Fair Trade Rwandan, Dukunde Kawa Cooperative
Don’t some days make you glad to be alive? That’s what the sunshine is saying to me today. Be glad, be glad. I’m wearing a sleeveless shift today–granted, with warm tights and tall boots–and I shed my coat before I picked up my kindergartener at one. I think that the weather has actually been nice all week, but we’ve had loved ones ill, and I haven’t been 100% either, so in my personal view it feels like the clouds have lifted today. Isn’t it odd how your experiences can change what you see?
This week’s coffee is a new one for us, a Fair Trade coffee from the African country of Rwanda. If your familiarity with Rwanda comes mainly via the 1994 genocide, it may seem like a disturbing region from which to source coffee. This coffee, on the contrary, has an admirable story. It comes from the Dukunde Kawa cooperative, according to the fact sheet from our broker, which is comprised mainly of women. This coffee has been certified Fair Trade since 2004, and with government aid these women have been able to build a washing station. They are now using part of their proceeds to help build other washing stations throughout the country.
These women have attained a better standard of living from being a part of a fair trade industry in a country that exports mainly coffee and tea. They now have farm animals and some even have health insurance. Their coop is located in the middle of the country, near a mountain gorilla reserve. Rwanda is a landlocked African nation, surrounded by Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Much of the country consists of the sort of volcanic soil that coffee (and gorillas apparently!) love. The highland climate is conducive to coffee growing, and this Fair Trade Rwandan that we are offering has a taste profile similar to other specialty African beans.
If you love Kenyan or Tanzanian coffees, both of which we do have available, I’m sure that you will enjoy this Rwandan option. It too has initial lemon and citrus flavors, with a bright acidity. As it cools you taste nuttier tones. This is a coffee where you can really taste the growing conditions. It is so similar to other African coffees and so different from our Central and South American or Indonesian beans, that the regional characteristics stand out above all others.
List Price: $13.99