Description
GROWER: 226 farmers organized around Nkara Coffee Washing Station | Dukunde Kawa Cooperative
VARIETY: Local bourbon cultivars
REGION: Gakenke District, Rwanda
ALTITUDE: 1800 – 2100 masl
PROCESS: Fully washed and dried on raised beds
CERTIFICATION: Rainforest Alliance
CUP NOTES: Earl Grey, Date, Indian Tonic
Dukunde Kawa is a well-known producer group in Rwanda, as much for exceptionally bright and memorable coffees as for its exceptional business structure: the cooperative carries multiple certifications for its various washing stations including Fair Trade, Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and
UTZ, and more than 80% of its workforce is women.
Because of the high elevation and local climate, harvest here progresses slowly and members annually pick coffee into the month of October, multiple months past the majority of the country. Processing at Nkara includes cherry sorting by the farmers themselves upon delivery, and then floated in a large receiving bay to identify and remove floaters (low-density cherry which is processed separately). Cherry is then depulped and the fresh parchment is graded immediately by flotation in a short channel. Fermentation usually lasts 18 hours and is completed without water. Once the dry fermentation is complete the parchment is soaked in fresh water between 18-24 hours to halt
fermentation and the stabilize moisture content of the batch. After the soak the parchment is washed once again, this time in grading channels—long shallow concrete channels with water flowing through—which allows the parchment to naturally separate by density. From here, each separate density grade is moved to pre-drying tables to be hand-sorted for imperfections and gently dried to the touch. After the hand-sort is complete, the parchment is then moved to fully-exposed drying tables to finish drying, a process that takes between 14-21 days depending on the climate.
