Kanzu #21 (Rwanda)

Artwork Credit: Sam Landsberg

We’ve jumped on the Kanzu train! This famous coffee from western Rwanda is renound for it’s citrus and stone fruit juiciness as well as it’s body. Brew this any way you like, it will be delicious … we just love it as a morning drip.

It’s hard to say any coffee has skyrocketed in fame over the past few years the way Kanzu has. A washing station on the shores of Lake Kivu in western Rwanda, Kanzu produces coffee for smallholder farmers in the area near the town of Nyamasheke. Rwanda is a mesmerizing land of lush green rolling hills, deep red volcanic soils and farmland - tiny in size and completely landlocked, it is also the most densely populated nation in Africa and the fifth most in the world. Harvest in Rwanda usually runs from mid/late-March through May or June. Once delivered to the washing station (or factory), the coffee cherries are sorted, then pulped (skin removed). After that, they go through an underwater fermentation for about 24 hours before being agitated in washing channels to remove any excess mucilage. The parchment is then dried on raised beds in the sun for up to a few weeks before being prepared for milling and shipment. Kanzu also treats its wastewater with microorganisms before releasing it back into the community. These coffees, regardless of their lot, take on sweet plum, mapl-ey tones, with bright creamy citrus notes…..the best of what Rwanda coffee can be.