Introduction to the flavor and taste of Rwanda boutique coffee Malaba coffee

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 the market.

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 US professional coffee market, and then sold the coffee to the US-UK charity comic relief also became interested 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 Rwanda massacre. The charity found that many Malaba farmers are also members of AVEGA, so they can provide funds 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 "flickering citrus flavors with rich, sweet chocolate notes" and bought all the unsold coffee fruits during the 2002 harvest. The peak 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.