Thrilled as we are that the roastery's social calendar is coming alive with community events right here at home in Sharjah, it feels just as great looking back at what had been a travel-swept first half of 2024.
We had journeys on encore. These were the successful rerun of QP 2 in Ethiopia, Hotelex Shanghai marking our 2nd visit to China, our Frederick Bejo and team's US return for the World Brewer's Cup at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Chicago (where he masterfully represented the UAE specialty coffee community and specialty coffee competition scene as he finished strong in the Semis), our big comeback to the Philippine Coffee Expo in Manila, and back-to-back trips to the provenance of the legendary Geisha, Panama.
We also had a noteworthy first—our specialty coffee origin trip to Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills and a million smiles. It was our first time organizing a specialty coffee origin trip with the intention of bringing coffee friends along for a few days of leisurely learning.
That meant our itinerary was consciously tailored to enrich our practical knowhow of specialty coffee's producing side more deeply through immersion in key sites and activities (i.e., farm, washing station, dry mill, cupping lab) while deepening our appreciation of the producing country's culture, as well as fostering meaningful connections with the great coffee people we encountered those short but resonant four days.
Scroll through to revisit Archers Origin Trip to Rwanda with us.
Day 1 – Arrival, Settling In, Getting to Know Kigali
What happens when a motley mix of specialty coffee lovers, including hobbyists, a cafe owner, and a Brewers Cup Champ, come together on an overseas coffee adventure?
With a host as open-handed and merry as Emmanuel Rusatira of Baho Coffee and his family, it was a fun and fruitful day, as Day 1 of our Archers Origin Trip to Rwanda had been. It began with a warm, traditional Rwandese breakfast welcome at the Rusatiras' family home and unfolded with nuance.
We had lighthearted interactions over the heartiest of meals. We had engaging coffee conversations from across the Baho cupping table — spanning rudiments of post-harvest processing to the directions flavor profile development could take, as the sourcing and producing sides of the value chain continuously navigate and negotiate the most sustainable ways to cater to consumers' cyclically evolving preferences.
We also had a profoundly moving tour of the nation's memorial museum, which unmistakably underscored the importance of developing equitable livelihoods for the Rwandese, to which we are able to contribute, when we choose to represent the finest of Rwanda's coffees in our collection, and when our friends like you choose to include them in your rotation.
To cap Day 1, our motley crew, physical fatigue offset by lots of laughs in between and a growing camaraderie, sat down for a few brews at the picturesque and contemporary Kivu Noir Cafe upon Emmanuel's recommendation.
For Day 2, we headed to the highlands to get our feet wet and hands dirty, picking coffee cherries and experiencing washed processing the Rwandese way.
Days 2 & 3 – Way Up the Highlands: Coffee Harvesting & Processing
Great vibes riding high, set to an eclectic playlist that spanned a spectrum of Afrobeats to Japanese city pop, we rode out rugged roads along forested hillsides en route to immersion in coffee quality creation.
As a pit stop, we dropped in the rustic Stafford Coffee Brewers along our upland trail.
What should have been a quick break just to stretch our legs and caffeinate opened up delightfully into a spur-of-the-moment bar takeover and a picture-perfect, specialty coffee-centered picnic punctuated by a simplified yet impactful session of Sensory Baseline Calibration, a concept meant to enhance our sensory awareness and appreciation of the finer attributes of a specialty coffee, as introduced by our Kemal Risyad at his 2024 UAE National Barista Championship run.
By comparatively tasting an 84-85 scoring specialty coffee alongside a 90+ competition series specialty coffee, with the guidance of our Frederick Bejo, we were reminded of how important it is for us, as specialty coffee drinkers, to try and reset our palate from time to time.
That's because this is one accessible way we can remain perceptive to and appreciative of the distinctive notes that make even the entry-level specialty coffees shine and, more so, so that we can stay sharp to the subtle nuances that set standout coffees apart.
On to the main agenda, in those two days, we experienced slices of life in Rwanda's coffee-growing countryside as we visited a smallholder farm and toured washing stations in distant districts — Fugi in Nyaruguru, and Akagera and Ngoma in Nyamasheke.
Each was built out according to its distinctive microclimate and set up to receive coffee cherries from neighboring farmers, with measures in place for traceability and facilities to carry out processing at varying levels of complexity toward graduated levels of quality and unique flavor profiles to meet the diverse global specialty coffee community's evolving tastes.
At the farm, we hand-picked Red Bourbon cherries after a brief on visually identifying ripeness. We then got feedback on how we did as pickers, leading to an enriching discussion led by Baho Coffee’s Emmanuel Rusatira and our Frederick Bejo on critical aspects of picking, cultivation, and maintenance in the off-season.
