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Congo Org. Kivu – Virunga Coffee – Mukwinja Station – Washed

(2 customer reviews)

$6.04

Low Stock Blowout – 24 Pounds Left
A super clean lot from the Congo; Amazing considering all the trouble this year in the Kivu; beautiful prep on these beans. Great floral and soft fruit tones upfront with a bit of brightness balanced with a tea spiced chocolaty factor, not too overwhelming or potent like some Africans. Smooth with almost a brown sugar hint at a strong medium roast. Pretty much everyone will love this coffee, a great everyday drinker.

Out of stock

Arrival Date:

12/21/23

Lot #:

0003

Origin:

Kivu

Processing Method:

Washed

$6.04

1 lb

$6.04

2

$6.04

5

$6.04

20

$5.84

60+ lbs

Description

I have always had a fascination with the Congo – perhaps from a movie I watched as a child. What a different place and culture!  It is often seen in a dark light, but specialty coffee cultivation serves as a beacon of progress in a troubled place.

This organic fully washed is from Mukwinja washing station in South Kivu, one of 8 such stations operated by Virunga Coffee Company, set up by Schluter Ltd. (now Covoya Europe) in 2012 to produce specialty coffees in eastern DRC and improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers in the region. Mukwinja works with 699 farmers in South Kivu, who cultivate at altitudes between 1,500 and 2,500masl.

Despite the high potential of the coffees around Mukwinja, smallholder production is characterized by a very small farm size, lack of infrastructure for coffee processing and lack of access to high-quality markets. Virunga Coffee is providing technical assistance to coffee farmers on regenerative agriculture practices, as well as access to coffee inputs, namely high-quality coffee seedlings to increase farming productivity, and thus profitability. Our goal is to increase economic opportunities from coffee farming in South Kivu.

Tasting Notes:
A super clean lot from the Congo – amazing considering all the trouble this year in the Kivu – beautiful prep on these beans. Great floral and soft fruit tones upfront with a bit of brightness balanced with a tea spiced chocolaty factor, not too overwhelming or potent like some Africans. Smooth with almost a brown sugar hint at a strong medium roast. Pretty much everyone will love this coffee, a great everyday drinker.

Roasting Notes:
Easy to roast and tasty at most roast levels. Lots of small little hints that get burned out into 2nd crack make this tailored toward lighter roasting, but tastes great as you push it towards or into 2nd crack. A strong medium roast was our favorite, just starts popping out that caramelized tone without burning out complimentary floral/fruit tones.

THE PRODUCERS
Virunga Coffee Company was established in 2011 by Schluter SA (now Olam Specialty Coffee Europe) with the vision to: “Change lives in DRC through commerce in a mutually profitable way by being a major coffee actor in Kivu.”

Virunga Coffee aims to achieve this vision by improving the quality and yields for farmers in North and South Kivu, primarily through:
– Developing and implementing field-based support activities
– Introducing Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)
– Investing in processing infrastructure
– Organizing assured organic production in close collaboration with over 2,300 farmers (with a further 1,500 by June 2020)
– Bringing an innovative spirit to the development of new products

As well as providing a stable supply chain and specialty market access, Virunga is actively involved in a number of sustainability and social programs in farming communities. These include an extensive tree planting program, disease prevention outreach to tackle critical diseases such as Ebola and HIV, and equipment to help farmers improve their agronomic practices.

THE PROCESS
Ripe cherries are delivered to the washing station for sorting and flotation to select only the ripest for processing. The cherries are de-pulped using a Penagos eco-pulper, fermented for 18-24 hours and then washed in clean water grading channels. Once thoroughly washed the parchment coffee is dried in the sun on raised African beds for 12-18 days, depending on climatic conditions.

In the daytime the parchment needs to be raked and turned periodically to ensure a consistent drying process and prevent mold or over-fermentation. The coffee is also covered in the middle of the day to protect it from the hot sun, and at night to protect it from rainfall and condensation. Once the coffee has dried to the right level it is transported to Butembo for dry-milling, grading, sorting and handpicking (triage), before being bagged in GrainPro for export.

Additional information

Arrival Date:

12/21/23

Lot #:

0003

Origin:

Kivu

Processing Method:

Washed

2 reviews for Congo Org. Kivu – Virunga Coffee – Mukwinja Station – Washed

  1. Patrick (verified owner)

    A stellar bean, indeed! I roasted this as a City in my Behmor in a small, 150G batch. This is one of the highest quality beans I’ve had in a few months. I could have been fooled that this was professionally roasted. It has a zippy acidity, with notes of cinnamon, clove and some lemon. I enjoy drinking this each morning.

  2. John Gross (verified owner)

    This one is delicious! I will have to get this one again.

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