Fresh from his first origin trip to Rwanda, our Production & Roasting Assistant, Dan, returns with a story to tell:
I’ve been back in the UK for just over a week now, and it feels as though I’ve finally taken in and digested my first origin trip, and so I'd love to tell you all about experiencing the beautiful, calm, serene country of Rwanda.
Origin trips are incredibly important to the industry of specialty coffee, from getting a better understanding of the culture and life in coffee-producing countries, learning about the journey of planting, farming, and processing the coffees we buy and sell, to personal growth in the knowledge, skills, and experience for individual roles; these trips are vital. I was lucky enough to join an amazing group of industry professionals visiting farms and stations managed by the Muraho Trading Company, organised by our friends & long-term import partners at Raw Material, who supply us with consistently incredible coffees from East Africa, as well as South & Central America. The entire trip was very special, and I know I’ll cherish these memories for life.
Being in a country as beautiful, historic, and distant as Rwanda for just under a week was a very exciting prospect, and one that felt like an incredible opportunity. For a country with as much recent, troubled history as Rwanda, certain things felt very important to see, and so upon landing we travelled to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial in the capital city of Kigali, the city we would be staying in for most of our trip. The museum was challenging, informative, and heart-breaking; a tastefully curated experience which taught us so much about the past and present of life in Rwanda: something which felt like a crucial foundation for the rest of our trip. We learned about the all-too-recent history of this beautiful country, and all of the lessons that its residents take with them every day, and I can honestly say that what we saw of Rwanda couldn’t have been further from the Rwanda we saw in the museums. Every person we spoke to was incredibly hospitable and respectful, a sentiment we wanted to share whilst we were guests there.
After a day of learning and exploring Kigali, the bustling centre of Rwandan culture, business, and life, we woke up early for a long drive to our first station. Eustache, the operating manager for Muraho, and their resident driver Sylvere, took us to Shyira, a sprawling, beautiful hillside station, where coffee from over 750 local small-hold farmers is processed. Any Red Bank superfans may recognise this name from past releases, especially the Shyira Honey of recent years. One reason this was particularly interesting to me, as well as being one of my first ‘favourite’ coffees upon joining Red Bank, is that honey processing at Shyira is a benchmark for the entire country. Eustache told us about the country's government scheme for coffee sales, whereby a station has to produce a certain amount of washed coffee in order to apply for a license to process coffee any other way. The Shyira honey processing method, Eustache told us, is then offered as a consistent, high-quality method that other stations can work from. This prestige was part of what made Shyira such an exciting and interesting station, and from speaking to the team there, especially station manager Evariste, it was clear that everyone was passionate and proud to be a part of that. We learned about the different processes at the station, seeing washing channels, drying beds, and the incredible amount of hand-sorting and QC that every individual bean is subjected to.
Each day thereafter we visited at least two different stations by car, bus, and walking, and even two beautiful stations by boat! The themes of pride, quality, and resilience were clear on every single farm and station we visited. From the Vunga washing station being rebuilt twice after two separate mudslides which had completely wiped out the entire operation, to the rigorous hand-sorting and milling of coffee from every station in the Rugali dry mill, the amount of work and care afforded to every single bean passing through was astounding.
The station visits over the course of the week became a bit of a who’s-who of exceptional coffees, from visiting Shyira, the benchmark for Rwandan processing, to visiting (and dancing with the team at) Kilimibi, where our beautiful, washed inoculated coffee originates from. We arrived at the Muraho head offices on Friday to meet Karthick and Gaudam, the Rwandan brothers who founded the company, and to cup and score a selection of the week's coffees, which proved rather hard as every coffee was so good! We cupped 3 full tables of 12 coffees, going through washed, natural, and then more processed coffees, including some honey, anoxic, and experimental methods.
One of the biggest innovations happening around the larger Muraho stations is the wastewater management equipment being installed, for example in Dahwe, the newest addition to the Muraho-owned stations, used to channel wastewater to a ‘vetiver wetland filtration system’ where contaminants are filtered out, promoting environmental sustainability and a fully maintainable site. Dahwe, where our latest release is processed, was an incredible, vast station, where the soil is incredibly dry and sandy. Karthick told us about the BM139 variety of Red Bourbon planted in order to grow in these circumstances, and the work done to cultivate these seeds. The team also run a seed nursery for local farmers or families with farmable land, as well as keeping bees for honey, and grow some crops, such as avocados for the local communities, and bananas for the team on site, the leaves of which also provide incredible shade for the plants and the team. One crop which we were lucky enough to sample was pineapple, planted along the sloping hills opposite the drying beds to ensure the plants get even sun coverage. We walked in the midday Rwandan heat, past the drying beds, washing channels, and seed nursery, over a small marshland area, where water for floating and washing the cherries is sourced, and to the nearby farms. After harvesting some pineapples, we found a large tree for shade, and gathered round to eat the pineapples that we’d farmed, a welcome, sweet relief from the heat! Dahwe also has 5 cows, some gifted by local farmers and communities as a sign of utmost respect, which are traditionally believed to bring wealth and prosperity to the station, as well as grazing the fields, and providing fertiliser for the fields and crops, and milk for the team.
Whilst these trips are important for the coffee supply chain, and communicating and understanding every step of the process, I want to acknowledge how incredibly lucky and privileged I am to have these kinds of opportunities, and what an incredible time every part of the trip was. From meeting some of the nicest, kindest coffee professionals as part of our group, to experiencing the beauty and joy in Rwandan hospitality and culture, to visiting farms and stations (even on some challenging roads, with a few instances of pushing a van that wouldn’t move for rocks), the trip was, in a word: special. I want to say a personal, heartfelt thank you to Muraho for hosting us, Raw Material for putting on the experience, and Red Bank for the opportunity to do amazing things like this. Final thank yous go to Amir Montazer (Etude Coffee), Phil Magowan (Raw Material/ Exemplar), and Jeff Hann (Raw Material) for taking and letting us use the lovely photos you can see in this article (except for the slightly blurry iPhone picture, that's mine!).
