Rwanda Tumba Cocatu

First new coffee to roll out for 2015 hails from East Africa - Rwanda. This is an up and coming coffee origin that has plenty of potential for more quality coffee. We celebrate this new year with a great Rwandan coffee sourced by the folks at Coffee Shrub.

Cocatu is a cooperative in the area of Tumba town, in the very mountainous Rulindo district, Northern Rwanda. Located at 1820 meters, the cooperative actually draws coffee from the surrounding hills up to 2100 meters. Cocatu receives support from a Kigali-based group who not only provides advice on technical agronomy, but also offers business support to the coop. The latter has been absent from many well-intentioned efforts to support cooperative coffee farmers. Cooperative leaders who do not have good business and accounting training can lead to mounting debt on the cooperative. Most cooperatives fail for lack of management, not lack of coffee quality. With this lot from Tumba, the farmer received 65% of the price paid by Coffee Shrub. The balance goes to the cooperative to process the coffee, the dry milling, transport and export costs. This price received by the farmer is higher than many other places in Rwanda. Such practices help to develop sustainability in coffee farming.

We find this Rwandan lot pleasantly juicy and sweet. On the first sip, we taste a bundle of ripe stonefruits, like peaches, apricots, black prunes, red plums with hints of caramel in the finish. The sweetness is brown sugar-like and it gets more pronounced as it cools. The balance of this coffee makes this an enjoyable daily cup. We do notice this coffee taste significantly better with a slightly longer resting period post roast. So better grab a bag early. A little patience is required to wait for the flavours to open up.

• Cooperative: Cocatu
• Region: Tumba, Rulindo, Rwanda
• Producers: Smallholders in the surrounding areas deliver cherries to the washing station.
• Varietal: Bourbon
• Altitude: 1820 - 2100 m asl
• Processing: Wet processed