Kilimbi Washed - Rwanda

Coffee for this lot was grown by small-holder farmers partnering with Kilimbi washing station in the Nyamasheke district, nearby Lake Kivu. Kilimbi, where the coffee is processed, is owned and managed by Muraho Trading Company. Run by two brothers with strong roots in the community. Muraho is a young innovative coffee company with a mission to showcase exceptional quality of Rwandan coffee whilst having a positive impact in their patterning farmer families.

Kilimbi is one of six washing stations owned and run by Muraho. Established in 2016, Kilimbi was the first station that Muraho built and it is the birthplace of the company. It is now managed by Joseph Ntarindwa and it has an estimated annual production of approximately 33,300kg of milled green coffee, which is produced each harvest into volumes of honey, washed, and naturally processed coffees.. Kilimbi along with Gisheke are the only stations that get some coffee cherries delivered by boat from farmers through Lake Kivu. 

Since its inception is 2016, Kilimbi has established its firm place within the Rwandan specialty coffee industry. Alongside its exquisite traditional washed lots, Kilimbi and Rugali CWS, were some of the first stations in Rwanda’s history to legally produce and export natural and honey processed coffee.

Details provided by Raw Material, who sourced this coffee have shared this information about the processing of the coffee.

All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. Next, coffee is fermented in dedicated concrete fermentation tanks for an average of 12 hours. During this time, the fermented parchment is agitated several times through the day by way of ceremonial foot-stomping. 

After fermentation, coffee is released into a large serpentine grading channel. This process also separates parchment into different density grades. During the washing process, parchment is continuously agitated to encourage lower density parchment to float and to clean any residual mucilage off the parchment. Once the parchment is separated into grades, it is given a final post-wash rinse. At this point, coffee is taken to a pre-drying area where the parchment is hand-sorted removing any insect-damaged, discoloured or chipped coffee. The parchment is laid out to dry and turned on a regular basis throughout the day for 30 days.”