D. R. CONGO - North Kivu, Kahondo Coffee Washing Station

Kahondo Coffee Washing Station (CWS) is one of 9 washing stations belonging to Virunga Coffee Company, which was set up in 2012 to produce high quality coffees for the specialty market and to increase premiums for the thousands of smallholder farmers in the region. 

Kahondo village is located in the Isale region of Nord-Kivu (North of Lake Kivu), on the edge of Virunga National Park, bordered by Uganda to the east. The region has excellent conditions for speciality arabica production with plentiful rainfall, high altitude and highly fertile volcanic soils.

On the flip side, the region is poverty-stricken with a severe lack of infrastructure which has made high quality arabica both difficult to produce and extremely challenging to export. Virunga Coffee Company has sought to overcome many of these problems through hands- on farmer education and investment in local infrastructure such as roads and bridges. This has allowed quality improvements every season and, in turn, higher premiums for farmers.

Ripe cherries are delivered to the wetmill for careful sorting and pulping, then fermented for 18-24 hrs. Once the mucilage has been broken down sufficiently the parchment coffee is thoroughly washed in clean water channels and graded by bean density before being dried in the sun on raised African beds for 12-18 days, depending on climate conditions, until the ideal moisture level has been reached. Once the coffee has dried to the desired level it is transported to Butembo for dry-milling, grading, sorting and handpicking (triage), before being bagged in GrainPro for export.

The cup

☕ Tasting Notes: Strawberry, lemon, raspberry. Juicy. 
📍 Origin: DRC, North Kivu
🧼 Process: Washed
🌱 Altitude: 1500-1900 masl.
🌾 Varietal: Bourbon