This coffee is produced by the Dukunde Kawa cooperative in the hills of north-west Rwanda. Mbilima is one of four washing stations belonging to the cooperative.
To produce washed coffee, the cherries are picked by hand, only when they are fully ripe. Producers deliver their harvest to the cooperative within 8 hours. On arrival, they are sorted by flotation to retain only the densest, ripest and best quality coffee beans.
The preserved cherries are then pulped and sorted again, to guarantee the best possible quality of coffee.
The coffee then goes through a machine to remove the mucilage in order to reduce the fermentation time. Dry fermentation generally lasts 12 hours. The parchment is then washed with high-pressure water before being sorted again.
The beans are then placed on raised drying beds for around 14 days in hot weather or 21 days in wet weather. The coffee is sorted again to detect any defects or damaged beans, and is turned over regularly by seasonal workers whose job it is to protect the coffee from the rain or midday sun using tarpaulins.
