Humure Community Blend | Rwanda

Name: Humure Community Blend | Rwanda
Brand: PS Coffee
Price: 17.0 CAD
Availability: InStock

$17.00 CAD

Size

Grind

Description

Humure Stratton Nzaramba's Washed Red Bourbon¹
Remera Sector, Gatsibo District, Eastern Province, Rwanda²

This coffee is the first in our Community Blend series. It's deservedly named after Baho Coffee's Humure washing station manager, Stratton Nzaramba, as a way to give respect to his vital part in their traceability efforts. This lot blends coffees from Stratton’s farms and surrounding smallholders who deliver their coffees to the Humure CWS. Fresh and comforting with notes of grape, black tea, caramel, and brown sugar, we enjoy this one with a splash of our milk beverage of choice.

Humure Stratton Nzaramba and all the upcoming Community Blends are special to us. This series allows us to purchase more coffee at multiple quality levels from producers while providing them with financial stability and profitability. To us, this is just one way we can be better partners and contribute more meaningfully to the long-term success of the producers we work with.

¹ Processing & Varietal

Washed Red Bourbon
First, a day of intensive sorting at the cherry stage, under complete shade, to ensure only the ripest are chosen and any visible defects are removed. Step two is multiple rounds of floating - filling a large container with cherries and water, discarding the less dense cherries that float to the top of the tank. It’s expected that cherries are delivered to stations, on average, between 2 to 3 hours from picking.

When enough volume has accumulated, the cherries are depulped and the double fermentation process is started. First, a dry fermentation for 8 to 12 hours. The tank is then filled with water for an additional 8 to 12 hour wet fermentation. Once the fermentation process is complete, coffee is pushed through the grading channels. Here the coffee is very rigorously washed to remove any remaining mucilage and separated by density. After grading, the coffees are soaked (now with no mucilage attached) in a tank of water for a final 8 to 12 hours. This is thought to promote even distribution of moisture throughout the seeds, thus leading to more even drying. Coffee is then moved onto shaded drying beds for 48 - 72 hours.

This step has two distinct benefits. First, it sets the trajectory for the entire drying phase by initially beginning very gently and slowly under complete shade. Secondly, it allows ample time for intensive sorting while the parchment is still wet - this is important because certain defects (seeds bitten by Antestia in particular, thought to cause the potato defect) can be seen much more easily when the parchment is wet.

During the first 5 days on the tables, parchment is only exposed to sunlight for a maximum of 3 hours per day, and it is manually turned every 30 minutes to avoid cracking from overly fast drying. It’s finally moved onto drying beds in full sun and turned 4 times per day. Temperature is closely monitored throughout the day - if it exceeds certain thresholds, workers will focus on turning coffee more frequently or cover the beds with mesh netting. When the moisture content reaches 11.0%, the drying phase is considered complete. The parchment is bagged and stored in a dry warehouse until time for milling. Total drying times for washed process coffee is around 30 - 40 days.

² Region of Origin

Humure Stratton Nzaramba, Remera Sector, Gatsibo District, Eastern Province
Altitude: 1550-1850

Humure, named after the highest hill in the area, is located in the Eastern Province of Rwanda. Humure is currently the largest station that Emmanuel, owner and manager of Baho Coffee, owns. They collect cherry from ~1500 farmers, producing ~1300 bags of exportable green coffee annually, and employing 220 people during the peak of the season.

Community Blends

The Community Blends series offers another layer of financial support and one that is often missed in specialty coffee. In place of simply purchasing the smallest, highest quality microlots, with this series, we can buy more volume of great coffees, blend them together to create a beautiful cup. Most importantly, these coffees are purchased from coffee producers at a price that can still generate financial stability and profitability.

We Support

This

Buying more volume of great coffees, the ones that may be overlooked in the race for the “best” cup, and can still generate financial stability and profitability for smallholder producers.

Not That

Extracting what serves buyers and consumers by simply purchasing the smallest, highest quality microlots — and leaving the rest behind.