Meanwhile, our tour of the washing stations, punctuated by Emma and Fred's exchange of insights, made real how our friends at origin strive to maximize what's at hand to produce coffees we get to enjoy, underscoring our role on the consuming side to appreciate and fairly reward the heft of all those human efforts.
Fugi Washing Station
Fugi was the largest among the three and most equipped to fine-tune fermentation and drying, enabling a broad range of processing methods, from traditional washed and natural to intentional experiments, including Anaerobic Washed and Anaerobic Honey.
Akagera & Ngoma Washing Stations
Roadside Akagera focuses on naturals because of limited access to water and amenities to treat processing by-products, while lakeside Ngoma — where humidity poses a challenge to drying naturals — is primed for washed and honey.
Our pace only relaxed as we walked away from Ngoma toward a patch of shore for a scenic boat ride on Lake Kivu, which took us to lunch. After that, we took another quarter-day ride—two hours through the famous Nyungwe forest—until we reached Kigali to rest up for our last day.
Day 4 – Walking Through Final Touchpoints of Quality: RWACOF Dry Mill Tour & NAEB Cupping
Coffee quality created at the farm and enhanced at the washing station is upheld at the dry mill and assessed in the cupping lab before it can be enjoyed by specialty coffee lovers worldwide.
Tying in our Rwanda origin trip, on the last day, our crew of adventurous coffee friends — close-knit by this time — directly witnessed the highly industrialized, capital-intensive operations at the RWACOF Dry Mill and experienced cupping at the National Agricultural Export Board's (NAEB) lab.
Like every other part of our trip, these could only be possible thanks to arrangements made by our producing partner Baho Coffee’s owner and founder, Emmanuel Rusatira, his family, and his team.
At the Dry Mill, we sequentially followed the process flow, from receiving dried coffees delivered by washing stations to hulling, grading — by screen size, density via the gravity table, and color with two types of optical sorters — and bagging.
At NAEB, we spent five hours cupping four tables with more than 70 micro lots. We got acquainted with the flavor possibilities of a single variety grown across the different zones and processed in different ways at several Baho washing stations, including the ones we visited. Beyond that, our lengthy session, though akin to a combined cupping/sensory boot camp set to easygoing beats, turned out as enriching as it was fun.
In tandem, the work done at the Dry Mill and at NAEB is intended to preserve the quality of coffee as produced by the washing station, make it ready for export to match a buyer's specifications, and protect Rwanda's reputation as a producing country.
In so doing, the aim is for consumers to grow in appreciation of Rwanda's unique cup profiles, enabling coffee farmers and workers alike to be properly rewarded for all their efforts and encouraged to cultivate high-quality coffee sustainably.
With that, we wrapped up a fulfilling and unforgettable Archers origin trip to Rwanda that wouldn't have been so if not for the most good-humored, level-headed, and open-minded coffee friends — who took a risk to travel to origin for this first time with us.
See You in Sharjah this Summer '24
We're homebound in Sharjah, at least throughout this long, languorous summer. But with a bustling social calendar and crowds of our coffee friends constantly swinging by, we're guaranteed a grand time.
If you're spending this season in the UAE, you have every reason to stop by and stay a while, too.
Archers Coffee Skill Lab for Espresso, Pourovers, and Milk Steaming & Latte Art is open daily for all-comers. These half-day fully conversational and practical quick courses are designed especially for beginners who want to learn the basics for making tasty specialty coffees more fun at home. To get your preferred schedule and group mix, and learn in the language of your choice — Arabic or English — make sure to book your slot at least two days early.
Home Roasting by Kemal Risyad, meanwhile, happens on Fridays and also requires that you book two days before your preferred schedule.
Feeling there's so little time with so many coffees to try? No worries, because there's Archers Friday Coffee Club where we get to try and solve this happy problem when we meet for two hours to taste and talk about a themed set of coffees as a community.
It's a different theme every Friday and a different mix of coffee friends. For our first Friday Coffee Club session on July 19, we had the Archers Academy classroom brimming with our coffee friends' good energy and showcasing our community's diversity and good-natured curiosity.
We explored the notion of infused coffees together while navigating and sharing our impressions around it, guided in the discussion by our Wilden Pretorius, Dave Peralta, Windu Alifart, and David Disuanco.
If you're perpetually ridden with relentless wanderlust for specialty coffee adventures abroad and can't wait to start planning for our next trip together — there's good news!
January 2025, we're heading back to Daye Bensa Coffee's Gatta Farm in Sidama Bensa, Ethiopia, for our third run of the Coffee Quality Institute's Q Processing 2: The Professional. Have a look at all the details and sign up here!
Wherever it is we connect with you next, there's no doubt we'll share some of the world's finest coffees, enjoy the moment, and for sure those meaningful memories will make themselves.
Sooner is better. Catch you then!