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Pull up a chair, grab a cup of Cravens, and join us. This is where we share our stories. |
Rwanda 2006
"I was in the right tribe,” he tells me.
I'm at the Hotel Eden Rock in Rwanda sitting across from coffee specialist Ephrem Niyonsaba. He is explaining how he was able to survive the genocide because as a Hutu he was not targeted and, fortunately, not forced to participate either.
It is a chilling story, made all the more extraordinary by how far the country has come in terms of safety and security since those horrible events in 1994.
For the past two days I have been traveling in Rwanda, not far from the birthplace of coffee, searching for the best beans this East African country has to offer. Despite its purity of flavor, no one has paid much attention to Rwandan coffee for years.
But these days, there is a burgeoning specialty coffee industry here supported by two USAID (United States Agency for International Development) projects. PEARL forms farmer cooperatives to grow and mill beans in brand new washing stations, and ADAR, where Niyonsaba works, brings private investors in to finance the industry as it grows. Both aim to help Rwanda recover through a trade, not aid, approach.
Most beans grown in Rwanda are bourbon, one of coffee's original strains. Many countries have done away with it in favor of higher-yield plants. But, with bourbon's intense, almost tropical fruit juice quality, I am pleased to see so much of it here.
In fact, 90 percent of the beans Rwanda produces are bourbon.
On day three of my trip, I get to see the bourbon up close after two hours of teeth-rattling driving into the mountains. Then I have a sort of homecoming when I get to Gatare --– which is where Cravens purchased our first Rwandan coffee. You'll find East African coffees exotic, pure, and crisp, with a sweet, citrus quality. They're some of the most character-filled coffees anywhere.
At the Kinunu washing station near Lake Kivu, I learn one of the important reasons the beans turn out that way. For Kanye Johnson, the ADAR technical advisor there, the sun rises and sets on how the beans are dried – but never shines on them at high noon.
Johnson dries his beans over several days for a total of 48 hours. With the help of the breeze across the lake, drying begins at 8 a.m., goes until 11 a.m., and then starts again at 3 p.m. In recent years, the coffee industry has become more aware of the importance of drying. Proper drying adds sweetness to brewed coffee and Johnson told me poor drying gives the coffee a potato or onion taste so, to prevent that, he makes sure his beans also spend time in the shade.
As I leave Rwanda, I am struck by how specialty coffee is changing people's lives with jobs -– and a chance for something better. And, while not everyone gets to see it firsthand, I like to think we can bring at least a little of that to you when you drink a cup of Cravens.
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