Rwanda Rulindo Buliza

The Buliza site is in Burega sector, part of the Rulindo district. A lot of the Rwandan coffee we buy comes from this general area, however this is the first year we were offered the coffee from Buliza washing station. The site sits at 1790 meters above sea level, and rests at the foot of rolling mountain hills that stretch up even higher. We met with the Buliza manager, Modeste, back in 2024 and were able to get a first-hand look at coffee being processed at the start of the season. The wet mill is very traditional in the sense that they are using very traditional machinery and wet process methods. A 4-disc Mckinnon style pulper is used to remove the cherries from the green coffee seeds, that are then fermented for 12 to 18 hours to break down the sticky fruit mucilage. They then use long grading channels to separate the top grades from the rest, and drip-dry the coffee for a few days on raised beds under a shade canopy, before moving to the uncovered drying tables.