Coffee from seed to cup…

A planted seedling takes, on average, three years before it will produce commercial coffee beans. Rwanda grows a unique variety of Arabica called “Bourbon Blue”. A typical Rwandan farmer has 100-150 coffee trees. One tree will only produce enough to make approximately 1 pound of roasted coffee beans in one year (or growing season).

Coffee cherries (the fruit in which the beans are found) are harvested by hand picking. This is done several times a season (March – September) because the cherries ripen at different times, depending on the elevation at which they are growing.

A farmer brings his cherries to the washing station by bike (or walking) or he/she sells the cherries to coffee collectors who have trucks. Once picked, coffee starts to lose its value and flavor within 8 hours so the cherries need to be processed quickly. Most farmers pick all day and bring their cherry to the station in the afternoon. The station runs all night.

The owner of the station buys the cherry from the farmer at a pre-determined price per kilo of cherries. Last year the price was pre-determined (by the Rwandan Coffee Board) at 120 Rwandan francs per kilo (about $ 0.10 cents U.S. per pound), not enough to have a decent life. Our company is working towards increasing the income directly to the coffee farmers.

The station wet-processes the cherry to remove the red skin and pulp. Only the beans are left - wrapped in a light skin called parchment. The wet process takes about 32 hours from start to finish for de-pulping, soaking and fermenting; once a batch is started it cannot be stopped until it is done.

After the wet process the beans are hand-sorted to remove the ones damaged by insects or fungus. The beans are then placed on drying tables for 5 days.

During the drying process, hand sorting continues, removing any remaining damaged beans. Once dry, the beans are bagged and transported to the capital city (Kigali) where they are stored until a buyer (roaster) is found.

Once a buyer is found, the beans are dry-milled. Dry-milling removes the outer parchment from the beans. After dry-milling, the beans are taken to the Rwandan Coffee Board where a sample is cupped for quality control. Cupping allows the board to taste any defects in the coffee after which they will approve or deny the batch. The Rwandan Coffee Board stores the bags in their warehouse where the beans are continuously hand sorted again for quality control.

After the board issues a certificate of origin for the coffee, the supplier (i.e. washing station/dry-mill owner) sends a pre-shipment sample to the buyer. The buyer cups the sample and approves or denies shipment.

If approved, the beans are now ready for export and a shipper is contracted to fulfill the order for the buyer. Once the shipment arrives at the buyer’s destination, the beans are roasted, ground, bagged and labeled and are sold to retail stores.

From the store, the beans go directly to your cup of coffee each morning. Enjoy!