Region: Karatina town, Nyeri
Variety: SL28, SL34
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1700-1800m
Notes: Lime, red currant, rhubarb.

The Ngandu lot was produced by various smallholder farmers, all of whom are members of the Rutuma Farmers Cooperative Society delivering to Ngandu Coffee Factory, the factory is located near the town of Karatina, in Kenya’s Nyeri County. The Cooperative act in a particular community manner, they have been trained by the cooperative and their role is to teach small scale farmers, both during the harvest and in the off season. This service has been very fruitful in two main ways at first it generate an immediately positive impact on coffee quality arriving at the factory, in second instance farmers come out from the one to one training with a better understanding of the impact of fertilisation, pruning and quality-driven harvest techniques on the price that their coffee receives at auctions and with direct buyers.

Region: Jimma, Oromia
Variety: Mixed heirloom
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1980m
Notes: Peach jam, lokum, black tea.

Duromina, which means “to improve their lives” in the Afan Oromo language, is a coffee cooperative in southwestern Jimma Zone. Coffee has grown here for generations but was traditionally processed using the dry, natural method. Farmers paid little attention to quality control. Despite an ideal climate and altitude for coffee growing, the area’s coffee was synonymous with poor quality. Year after year, farmers received low prices for their coffee, earning little income as a result. On paper these farmers had it all; very high altitude, rich and fertile soils, Ethiopia’s incredibly complex heirloom varietals and good rainfall. The missing link was quality control. Now that this has been addressed, the Duromina farmers produce coffees of outstanding quality with scores of 90+ being achieved. 

In 2010, around one hundred local coffee farmers banded together to form Duromina. As the name suggests, their goal was simple: to improve their lives. With technical support, business advice and access to finance through TechnoServe’s Coffee Initiative, the members acquired and installed a wet mill and began processing fully washed coffee for the first time. These improvements helped Duromina produce high-quality coffee and bring new prosperity to the community. Two years later, an international panel of professional judges would select Duromina’s coffee as the best in Africa, awarding the cooperative the top prize in the leading regional cupping competition.

Region: Nyamasheke district, Western province
Variety: Red bourbon
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1400-1600m
Notes: Cherry, black tea, caramel.

Rwanda is blessed with ideal coffee growing conditions that include high altitude, regular rainfall, volcanic soils with good organic structure and an abundance of Bourbon. The vast majority of Rwandan coffee is produced by smallholders of which there are thought to be around half a million with parcels of land often not much larger than just one hectare per family.

Coffee is grown in most parts of the country, with particularly large concentrations along Lake Kivu and in the southern province. Rwandan smallholders organise themselves into cooperatives and share the services of centralised wet-mills or washing stations as they are known locally. Flowering takes place between September and October and the harvest runs from March to July, with shipments starting in August through December.

Inzovu is a composed with a mixture of coffees from the Western and southern areas of Rwanda generally grown on mid-high altitude of the many hills that compose the landscape in the country. Once the season is finished and is time for milling the coffee is sorted and all the Peaberrys are kept separate due to their smaller screen size and they are going to compose a separate lot that maintain the flavour profile of the original lot and often it happen to have a more distinctive acidity and bigger and bolder mouthfeel in the cup, like in this case.