Rwanda Karongi Gitesi

Light Roast (City)

This is a special find that we're rotating through, meaning once it's gone it's gone. It packs a lot of clean fruit flavor without the fermented/funky notes that a lot of other natural process coffees have. This one is an ideal candidate for pourover, but if you're a little bit adventurous, it can make a really interesting espresso (I can't recommend milk drinks with that espresso though).

Tasting notes: strong berry notes, particularly blueberry, backed up by even more fruit notes like dates and plums with a subtle tea and dark sugar underneath

Origin: Karongi, Rwanda
Sourced From: Sweet Maria's (Coffee Shrub)
Varieties: Bourbon
Arrived from importer: January 2026
Process: Raised bed sun-dried
Elevation: 1740-2000 MASL
Roast level: Light (City)
Best after: 14–21 days from roast

The washing station in Gitesi produces some of the best coffee to come out of Rwanda, and this is the first natural/dry-process lot to come off the site. More than 1,800 smallholders deliver coffee cherries here each harvest. On arrival, the cherries are floated to skim off the underripe and defective pieces; only the denser, ripe cherries sinks and get dried on raised beds as the top-grade lots. The station also pays participating farmers an end-of-season dividend tied to how the coffee performs, which is part of why Gitesi keeps turning out some of the cleaner, more consistent coffee in the region.

Currently this product is produced under the Arkansas Food Freedom act (i.e. made at my residence, which is exempt from state licensing and inspection).