Baho Coffee's Humure Stratton Nzaramba

Emmanuel Rusatira and Baho Coffee have spearheaded the traceability movement within the Rwandan coffee sector. He’s been tracing lots back to communities living on specific hills near his washing stations, something that is essentially unheard of for East African coffees. As such, all Rwandan coffees are named after the washing station (CWS) and group from which the coffee comes from that provides recognition not normally offered to smallholder growers.

This coffee recognizes the work of the Humure CWS manager, Stratton Nzaramba, as a way to give respect to his part in making any level of traceability possible. This lot draws on coffees from Stratton’s farms as well as surrounding smallholders who deliver their coffees to the Humure CWS. Semilla, our sourcing partner, has been buying Humure coffees for four years now, always find incredible quality. This is in no small part due of course to the efforts of Stratton and his team who manage each step of the process and in so doing, create impeccable lots.

About Community Blends

With Community Blends, we’re taking into consideration a greater scope of smallholder production, and seeking to be better partners. In place of simply purchasing the smallest, highest quality microlots, with this series, we’re aiming to buy more volume of great coffees that may be overlooked in the race for the “best” cup — and in doing so, increased financial stability and reduce some of the inherent risks of smallholder coffee production.

The result is a series of beautiful lots that might not have jumped out alone but when united create a harmonious and beautiful cup, scoring around 85-86 points*, and most importantly, are purchased at prices that can still generate financial stability and profitability.

FAQ's

WHO MAKES P.S. COFFEE?

The P.S. Coffee menu is made possible by grower communities and smallholder farmers in Rwanda, Honduras, Colombia and Guatemala. Through our sourcing sister-company Semilla, we hold long-term and consensus based partnerships with producers that have had zero or limited access to or knowledge of the specialty market.

These skilled and passionate professionals are redefining coffee production within their growing regions that have historically been underserved and overlooked despite being within well-respected coffee producing countries. Through community support networks, access to knowledge and capital and investment into physical and intellectual infrastracture, they are transitioning towards autonomy and away from the exploitative model they’ve mostly always known.

These are the people and communities you’ll meet through P.S. — and build connections with as we continue to support and purchase from them year after year.

Meet the P.S. Producer Network

HOW IS P.S. COFFEE SOURCED?

All of the coffee on the P.S. menu is exclusively sourced with Semilla Coffee through the following principles:

Durable Relationships

All of Semilla’s relationships are formed with specific communities in underserved coffee growing regions within well-respected coffee production countries. Semilla identifies producer groups that have zero or limited access to or knowledge of the specialty market and takes on the requisite risk that comes with their transition into becoming specialty coffee producers with dedicated buyers across North America. Semilla’s commitment is to work only within the bounds of these groups, seeking to grow with them in pursuit of purchasing all of their production, year after year.

Best Prices, Defined by Producers

All coffees purchased by Semilla are purchased at the best locally available price. This is determined via communication with and understanding of local market dynamics, and prices are arrived upon via a consensus model in which the coffee growers and Semilla agree democratically on the best prices for all involved.

Traceability and Transparency

Semilla’s commitment is to work with complete commitment to traceability and transparency along the value chain. This means full transparency of prices paid to the farmer (farmgate) as well as prices paid at port (FOB). Additionally, Semilla offers in depth information and context for each coffee, the producers who grew it, and the condition within which they work with each purchase.

Quality

Semilla exclusively works in the specialty coffee realm, meaning all of the coffees purchase are above the quality levels offered by conventional commodity or Fair Trade and Organic buyers. Quality is determined in reference to the Specialty Coffee Association and Coffee Quality Institute’s grading standards, with all coffees source for P.S. achieving a minimum of 85 points out of a possible 100.

DO YOU HAVE THIRD-PARTY SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION?

We are skeptic of most fair trade/organic/sustainability certifications. They often leave the financial burden on coffee producers who are, and let's be honest, not polluting anywhere near us folks in the Global North are.

Instead of focusing on these certification, we work towards a value system that uplifts everyone along the coffee supply chain. Through Semilla, our sourcing sister-company, we can connect directly with our coffee producer network to bring to life their ideas that come from, and work for, them towards a more sustainable, equitable value chain.

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