Rwanda Buf Cafe - Umurage

This is a Red Bourbon coffee from Buf Cafe's Umurage washing station located in the Huye Dsitrict, of the Kigmoa sector in the south of Rwanda, sitting at 1,750 masl.

Umurage is Buf Cafés third washing station, along with the Remera and Nyarusiza washing stations. Founded in 2003 by Epiphanie Mukashyaka, Buf Café was founded to grow the specialty Rwandan coffee sector and focus on quality. Epiphanie, who was born in 1959, was widowed during the 1994 genocide - which claimed over 800,000 lives in just 3 months - but chose not to leave her family’s small coffee farm. Instead she set about rebuilding and developing her business and within the local community. It is estimated that Umurage has 412 registered coffee farmers. Buf Cafe provides lots of jobs for the community, and train farmers in good agricultural practices to improve quality with a focus on sustainability.

Cherries are hand-picked when fully ripe and then pulped that same evening using a mechanical pulper that divides the beans into three grades by weight. After pulping, the coffee is fermented overnight (for around 12-18 hours) and then graded again using flotation channels that sort the coffee by weight (the heaviest – or A1 – usually being the best). The wet parchment is then soaked in water for around 24 hours to stabilize moisture content.

The farmers of UMURAGE CWS get the selected coffee seeds from RAB and NAEB under an advocacy from Bufcoffee as the owner of Umurage. These selected seeds are Arabica BM139 which takes one year/ 12 months in a nursery shelter. From planting phase to harvesting phase, depending on the specific variety, it takes approximately 3-4 years for newly planted coffee bushes to bear fruit, when the harvest is ready the farmers collect the ripest red cherries.

Tasting notes: Balanced and nuanced with flavors of peach, white nectarine, pomelo, and lemon cake.