The Story behind the Maraba Coffee

The Maraba region is found in southern Rwanda. Coffee plants from the area are carefully grown on the fertile volcanic soils atop hills. These plants are the Bourbon variety of the species known as Coffee arabica. Between the rainy months of March and May, the fruits of these plants are handpicked, brought to the washing station where they are eventually extracted and dried. The process does not end there though. The beans are sorted out according to their quality, and the farmers are paid based on the quality and the amount of beans they are able to produce.

Let us find out how your Maraba coffee is grown and taken cared of until they become the beans that are ready for savoring.

The rainy season of Rwanda, which runs from March to May, is the major harvesting period for the cherries. By this time around, local farmers handpick the cherries and carry them in traditional woven baskets to respective washing stations. Normally situated hours away from the farms, the washing station is where the cherries are cleaned are readied for sorting. Deep-red-colored cherries are considered the best ones and they are the ones selected by technicians; the rest are given back to the growers where they can be sold outside at a much lower price. On the average, growers are given .10¢ for every kilogram.

Because fermentation can ruin the sugary coating of the bean, washing is done right away. In a deep tank where the beans are first thrown, the best cherries are easily separated from the not-so-good-ones as they sink to the bottom of the tank. There they pass through a machine that is responsible for removing their skin. Again the floating cherries are also processed but they are sold at a lower price at the local market. Before the individual beans are run through the vibrating colander, they have to pass a selection and de-skinning machines where most of their sugary coating and of course their skin is removed. It is in the vibrating colander where the beans are sorted out into a range of the highest quality beans or the Grade A beans to those beans labeled as Grade B; after which the two kinds are sent further down the hill through a water chute where they will be further categorized. The better beans are submerged for at least two days, while the rest for at least 20 hours, just enough to cause some fermentation but not much to impair the flavor.

Then the drying process starts. After being washed and submerged, the beans are not put out on racks to dry. Employees from the cooperative need to turn the beans regularly, while technicians continue to check and remove the bad ones. The drying process takes about two weeks and reduces the water content of the coffee beans to a minimal 12 percent from the original 40 percent. In a technical center, certain machines will be run to remove the parchment skins before the beans are transported to an adjacent laboratory for the mandatory quality control process. Then finally, the beans are packaged and labeled based on their quality and stored in the warehouse until they are bought.