UnCommon Coffee
UnCommon Coffee

Nyamurinda, Rwanda

Nyamurinda Coffee Growers tells the inspiring story of two sisters, Francine Nyiramana and Immaculée Mukamana, determined to transform the lives of their community, marked by deep scars of recent tragedy. Having lost their entire family to the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, the sisters resolved to convert their family-owned land into a coffee plantation.

Despite the atrocities, they gathered the courage to establish a coffee growing and processing business on Nyamurinda mountain. They constructed the Karora washing station, a hub that processes and produces specialty coffee from their own trees and cherries from smallholder coffee farmers in the Karora Cooperative in Western Rwanda. Nyamurinda Coffee exports its specialty coffee internationally and also roasts and sells in the local market.

Nyamurinda’s coffee grows near the Nyungwe forest, in the chain of mountains forming the Nile-Congo Watershed, the continental divide separating the Nile and Congo water basins.

This unique ecosystem, home to the Karora farmers, provides an enriching landscape showcasing terroir and potential cup quality resulting from the region—a combination of factors that is conducive for cultivating specialty coffee. The coffee processed by Nyamurinda thrives at high altitudes, between 1800 and 2000 meters above sea level. The deep sandy loam soil, which is well-draining, provides the ideal conditions that give Nyamurinda healthy, sturdy coffee trees.

As part of their mission, Francine and Immaculée are committed to uplifting the family welfare of their communities by economically empowering the local women through coffee. Believing that an empowered woman prospers the entire family, the Nyamurinda company is 100% owned by women. 86% of employees are women at the farm and processing level, with 77% of contributing farmers in the region being women. 

Ripe cherries are harvested and delivered to the Karora washing station, where they are floated to remove unripe cherries and foreign material. The coffee is depulped with a mechanical disc pulper before undergoing a 12 to 14-hour dry fermentation stage in large tanks. The seeds are washed and graded by their varying density, with the higher density seeds contributing to this lot. As the coffee is ready to move to the raised drying beds, where it will dry for 14 to 20 days, it is regularly sorted by hand. Once dried to the ideal moisture content, the coffee is milled and bagged before export.

Brew Guides

We've put together our go-to guides for the most popular brewing methods, these are by no means set in stone, nor can we promise a perfect result each and every time. What we can do however is provide you with a great foundation for a good brew, and allow for a bit of wiggle room and your own experimentation.