Rwanda Shyira

Whole bean coffee

NEW TEMPORARY ROAST SCHEDULE: Temporarily, we're roasting to order on Sundays and shipping on Mondays. Orders will be included in Sundays roast if they’re received by noon Eastern Time on Sunday.

Origin: Rwanda

District: Nyabihu

Factory: Shyira

Altitude: 1850 - 2300 masl

Process: Washed

Variety: Bourbon

Tasting notes: Peach, black tea, lemon

At a staggering maximum elevation of 2300 masl, Shyira is the highest washing station in Rwanda. This washed coffee is sweet, juicy, and articulate, a perfect example of what we consider to be the classic Rwanda cup character.

Shyira comes to us by way of Higa Coffee, a relatively new importer helmed by Kenny Ntwali. Kenny is a Rwandan-American who grew up in Minnesota, eventually finding his way to Rwanda to work in coffee. After immersing himself for several years in coffee production, he founded Higa to work towards higher incomes for Rwandan coffee producers through more sustainable producer-roaster partnerships. They have stated the origin of the company in this way:

Higa comes from the Kinyarwanda (local language in Rwanda) verb:guhiga - to state something you would like to see happen and work to it. Higa, the company, is our attempt to work towards equitable coffee supply chains.

Kenny first reached out to us early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, and we knew instantly that we'd want to work with him in some way. It didn't work out the first year, as we were not in a good position to take on more buying commitments at a time of deep uncertainty. In 2021 we had a chance to try again, and the coffees and the work behind them were so impressive that we’ve continued working together every year since.

This year’s Shyira is bright and dynamic, with flavors of peach, lemon, and black tea.

Transparency

This is our third year working with Higa coffee. We purchased 5 60kg bags of this lot for a price of $4.82/lb EXW on a day when the Coffee Commodity price was $1.98/lb. We scored this lot an 87.5.