Busanze Washing Station

This natural coffee hails from the Nyaruguru district of Southern Rwanda, near the border of Kayanza, Burundi. The name of the coffee collection site and washing station is Busanze, and it is a unique partnership between a private enterprise and a local cooperative, sharing responsibilities and ownership over the facility. Much like other such locations in Rwanda, the station is reliant almost exclusively on local smallholders contributing their coffee cherry. The cooperative, called KUN, is just 81-members deep of whom 51 are women, and has the distinction of a top-ten placement in 2018’s Cup of Excellence competition.

This is a classic, minimal intervention natural. Coffee cherries are floated on delivery to remove imperfections, underripe and overripe cherries, and defects, and then simply dried in the sun (with ample workforce to tend to both sorting and turning the coffee to ensure even drying).