Rwanda | Bumbogo

The Gakenke district where Bumbogo is located, is an area known for high-quality coffee production in Rwanda. It is a highly competitive region, and home to several winning Cup of Excellence lots in recent years.

Bumbogo is the station closest to Kigali that we work with, built in 2017. The station has more than doubled their production since 2018, with an impressive expanse of drying beds covering the hills surrounding the washing station itself. The station works alongside the community in ways external to the purchase and processing of its coffee. This value added when paired can massively improve not only quality but the yields of a producer’s land.

The washed process

All the cherries are hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherries are removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherries are then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. Next, the 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.