Rwanda Jarama Best of Rwanda 2nd Place is a distinctive and clean lot with notes of tropical fruit, stone fruit, flowers, and honey. In the cup, it is juicy, sweet, and complex, with a longer aromatic aftertaste and a beautifully clean profile. Fruity acidity lends the coffee liveliness, while honeyed sweetness nicely rounds it out. The overall profile is intense yet still elegant and well-defined. This lot took 2nd place in the Best of Rwanda competition with a score of 89.96 points, confirming its exceptional quality.
The coffee comes from Rwanda, specifically from the Nyamasheke District in the western part of the country. This lot is associated with the Kivubelt Coffee project and the Jarama station , which processes coffee from farmers in the surrounding hills. Coffee trees here grow at an elevation of around 1,800 meters above sea level, which helps the cherries ripen more slowly and develop a sweeter, more complex profile. The lot consists of the Red Bourbon variety , historically the most important and widespread variety in Rwanda. Furaha Umwizeye Teuscher is behind the project, and Kalila Kantengwa also plays an important role in its operations. Kivubelt connects its own farms, washing stations, and smallholder farmers from the area around Lake Kivu, where it has long been working to improve quality, provide education, and ensure fairer conditions for the local community.
The coffee was processed using the natural method, which is less common in Rwanda than the classic washed process. After being hand-harvested, the ripe cherries were carefully sorted and then dried whole—including the pulp—on raised African drying beds. Thanks to the beans’ extended contact with the fruit pulp, the coffee gains a more pronounced sweetness, a fuller body, and a juicier character. With the Red Bourbon variety in particular, the natural processing beautifully highlights tropical fruit notes, a honey-like sweetness, and a clean, aromatic aftertaste. The result is a coffee that showcases the direction in which today’s Rwandan specialty coffee is moving.
- Producer: Kivubelt, Kalila Kantengwa
- Processing station: Jarama
- Elevation: 1,800 mabove sea level
- Harvest: 25/26