Rwanda Gitesi (250g)
Great acidity and balance with jammy structure. Tasting notes of peach, roasted coconut, lemon, rose, and loads of red berries following up with mango-like and grapefruit bitter finishing notes.
Station: Gitesi
Gitesi is a private washing station owned and run by a father and son team, Alexis and Aime Gahizi. The washing station was built in 2005 and began processing coffee in 2006, it is located in the Gitesi sector in the Western Province of Rwanda. In the early years they were struggling to keep the washing station operating, and they have fought hard to make it a profitable business. Finally in 2010, they managed to turn a profit and have since built a sustainable company.
Aime is the real star of the show at Gitesi washing station, although it is a family run business and he has been working alongside his father who is greatly respected very experienced, Aime is the younger generation, who has the energy and will to push Gitesi’s production and infrastructure to the next level.
He's a good example of the kind of people we like to work with, and has values and work methods that we care for and try to find in producers and he is also a genuinely solid and friendly guy. He pays all his farmers a 2nd payment depending on how much the parchment is sold for and that way he gives them a good motivation to increase the farm’s quality. Improving the soil is a good example of increasing quality.
We got to know Gitesi via Nordic Approach. Nordic Approach is a sourcing company focusing solely on high quality green coffees. We do the groundwork to identify, improve, select, and import the best coffees from the most interesting origins. Every coffee they buy or forward to a client is selected based on the cup profile. They believe transparency through the chain and premiums going back to the producers is the only way to achieve a sustainable quality coffee production. Our cooperation with Nordic started on 2016 and all of our coffees are based on their quality of transparency.
About Gitesi
PRODUCER:Aime Gahizi
TERROIR:Gitesi
ALTITUDE:1800 m
PROCESS:Washed
ARRIVED IN:60kg Grain Pro
VARIETIES:Bourbon
AROMA:Coconut, Rose
FLAVOR:Berries, Grapefruit
BODY:Medium
FINISH:Lemon, Mango
The season for Rwanda can starts on March until August, but mainly we find that the best cherry picking selections is from May to July. This can change from time to time depending on the weather and the altitude that the coffee is growing.
Farms are generally very small family owned operations. Family takes care of the plants and picks the cherries by hand. Usually they will also grow crops for their own consumption, and there are a few farmers with more land.
SUSTAINABILITY
Gitesi are CAFÉ Practices certified and Rainforest Alliance certified. They have a modern waste water management system and produce organic or natural fertilizer through coffee pulp. They also have a pilot program where farmers can learn about growing different vegetables, ensuring that they have some income outside of coffee season.
FERMENTATION
The climate through most of the season in Rwanda is relatively cool, which assists in controlling the fermentation process. A Penagos 800 Eco Pulper removes the skin, pulp and 70% of the mucilage. The coffee is then dry fermented for 10-12 hours. After this the parchment is graded and washed in channels, it is separated into two grades based on density before being soaked under clean water in tanks for 16 hours. The parchment is initially taken to pre-drying tables, which are under shade, and where, while the parchment is still wet, a lot of hand sorting is done as it is much easier to see defects at this point. The parchment is dried on African drying beds for up to 15 days, during which time the parchment is covered by shade net during the hottest hours of the day, at night, and anytime it rains.
