17 Grams’s new Rwandan coffee comes from the Shyira Washing Station, which at 1850 MASL claims to be the highest in the country. Shyira receives cherries from smallhold farms as high as 2300 MASL, ideal conditions for cultivating specialty coffee beans.

For this washed process coffee, the cherry is hand sorted and pulped before undergoing 12 hours of fermentation in dedicated concrete tanks during which it is agitated with ceremonial foot-stomping to remove any residual mucilage. The parchment coffee is then sorted, washed, floated and sorted once again before drying. The result is a very clean and sharp coffee with pomelo citrus and rooibos tea flavour and some blackcurrant sweetness.

Not only does Shyira produce exceptional quality coffee, but the devastation the Nyabihu region experienced from environmental disaster in 2020 means the support from importers like Raw Material can have a large social impact for the whole community, maximising how far their investment goes.