Elevation: 1550 to 1800 meters
Varietals: Bourbon
Milling Process: Other
Drying Process: Raised Beds
Harvest Start Month: March
Harvest End Month: June
Export Start Month: July
Export End Month: November
This lot comes to us from Muraho Trading Company’s Rugali Washing Station in Nyamasheke, Rwanda. Muraho was founded by two brothers, Karthick & Gaudam Anbalagan, who are driven to showcase to the world what Rwanda specialty coffee is all about. Rugali is their largest washing station, nicknamed “The Big Daddy” because of its size and capacity.
Muraho purchased the land Rugali sits on in January 2016, building was completed in April 2016. Over the past 7 years, they have expanded the station, purchasing more land and even building their own dry mill, the Rugali Dry Mill, in 2019.
The soil and coffee farmers in this area make Rugali coffee special. Rugali is among one of the top areas in Nyamasheke and Rwanda that has been farming coffee for many generations. The Rugali farmers have the most knowledge and experience about good agricultural practices for coffee.
At Rugali Washing Station, they uphold the highest of standards to achieve the best quality specialty coffee possible. Only red ripe cherries are received at the station. The cherries are all checked upon arrival, then resorted on sorting tables and then passed through an intensive floating quality process. Once only the top cherries are separated, they are placed in a clean air tight tank.
The tank is then covered with clean sheeting and cool water is added on top of the sheeting to create a water pillow effect, creating an anoxic environment for the coffees. This lot was fermented for 48 hours in total. Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is rinsed with the water on top of the sheeting and drained. It was then taken and laid in a thin layer on the African drying beds. The cherries are turned every 30 minutes at this time, extensive handpicking and controlled temperature drying is also continued. The total drying time for this lots was 40 days.
