Rwanda Vunga Women Producers
Fruity Profile | Light roast
Tasting Notes: Candied Lemon, Orange, Brown Sugar
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
It's uncommon in Rwanda for a woman to be a president and leader of a cooperative, but Daphrose Uwimana is an exceptional coffee farmer. Vunga is one of only a handful of cooperatives in Rwanda that are woman-owned and run, and that owns its own washing station. A coffee farmer since 1983, Daphrose is the driving force behind this exceptional coffee, and having founded the Vunga cooperative in 2009. This lot was collected from the 260 small holder farmer-members of the cooperative.
The Vunga cooperative and its tiny washing station are located near the borders of Uganda to the north and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, in the Northern Province of Rwanda.
Daphrose has created a close-knit community and mentors a group of women farmers that produces special women grown lots. She conducts seasonal training on best-in-class farming practices, such as applying fertilizers (90% of which are organic) and pruning older trees. She also trains farmers on financial literacy.
When Daphrose realized that the youth of the community weren’t interested in becoming coffee farmers (which is very common in coffee growing regions around the world), she invested the money she made from coffee to purchase land with the plan to teach youth in her community about farming, in the hopes to inspire them to enter the coffee sector and continue growing world-class specialty coffee.
We've loved getting to know Kenny Ntwali, founder of the importing company Higa Coffee. He's been a wealth of knowledge about this coffee in particular, and Burundian & Rwandan coffees in general. For example, we know that the coffee cherries were delivered to the Vunga washing station the first week of June 2024, and that the coffee was finished processing, drying and resting, and was ready for export on July 24th. Also, all we had to do was ask if he could provide us with the Farm Gate price (the amount of money the farmer gets paid out of what we pay the importer - see below for more info), and he came back with a detailed Transparency Report laying out not just what the farmers were paid, but the farmers' costs of production, and all of the other mill and transportation costs that add up to what we paid for the coffee.
Higa Coffee is committed to getting the farmer groups they work with high prices for quality coffees, and also aims for repeat buys: a large reason for volatility in coffee production is that roasters don't always commit to buying the coffee year over year - if the quality happens to dip a bit, they move on. This is counterintuitive to relationship-building and sustainable specialty coffee production. We are excited to be at the beginning of our relationship with Higa Coffee and Kenny, and look forward to many more delicious harvests.
Vunga President Delphrose Uwimana - square
Coffee drying on raised beds at Vunga
Sorting cherries nat Vunga
TRACEABILITY
PRODUCER
260 smallholder farmer-members of Vunga Cooperative
MILL / WASHING STATION
Vunga washing station
PROCESSING
Washed
ALTITUDE
1650 - 2000 meters
DID YOU KNOW
If this coffee is grown 90% organically, why no certification? As Kenny Ntwali of Higa Coffee says, "For the Northern Rwandan smallholder farmers (in the Vunga sector) or even producers working with smallholder farmers, the hustle and costs to get a certification outweigh the benefits. This is primarily because, on one side, the majority of roasters aren't committed buyers year-in and year-out, and on the other, the producer (usually a washing station or dry mill owner) who is working with smallholder farmers has inconsistent cherry supply."
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$4.58
Price paid by Driftaway
$4.31
Free on Board price
$2.06
Farm Gate price
$1.76
Fair Trade price per pound
$1.56
Coffee C-Market price per pound
$0.05
Driftaway's World Coffee Research contribution per pound
This coffee travelled 6,999 miles to the Driftaway Coffee roastery in Queens.
Love the coffee? You can share your compliments & tasting observations with the farmers.
WHY DID WE SELECT THIS COFFEE?
Women grow exceptional coffee, but are often overlooked. They make up 70% of the workforce in coffee growing and processing, but make 40% less revenue. They have systemically lower access to resources like land, credit and information. This has to change.
Starting this year, as we search the world for delicious coffees, we've prioritized buying 50% of our coffees from women farmers. Every coffee you see that comes from women farmers means that the coffee payment went to the women who did the work.
This coffee in particular just sings at a light roast, and we knew it was destined to be a great Fruity profile. Read more about our experience tasting it for the first time down below in "A note from Ian T", Driftaway's Lead Roaster and Green Buyer!
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
86.25
/100
86.25
SCAA Cupping Score
20 x 60 kg
Bags purchased
1 year
Length of producer relationship
100% (in 2022)
Transparent coffees purchased
HOW DID WE ROAST THIS COFFEE?
This coffee is being roasted by Ian T. from February 25 to March 20 in Brooklyn. We use the Loring Kestrel roaster for this profile. We have strict guidelines for each of the coffee profiles, and this roast has to pass the development time ratio test as measured in real-time by the roasting software, Cropster. Once it does, it is approved for production.
QUALITY CONTROL
We perform Quality Control via a process of coffee tasting called cupping on all of our production roasts once a week at our roastery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Each cupping is conducted by James M. and Ian T. using standard equipment, and is logged by our Q-certified cupper Ian T. All coffees are evaluated on a scoring scale of 0 to 3.
- 3.0 = exceptional roast - exceeds expectations
- 2.5 = on par with profile - matches expectations
- 2.0 = good roast, but 1 or 2 elements could be improved - needs improvement
- 1.5 or lower = failed - do not ship
PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING
Less than 24 hours after roasting, we bag your coffee in our production facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Our production team is led by Anthony and Torie, and supported by a rotating cast of local artists, musicians and independent professionals.
AT YOUR HOME
Brew this coffee with your favorite home brewer and enjoy the taste of incredible coffee! Here are a few tips on how to make the best coffee on each brewer.
View other posts about how to make better coffee at home on our blog Coffeecademy.