The characteristics of Rwandan coffee

Since the 1920s, Arabica coffee grown in Rwanda has been famous for its unique fruit sweetness and rich grass aroma. In recent years, the Rwandan government has taken positive measures to vigorously promote coffee production, set up coffee production cooperatives in various places, and give technical guidance and financial support to farmers, so that coffee production has made considerable progress.

Coffee producing areas in Rwanda:

There are about 33000 hectares of coffee plantations in Rwanda, with 500000 people engaged in the coffee industry. With the good natural conditions of high altitude and fertile volcanic soil, the country's fertile soil and suitable climate contribute to plant growth, and coffee trees seem to be driven or forced to grow upward, or because they grow too fast to produce the best coffee beans. The beautiful country of thousands of hills Rwanda has a long and rich culture for growing highland coffee, mainly high-quality Arabica coffee. Rwanda is the only country in the world that can fully enjoy the harmony between soil, altitude and climate. In this unique growing environment, high-quality coffee from Rwanda has a distinctive taste and aroma. Bourbon coffee grown in Rwanda is one of the original varieties of Arabica coffee.

Features of Rwandan Coffee:

The taste of Rwandan coffee is described as "grass aroma" with tropical climate characteristics. In addition to the sweetness of fruit, this coffee also gives people a feeling of freshness, clearness and freshness. Bourbon coffee grown in Rwanda is amazing for its sweet fruit, full-bodied, unrestrained and lingering aftertaste. This coffee has a delicious, citrus sweetness and a deep chocolate color.

Flavor: soft, fragrant, full of particles

Suggested baking method: deep baking

The market for Rwandan coffee:

Rwanda coffee is absolutely high quality in the form of washed Arabica beans. As far as Africa is concerned, its coffee industry is remarkable because the country thrives mainly by producing the best possible coffee beans. Coffee from Rwanda is becoming more and more popular in the international market.

The mission of the Rwanda Coffee Association is to manage and supervise the operation of the coffee industry in Rwanda from production to sale. The recently revised mission focuses on policy formulation and implementation, with more emphasis on the need to improve the professionalism of the coffee industry and to increase marketing efforts. Since the establishment of the Rwanda Coffee Association, it has promoted the Rwandan coffee culture and promoted the influence of Rwandan coffee.

But in any case, the soft and full-bodied taste of the country's coffee is great.

Rwanda washed bourbon coffee

Rwanda is known as the "country of a thousand hills". It is full of mountains and plateaus, and most areas are tropical plateau climate and savanna climate, which is mild and cool. There are about 33000 hectares of coffee plantations and 500000 people are engaged in the coffee industry. With the good natural conditions of high altitude and fertile volcanic soil, the country's fertile soil and suitable climate contribute to plant growth, and coffee trees seem to be driven or forced to grow upward, or because they grow too fast to produce the best coffee beans. The beautiful country of thousands of hills Rwanda has a long and rich culture for growing highland coffee, mainly high-quality Arabica coffee. Rwanda is the only country in the world that can fully enjoy the harmony between soil, altitude and climate. In this unique growing environment, high-quality coffee from Rwanda has a distinctive taste and aroma.

Bourbon coffee grown in Rwanda is one of the original varieties of Arabica coffee. In the annual professional competition of top coffee held by SCAA of the American Fine Coffee Association in 2008, Rwanda Aromec of Rwanda beat No.1 of Jamaica Blue Mountain and Mantenin G1 of Sumatra, and won the 2008 champion COE (Cup of Excellence) prize. We can see the taste of Rwanda's washed bourbon coffee.

The taste of Rwandan coffee is described as "grass aroma" with tropical climate characteristics. In addition to the sweetness of fruit, this coffee also gives people a feeling of freshness, clearness and freshness. Bourbon coffee grown in Rwanda is amazing for its sweet fruit, full-bodied, unrestrained and lingering aftertaste. This coffee has a delicious, citrus sweetness and a deep chocolate color, and Rwanda bourbon is known as "coffee that captures and condenses the whole of Africa in a cup."

