Tasting Notes: Orangeade, Rhubarb, Rooibos
Process: Honey
Varietal: Red Bourbon
Altitude: 1650-1850 MASL
Origin: Rwanda
About the farm:
Coffee for this lot was grown by smallholder farmers working with Kilimbi Washing Station in Nyamasheke District, near Lake Kivu. Owned and managed by Muraho Trading Company, Kilimbi is one of six washing stations operated by the company and was the first, established in 2016.
Managed by Joseph Ntarindwa, Kilimbi produces around 33,300kg of milled green coffee annually, including washed, honey and natural lots. Along with Gisheke, it is one of the only Rwandan stations to receive some cherries by boat across Lake Kivu.
Kilimbi has played an important role in Rwanda’s specialty coffee development, being among the first stations legally permitted to produce and export natural and honey-processed coffees. These methods remain relatively uncommon in Rwanda, having only recently become more widely permitted.
For this lot, freshly picked cherries are washed and sealed in plastic for 24 hours before pulping the following afternoon. The pulped coffee is then covered overnight before being transferred to raised drying tables, where it is rotated regularly and dried for around three weeks.
The honey development analysis places this lot between red honey and black honey, offering a distinctive expression of the process.