Stanislas Kayitera

Producer: Stanislas Kayitera
Origin: Bushekeri Sector, Nyamasheke District, Western Province, Rwanda
Elevation: 1700 MASL
Variety: Red Bourbon
Process: Washed
Roast Level: Light
Importer: Sundog Trading
Flavor Notes: Lemon, Caramel, Honey, Floral

Here's our second release from our friends of Ben of Sundog Trading and Emmanuel of Baho Coffee. This is our third harvest working with them but our first time EVER (like in 16 years of coffee ever) seeing a single producer lot from Rwanda! So hyped to introduce Stanislas Kayitera to the Enjoy fold! Here's the scoop on this rare single producer Rwandan lot.

Ben from Sundog shared some thoughts in terms of the development and work of creating traceable single producer lots in Rwanda with us: We began exploring single farm lot separations the past few seasons. This type of buying can sometimes feel a bit unnatural in countries where the washing station model of production is so dominant; and to be honest, it’s all an experiment at this point. We’re still open to discovering that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze here - perhaps single farm separations don’t make sense in Rwanda like they so easily do in other countries where coffee farming alone is a potential career path? For now, our theoretical goal is to isolate farmers that exhibit an elevated interest in coffee production and are dedicated to delivering to Baho stations. We want to highlight and support those that have a desire to work within our supply stream on some form of a deeper level beyond simply dropping cherry at the station. This feels like a natural next step for us to continue tightening up feedback loops, searching for deeper relationships, and creating a clearer path to increase quality.

Stanislas Kayitera is a lifelong farmer and has been cultivating coffee - along with banana, beans, and potatoes - for nearly 40 years; and he’s directly witnessed the country navigate immense changes throughout his lifetime. He was one of the original founding members of the Kobakanya Cooperative and currently serves as the group’s president, working very closely with Akagera / Baho. Kayitera was one of the first producers that Aphrodis, manager of the station, mentioned when we asked about people with slightly larger farms in the Nyamasheke area - and there’s no surprise why! He tends to a handful of parcels with his family and a few seasonal workers; the combined total amount of land comes in at a pretty stunning 5 hectares, which is roughly 20x the national average.  

It's such a cool opportunity to share Stanislas' coffee since he is a super unique case in Rwanda.  Emmanuel of Baho Coffee shared some more on this initiative in their greater coffee program: These are farmers that do coffee farming as a business and they really show full commitment to their work. They serve as model in good agricultural practices, soil management, erosion control, environmental conservation practices as well as giving jobs to many other small farmers in need especially during harvest…The reason why Baho coffee selected to process and market their production separately from others is because we wanted to motivate them. Selling coffee in their names makes them proud and increases their energy and commitment. It is very easy to ask them to implement all our quality control protocols and it is also easy to have full information about their farms through our records taking system. We wish that, in future, this coffee to be served in coffee shops in the names of these farmers, owners. We are more than happy of what happened for our first year of this initiative and we want to keep extending till we can 100% give any information about our coffee from farm to export level.  We have signed a commitment letter with these farmers where they commit to implement all good agricultural practice, quality control and deliver cherries to Baho cws. Baho will market, promote their coffee and pay them better prices that is higher than any other farm in the region/country.

Hearing this gets us even more excited to help debut Stanislas' coffee in the US. In terms of the lot we have here, it's true to form for the washed coffees we've grown to love from Baho... We have a washed, single variety lot of Red Bourbon here grown at 1700 meters above sea level. Super dense and meticulously processed seeds give way to a bright and silky cup profile. Stanislas floats the cherries to sort out defects then introduces them to a brief 10 hour in-cherry oxygen light / anaerobic light (lol) fermentation before a 12 hour traditional wet fermentation. Further sorting of the densest seeds get separated for this lot before drying on raised beds for 29 days.

Stanislas' lot is bright while not being overly pointed in its presentation. Lemon notes are rounded out by a honey like sweetness and caramels and light milk chocolates a la Twix. As the cup cools more lemons and florals emerge in a super silky and juicy finish.

This is a special lot for sure and hope to keep Stanislas' name in the Enjoy rotation for years to come!