Rwanda (Rwanda) coffee with its high-quality washed Arabica coffee beans, eye-catching, in the international market is becoming more and more popular. According to Karuritwa, marketing and promotion officer of the Rwandan Coffee Association, Rwanda plans to export 3000 tons of coffee this year, further increasing coffee production to meet the increasing market demand. Starbucks, the world's largest coffee and beverage retailer, has also partnered with the Rwandan government to import Rwanda coffee, just as a brown pigeon flies from its cup against the line "Cup of Hope". Indeed, coffee places the hopes of the people of Rwanda. They hope to increase coffee exports to promote the country's economic development, and they also hope that the two major tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsi, who once killed each other, will work together to grow coffee, eliminate gratitude and hatred, and jointly build a better tomorrow.

Rwanda Malaba Coffee

Malaba Coffee (Rwandan: Ikawa ya Maraba, French: cafe de Maraba) is Fairtrade certified coffee, grown in the Malaba area of southern Rwanda. Malaba's coffee crop is a bourbon of the Arabica species and is grown in fertile volcanic soil on high-altitude hills. The fruit of the coffee tree is mainly picked manually during the rainy season from March to May, and then transported to the cleaning station in Malaba to extract and dry the coffee beans. Malaba coffee is also used to brew beer. In 1999, the Abauzam Gambi Cooperative (Abahuzamugambi) was founded, with about 2, 000 small farmers growing coffee trees under the management of the cooperative.

Malaba Coffee (Rwandan: Ikawa ya Maraba, French: cafe de Maraba) is Fairtrade certified coffee, grown in the Malaba area of southern Rwanda.

Malaba's coffee crop is a bourbon of the Arabica species and is grown in fertile volcanic soil on high-altitude hills. The fruit of the coffee tree is mainly picked manually during the rainy season from March to May, and then transported to the cleaning station in Malaba to extract and dry the coffee beans. At some of these stages, coffee beans are divided into levels of quality. Farmers earn relative profits according to the output and quality of their coffee beans.

Malaba Coffee is sold to a number of roasting companies, among which the best quality is sold to the British Coffee roasting Company (Union Coffee Roasters) in the UK and the Public Coffee Company (Community Coffee) in the United States. As for the domestic market, the Rwandan specialty coffee roasting company buys coffee beans from Malaba and then turns to domestic sales. Malaba coffee is also used to brew beer.

In 1999, the Abauzam Gambi Cooperative (Abahuzamugambi) was founded, with about 2, 000 small farmers growing coffee trees under the management of the cooperative. Since 2000, the cooperative has been receiving funding from the National University of Rwanda (NUR) and the Joint strengthening Rwanda Agricultural Partnership Program (PEARL). The Abauzam Gambi Cooperative has improved the quality of coffee and successfully entered the professional coffee market.

Historical origin

Rwandans have been growing coffee since colonial times, but until 1999, its products were still classified as below Class C and were not popular in the global market. The reason for the poor quality is that farmers do not have a fixed procedure for washing coffee beans and do not process coffee fruits according to specifications in time. Buyers buy coffee beans at $0.33 per kilogram, and farmers maintain food and clothing on meagre profits earned at low prices, but they are still in a state of poverty.

In 1999, 220 coffee growers formed guilds in the Malaba area (formerly part of Butare province) to address the disease. Among the guild members, many farmers were separated from their loved ones by the 1994 mass massacre, while some husbands were jailed or were taken to the traditional Gacaca Court (gacaca) to face trial on charges of participating in the massacre. They named the guild "Abau Zam Gambi" (Abahuzamugambi), which means "people who work together to achieve their goals" in Rwandan. Farmers hope that by setting up this association, they will be able to work directly with Geely's exporters instead of peeling layers of skin through intermediary transportation companies, so as to increase profits. Farmers distribute their profits and spend them on tools, fertilizers and seeds to increase production.

