as drip coffee, or by any other method you might choose.
AROMA: maple, honeysuckle
FLAVOR: sugar browning, raspberry
BODY: soft, silky
FINISH: orange zest, macadamia
REGION: ethiopian 'kayon mountain', mexican ‘ki-saya’, and colombian ‘tolima’
PROCESS: washed, then sun-dried
CERTIFICATION: organic
This blend is designed to create a complex balance of coffees from the world's four largest coffee producing regions. Originally designed to be pulled as espresso, this blend holds up well to some milk, as when used in a latte. That having been said, this coffee has become a crowd-pleasing favorite and is also enjoyed by many who brew it by all other brew methods.
AROMA: vanilla, honey, cinnamon
FLAVOR: chocolate, hazelnut, winey fruit
BODY: rich (typical of dry-processed coffees)
FINISH: spice, lingering cacao
REGION: brazilian ‘sete marias', ethiopian 'kayon mountain', mexican ‘ki-saya’, and balinese ‘kintamani’
PROCESS: natural, washed, wet-hulled
CERTIFICATION: organic
'Mokha Java' was the first blend ever created. Coffee originated in Arabia and was first sold through the port of 'Mokha' (Al Mukha) in Yemen; the 'Mokha' in this blend is a naturally-processed Ethiopian coffee, adding notes of fruit and cocoa. Coffee was then cultivated in Indonesia and shipped out through the island of 'Java' (Jawa); the 'Java' in this blend is a wet-hulled Balinese coffee, which gives deeper tones of earth and spice. The result is a marriage between the brightness of Africa and the depth of Indonesia - in the cup it is a very dynamic, yet balanced, coffee.
AROMA: cherry cordial, clove
FLAVOR: red wine, dark chocolate
BODY: plush, silky
FINISH: tobacco, nutmeg
REGION: ethiopian 'kayon mountain’ and balinese ‘kintamani’
PROCESS: natural, wet-hulled
CERTIFICATION: organic