Mahembe - Rwanda - Filter - Washed Coffee

TASTE NOTES
Stewed Rhubarb, Hibiscus, Maple Syrup

VARIETAL
Red Bourbon

PROCESS
Washed

ALTITUDE
1900 masl

We’ve been buying coffee from Mahembe for longer than anywhere else, almost 9 years. Mahembe was founded in 2010 by Justin Musabyimana, Justin has a 10-hectare farm of his own, as well as two wet mills, one called Nyagatareand one called Nyarubuye. Both of the mills buy cherry surrounding farmers who grow red bourbon exclusively. Farms in Rwanda are generally very small almost garden farms, around 0.25-1 hectare in size (although there are some bigger farms) between the two washing stations Mahembe buys cherry from nearly a thousand of these farms!

The picking season in Rwanda can run from March all the way through to August but most of the lots that we get through our import partners Nordic Approach are from a slightly tighter window of picking between May and July. There are a few reasons for this, one of the main ones being that coffee grown at higher altitudes (often the best) tends to produce ripe cherries a little later in the year. Justin and his team are very strict about the quality of coffee cherry that they buy and farmers sort it themselves just before weighing in for sale. Following this the cherries are further sorted in tanks, floating; mostly under ripe cherries are removed and sold separately as a lower grade.

Justin Musabyimana was born in Rwanda and returned after the 1994 genocide against the Tusti and worked hard to build on his fathers coffee plantation, growing it from one farm to the big operation it is today. Today Justin is a very important and trusted figure in the Nyamasheke coffee growing community. We intend to buy his coffee for years to come.