In 2000, the Mayor of Malaba requested development assistance from the National University of Rwanda (UNR), which is located near the city of Butare, and the following year, the National University of Rwanda assisted in the establishment of the Joint strengthening Rwanda Agricultural Partnership (PEARL). The PEARL project is also supported by several organizations: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Michigan State University, Texas A & M University, and many other Rwandan organizations, including the National University of Rwanda, the National Agricultural Laboratory (ISAR) and the Gejali Institute of Technology Management (KIST). In February 2001, PEARL began working with Abauzam Gamby to improve the quality of coffee to meet the standards of the professional coffee market in the United States, and then sell the coffee to the United States.

The first problem for Malaba coffee farmers is to set up a cleaning station. The coffee fruit must be transported to the cleaning station to wash the sugar under the skin of the coffee bean within 12 hours after picking, otherwise the flavor of the coffee will be greatly damaged. In July 2001, with funding from UNR, the Ministry of Culture and Industry of Rwanda (Office des Cultures Industrielles du Rwanda,OCIR-Caf é), ACDI/VOCA and ISAR, they set up the first cleaning station near the main road in the Cyarumbo district. However, the cleaning station was not opened until the harvest time, so only 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of the harvest were washed that year. However, the result was surprisingly good. In 2002, the cleaning station was upgraded to supply more coffee processing. ACDI/VOCA is responsible for funding the construction of pipelines to bring in Mount Huye mineral water and help improve the efficiency of cleaning stations. The pipeline was opened in March 2002.

During the 2002 harvest season, Rwanda introduced a new certification system to ensure that coffee beans shipped to cleaning stations are of proper quality. About half of Abauzam Gambi's members are certified, and cooperatives are able to find buyers in professional markets in Europe and North America.

Be recognized by the world

PEARL brought coffee experts to Rwanda to maintain contact with the seller, the Public Coffee Company (Community Coffee) in Louisy, USA, and to send samples to Louisiana. In June 2002, representatives of public coffee visited Malaba. At that time, the current President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, declared the importance of the plan on behalf of the government. Public Coffee bought 18000 kilograms (40000 pounds) of Malaba beans at $3 per kilogram above the average market price. Coffee beans are shipped to Louisiana, where they are roasted locally and used in the company's delicate coffee. It is also the first direct contract between an American roaster and an African coffee cooperative.

Comic relief, a British charity, has also taken an interest in Malaba. They pledged to use some of the 55 million pounds earned from their 2001 Red nose Day (Red Nose Day) in Britain and Africa to donate to the Genocide Widows Association (Association des Veuves du Genocide,AVEGA, an association set up for the widows of the 1994 Rwandan massacre.) Charities have found that many Malaba farmers are also members of AVEGA, so they can provide money and assistance to Malaba farmers through AVEGA. They then contacted the British coffee roasting company (Union Coffee Roasters) and their representatives visited Malaba together with senior officials of the International Fair Trade labelling Organization (FLO) in 2002. After a group of people visited various places, they awarded proof that Malaba coffee had also become a commodity for the first time for Rwandan cooperatives to gain fair trade status. UCR described Malaba Coffee as "flashing citrus flavors with rich, sweet chocolate notes" and bought all the unsold products during the 2002 harvest.

In early 2003, UCR distributed Malaba coffee through the Sainsbury's supermarket in Sainsbury and sold it in its 350 stores until Red nose Day that year. In 2003, Abauzam Gump made a net profit of US $35000. Of this, 70 per cent is allocated to farmers at a price of US $0.75 per kilogram, more than three times the profits earned by other Rwandan coffee growers and enough to cover previously unaffordable health care and education services. The remaining 30% is invested in cooperatives and used to buy calcium carbonate, an agricultural lime that can reduce the increase in acidity of the soil due to the loss of minerals by rainfall.

