Cranberry · Brown sugar · Black tea

Gitwe Natural

Kaffa Roastery

Roasted: 12/06/2019
Roaster: Mike Akins

The Gitwe washing station is located in the southern end of Rwanda, in the Nyamasheke district. Gitwe was purchased by the Rwanda Trading Company 2 years ago, with the intention of focusing on high quality washed coffees and experimenting with natural coffees. Rwandan coffee is fast becoming one of the worlds most sought after and their new adventures in natural processing are yielding great results.

What is the difference between natural processed and washed coffee? Natural coffees tend to have more intense ripe fruit, jam-like flavours, whereas washed coffees have brighter, cleaner notes.

The new station manager Augustine has been instrumental in implementing a great program for washed and natural coffees. There are around 800 farmers who deliver their cherries to the Gitwe washing station. Gitwe uses a dry fermentation method, which means that the coffee ferments in a tank without water, so there is a bigger concentration of sugar, creating a lot of interesting flavours through fermentation with wild yeast.

Country: Rwanda
Region: Nyamasheke
Farm: Gitwe washing station
Farmer: Small holders in the area
Varieties: Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon
Growing Altitude: 1700-1900m
Processing: Natural