Espresso: Rwanda Rushashi Rutabo lot Natural

ThisSideUp provides us once again with the Rushashi. This might be our anniversary regarding Rwanda Rushashi through Abakundakawa, we have had coffee from them for many years now and are never disappointed. This lot come from the Rutabo Co-op, one of their main focus groups. This shade-grown Natural reminds us of orange blossoms, with a tangy raspberry or red currant note. It's crisp and complex, with a lingering aftertaste. Rushashi Coffee Washing Station (CWS) is the largest of two washing stations owned by the Abakundakawa coffee producer cooperative, one of This Side Up’s first partners. It is located in the lush and green Gakenke district, characterised by high spiky hills at high altitudes - making it ideal for high-quality coffee production. It is no coincidence that this region produces some of Rwanda’s most sought after coffees. Abakundakawa has come a long way since it started as a smallholder farmer association in 1999. It became a recognized cooperative in 2007. Since then, in a relatively short time, Abakundakawa managed to become an advanced operation with over 2000 member farmers, which serves as a prime example of how coffee growers can turn the specialty market into a seller’s market. We were truly amazed by the standards this coop conforms to: it has the facilities to roast and cup samples on-site, employs a full range of organic processing methods (and is on its way to becoming certified organic), provides full transparency in its bookkeeping, and in recent years has received technical and leadership training from the Rwandan government and development agencies - especially from SNV, This Side Up's trusted development partner in Rwanda. In terms of processing, it employs a particularly long fermentation process that has been adopted by several nearby cooperative societies and has likely contributed to the bronze medal they earned at the 2010 Rwanda Cup of Excellence competition. Rutabo In Rutabo, villagers have owned the same piece of land, segmented into individual lots, since colonial times. If seen from a distance, this large plot could very well look like a single one. However, it was not until recently that farmers from this land started organising and working together as a group. After Abakundakawa began its efforts in the region, farmers changed from traditional to quality processing, came together, and began organising. Today, they all harvest on the same days, prune, and tend the land. Added to this, the group has a clear vision and perspective to make coffee sustainable in the long run: they save, invest, and have a credit system, they share this knowledge with farmers from other regions, and they motivate the youth to join coffee, “When you have a good harvest, invest” they say. Added to this, it was precisely this group who, after noticing how young people were migrating, leaving the elderly behind and, with it, the future of coffee production, came up with the idea of creating a Youth group. This was the birth of Ishema, with whom we also collaborate, and is now a consolidated group of young coffee farmers.