Coffee and beer

Since 2003, when PEARL thought that the mode of operation was self-sufficient, it gradually reduced the financial support of the Abauzam Gambi cooperative. Cooperatives provide grower loans to help improve their living standards and can invest in livestock, health insurance and education. A cooperative bank opened in the village in March, allowing farmers to maintain and manage their deposits locally without having to trek to the city of Butare.

People revolved around the computers in the new telecom center in late 2004, when the London simultaneous Brewery (Meantime Brewery) began to offer coffee beer made from coffee beans produced by Malaba. The drink is identified as an alcoholic chilled cappuccino or digestif. After tasting coffee from all over the world, the chief brewer decided to add a small amount of vanilla and chocolate to Malaba coffee, which tastes better than nutty coffee and bitter coffee from South America. The original beer had an alcohol content of 4%, the same caffeine content as coffee and was described as "silky and mellow". Coffee and beer are sold in large branches in Sainsbury and in some bars and clubs. The drink is one of the only two Fairtrade-recognised beers in the UK market, and it was not until 2006 that it lost its Fairtrade status by reducing coffee rates and increasing alcohol content (now 6 per cent). Coffee beer is still made from Malaba coffee beans and is the only coffee beer recognized in the British Isles and won the gold medal in the world beer cup coffee flavor beer category in 2006.

In 2006, the Swedish Minister of Development and Cooperation and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karin Jemtin (Carin Jamtin), visited Malaba to expand cooperation between Sweden and Rwanda and to promote Malaba coffee to the Swedish professional market. In July 2006, a remote center (telecentre) opened in Malaba under the coordination of PEARL, USAID, NUR and Washington State University (WSU). Among them, the Digital Gap reduction Center (Center to Bridge the Digital Divide,CBDD) provides funds and resources. Three WSU students stayed in Rwanda for six weeks to help set up the centre and train local staff. The center is now run by local staff.

Production process

The biggest harvest season for Rwandan coffee is during the main rainy season, from March to the end of May. During the harvest season, farmers spend most of their day picking coffee fruits by hand. In the afternoon, farmers carry coffee fruits in traditional baskets made of banana leaves to a cleaning station a few hours away. The mechanic picks out the best quality crimson coffee fruit by hand and returns the remaining coffee fruit to the farmers and sells it at a low price in the market outside the Malabaga work area. The mechanic pays the farmer $0.10 per kilogram. The guild deposits the remuneration into the farmer's bank account every two weeks.

The sink technician in the process will clean the coffee immediately because the delay will ferment the sugary outer layer of the coffee beans, ruining the taste of the coffee. The coffee beans are first thrown into a deep trough, and the best quality coffee fruit goes into the bottom and passes through a machine that peels off its skin. The mechanic takes out the floating coffee fruit, processes it in the same way and allows the cooperative to sell it at a lower price in the domestic market. Coffee beans through three cooperative peeling and selection machines, remove the skin and sugary outer layer, and then let the coffee beans individually through the vibrating filter. The filter separates the highest quality A beans from those classified as Class B; the two grades are transported to the hills with a 1% slope of the waterway. In the process of transportation, coffee beans of all qualities are further classified, and there are about 15 sinks at the bottom of the channel that can capture different kinds of coffee beans. Coffee beans are preserved continuously in water. Grade A beans and grade B beans stay for two days and 15-20 hours respectively to slightly ferment and convert the remaining sugar without serious damage to the taste.

After the washed coffee beans are air-dried on the net rack, after washing the coffee beans many times to completely remove the remaining skin and sugary outer layer, the coffee beans are put into the sheltered rack to air-dry. Cooperative staff regularly flip coffee beans, while technicians continue to look for and pick out poor quality coffee beans. The two-week drying process takes place in the sun (prepare the mulch in case of rain) and keep turning the coffee beans. This step reduces the water content of coffee beans from 40% to 12%.

