Rwanda Milles Collines SWP Decaf

This custom decaf is made up of coffees from small holder farmers in Nyamasheke, a district that straddles the southeastern side of Lake Kivu, in Rwanda. Farmers sell their coffee in whole cherry to local milling stations where the coffee is then processed, in this case the Gatare wet mill, and Kanyege cooperative. This lot was initially wet processed before sending off to be decaffeinated. "Milles Collines", as Rwanda is commonly referred to, translates to "the land of 1000 hills" in French. The cooperatives and washing stations who contributed to this blend are situated in the villages at the tops of some of these "collines", affording access to the higher elevation coffees, and offering ease of delivery for these coffee farm members. Most farms in this area are situated between 1500 and 2000 meters above sea level. This is 100% Bourbon cultivar, which when grown at high altitudes produces a dense bean capable of producing a high level of sweetness. The decaffeination was handled by Swiss Water Decaf in Vancouver, BC (where we have all our decafs processed). Their chemical-free decaffeination process removes 99.9% of the caffeine, while leaving much of the volatile compounds that affect flavor and aroma intact. That means the tasty coffees we send off for decafffeination are returned with much of their original appeal. Read more about the Swiss Water Decaf process here.