Gitesi

This coffee is by father and son producers, Alex and Aimé Gahizi’s Gitesi washing station in the west of Rwanda. 

Located in the Western Province, the Gitesi operation extends beyond just the washing station to a collection of around 20,000 coffee trees, owned by the Gahizi family. Here, they’re able to experiment with innovative sustainable agricultural techniques and different varieties of coffee trees.

Traditionally, the vast majority of coffee cultivated in Rwanda is a red bourbon variety, and this lot is no different. 

At Gitesi, ripe coffee cherries delivered daily from nearly 1,800 local smallholder farmers are hand-sorted before pulping, a process that removes the skin and majority of fruit flesh from the seeds inside. The coffee then undergoes around 16-hours of dry fermentation and a 12-hour freshwater soak before being dried on raised beds for up to 15 days.

This season’s selections from Gitesi are just wonderful, amongst the best Fieldwork has seen in recent years. Expect warmth, balance, gentle but defining acidity underpinned by red fruit sweetness and flavours of baking spice.