Rwanda Shyira - About the Producer
2026 marks our 7th year working with the wonderful people at Shyira. The washing station work alongside Muraho Trading Company, a partnership that helps affiliate co-operatives increase their quality of production, fetch a higher price for their coffee, and introduce them to new markets.
With the help of the government of Rwanda, they are exploring implementing many strategies to boost gender equality in the country, whereby this positively reflects in the decision making roles within the households of our farmers.
Shyira traditionally grow Red Bourbon, a common varietal known for its sweetness and complexity. Over last few years they have introduced new varietals such as Geisha, Typica and a Nzinza - a varietal originating from Colombia. These new varieties have proved to grow successfully due to the high altitudes, regular rainfall and cool temperatures that Shyira offers, as well faster maturation and high yields.
Every washing station has its own washing station song. These have been created to instil a sense of pride and ownership to both full time and casual workers. Throughout the day groups of staff join together in song, dancing in the fermentation tanks, singing through five iterations of their song while stomping on the parchment. The process takes about 20 minutes and all the while, the fermentation process is assisted with the agitation of the coffee during the fermentation stage.
Rwanda Shyira - Process and Harvest
All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. Once the cherry is sorted and cleaned, it is ready to be dried. The cherries are laid out evenly across raised beds, providing consistent airflow, and height away to prevent moisture and animals coming into contact with the cherry.
The cherry is dried for 30 days, turned constantly when the sun is high and covered during the night. Once the cherry has dried, the now dried outer fruit is removed, and the coffee beans are ready to be organised for packing.
The result offers beautifully sweet notes and fruity notes of strawberry laces, sable grape and cherry.
Chipp Coffee Co. Roastery Update
Despite the odd rain shower, we are all pleased that the sun has been more present and more light has been peeking through the Roastery doors!
Candy Cloud has been a firm favourite amongst the team, and a great example of how wonderful coffees from Mexico are. This lot was sourced through Ensambles, from the remote region of Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca. This region is visited rarely due to its location, but has some of our favourite lots we've tasted with a distinct flavour profile. It is also worth mentioning that delivering parchment to the dry mill takes an average 6 hours drive (one way) with most producers harvested an average of 100kg. However, the journey made is always absolutely worth it because this coffee is an all day smashable brew with such complexity, that we are consuming litres of most days of the week. Give it a go!
Apart from romanticising Candy Cloud, we also have another lot from the Shyira washing station - Morning Mimosa. This lot is still a natural process, though a more experimental process known as Anoxic Natural (very similar to Anaerobic).
The anoxic process is a great way to improve the cup quality and complexity of a coffee, whilst replicable and at a low cost for the producer. The technique involves a plastic sheet that provides a barrier between the water and coffee cherry, thin enough to allow the water to fill the shape of the tub, forming a pillow of water above the coffee. In doing so, the water can serve two functions; firstly it creates an anoxic fermentation environment, one low in free molecular oxygen. Secondly, the water in this state acts as a large heatsink, to draw heat away from the fermenting coffee, which regulates the risk of developing off flavours and also aids in prolonging shelf life. If you want a slightly more funky version, definitively try this innovative process!
Aisde from this, we're sourcing more delicious seasonal lots whilst planning and filming a load more content for social media with Moll, our excellent social media manager!
What We're Listening To
Prof - Horse
Prof is a rapper and producer out of Minneapolis. Horse is a self released and self produced project full of versatile lyricism and flows that really show off his talent.
This has been rinsed many many many times over the last few months and worth giving a go!
