Abakundakawa means “People Who Love Coffee” in Kinyarwanda and we think the love of coffee is evident in the consistent quality from this group. Abakundakawa, like many other producer groups, gained its well-deserved reputation through the prestigious Cup of Excellence programs, and has been an important part of Atlas’ East African lineup for years.
We are very happy this year to be offering coffee produced by a group of women within the coop,who have organized themselves as the Hingakawa Women’s Association. The group receives a premium to use for the additional work of lot separation, and to re-invest in programs benefiting the members. The group has already purchased a communal farm and distributed cows, pigs & goats to members, and their next plan is to build a training center to be used for a wide variety of initiatives from child development and nutrition to sewing instruction for additional income.
The coffee is processed on single-disc pulpers, with an initial dry fermentation of 18-24 hours, followed by washing and soaking. Parchment is moved from the soaking tanks to shaded tables for hand-sorting to remove defects that are only visible when the coffee is still wet. The final stage prior to milling is drying in the sun on raised beds for 10-15 days.
The cup is very well balanced, silky & complex, with jammy, spice, grape and vanilla notes.
