Ibisi – Rwanda

This Ibisi lot comes from the Ibisi Mountain Hills washing station in Nyamagabe

Ibisi Mountain Hills washing station is located in the hills of Southern Rwanda, just a short drive from the Nyungwe Forest, from the east side of the Nyungwe forest, comes also one of the branches of the Nile sources.

Bernard Uwitije, a native of the area, had been trading non-washed Ordinary coffee up until 2015 when he realized the potential for fully washed speciality-grade coffee.

He build his first washing station, Gitega hills, which operated successfully in his first year and he decided to expand the operations by building a second washing station, Ibisi and the quality at both stations remains outstanding.

Ibisi has produced around 790 tons in 2018 and they are working with over 2000 farmers, of which 845 are part of 25 groups with their farms certified C.A.F.E Practices, 45% of them are women.

Following the pulping of freshly delivered cherry, the coffee is wet fermented and then the beans are sorted by density using water-filled grading channels. The wet parchment is dried undercover for 24 hours before being moved to uncovered drying beds for an average of 15 days. During that period the coffee is continually hand sorted.