Then the mechanic transported the coffee beans to the technology center near Chez. Some machines installed in warehouses on the hills remove the cutin from coffee beans. The staff sent the coffee beans to nearby research institutes for final quality control-manual sorting, which was carried out by several experienced women. After bagging and labeling according to its quality, the coffee beans can be stored in the warehouse waiting for market.

Nouns related to Malaba coffee

Flavor [Flavor]: the overall impression of aroma, acidity, and mellowness. Acidity [Acidity]: the strong acidity of all coffee grown on the plateau. The sour here is different from bitterness and Sour, and has nothing to do with pH value. It refers to a fresh and lively quality that promotes coffee to exert its functions of invigorating the mind and clearing the taste. The acidity of coffee is not the acidity or sour smell of acidity or alkalinity, nor is it an uncomfortable acid that enters the stomach. When making coffee, the performance of acidity is very important. under good conditions and skills, a special taste with fresh acidity can be developed, which is a necessary condition for high-grade coffee. The sour taste of coffee describes a lively, bright flavor, which is somewhat similar to that used in wine tasting. If the coffee bean lacks acidity, it is equal to lose vitality, taste empty and boring, without layer depth. Acidity has many different characteristics, such as coffee beans from Yemen and Kenya, which have an impressive fruity aroma and a red wine-like texture. Mellow [Body]: the taste of the tongue after drinking coffee. The change of mellowness can be divided into light to light, medium, high, fat, and even Indonesian coffee is as thick as syrup. Odor [Aroma]: the smell and aroma emitted after the coffee has been prepared. The words used to describe smell include caramel, carbon roast, chocolate, fruit, grass, malt, and so on. Bitterness [Bitter]: bitterness is a basic sense of taste, and the sensory area is distributed in the base of the tongue. The bitterness of deep baking is deliberately created, but the common cause of bitterness is too much coffee powder and too little water. Light [Bland]: coffee grown in lowlands, usually quite light and tasteless. Coffee with insufficient coffee powder and too much water will have the same light effect. Salty [Briny]: after brewing, if the coffee is overheated, it will produce a salty taste. The aroma of soil [Earthy]: commonly used to describe spicy and earthy Indonesian coffee, not the smell of dirt on coffee beans. Uniqueness [Exotic]: describes coffee with its unique aroma and special flavor, such as flowers, fruits, and spices. Coffee from East Africa and Indonesia usually has this property. Aromatic alcohol [Mellow]: used to describe coffee with good acidity balance. Mild [Mild]: used to describe a coffee with a harmonious, delicate flavor, used to refer to all plateau coffee except Brazil. Soft [Soft]: describes low acidity coffee such as Indonesian coffee, and also describes it as mellow or sweet. Sour [Sour]: a sense of taste in which the sensory area is mainly located at the back of the tongue and is characteristic of light roasted coffee. Spice [Spicy]: a flavor or smell reminiscent of a particular spice. Strong [Strong]: technically, it describes the advantages and disadvantages of various tastes, or the relative ratio of coffee to water in a particular conditioned product. In terms of popular usage, it describes the strong flavor of deep-roasted coffee. Sweet [Sweet]: in essence, it is like fruit, and it also has something to do with the taste of wine. Wild [Wild]: describes coffee with extreme taste characteristics. Wine [Winy]: fruit-like acidity and smooth mellow, created by the contrast of special flavor. Kenyan coffee is the best example of wine flavor. In addition: coffee beans can only be roasted to become coffee beans for grinding and drinking, generally divided into light, medium, deep and extra-deep roasting.

Brief introduction to Rwanda

The Republic of Rwanda is located in east-central Africa, covering an area of more than 26000 square kilometers. With a population of more than 9 million, it is composed of three ethnic groups, Hutu, Tutsi and Tewa, and believes in Catholicism, primitive religion, Christian Protestantism and Islam. The official languages are Rwandan, English and French. The capital, Kigali. The current President Paul Kagame.