Producer: Kinini Coffee Cooperative
Farm: 342 Smallholders
Region: Northern Province
Altitude: 1,800-2,200 masl | 5,906-7,218 feet
Varietal: Bourbon
Process: Washed
Roast: Light-Medium
Notes: Caramel, Lemongrass, Baked Apple

Crop to Cup Importers purchased the very first lot that Kinini Coffee Cooperative exported to the US in 2018 after discovering the co-op via the International Women's Coffee Alliance, as 85% of Kinini's members are women. Their coffee has become a favorite among our customers and staff in the years since.

After spending 10 years developing schools and community infrastructure for children of the Rwandan genocide, Jacquie Turner and Malcolm Clear founded Kinini Coffee in 2014 in an effort to provide sustainable income for these communities. Its structure is unprecedented in the region: Kinini Coffee signed a "lease" on parcels of land owned by various farmers throughout the area, most of which was not in use. This lease stipulated that Kinini would provide the farmers with coffee trees, training, and organization, while putting 10% of profits toward supporting education and health in the members' communities. All the farmers had to do was agree to deliver cherries to the Kinini Washing Station when the trees fruited in the future, for which they would be paid.

The care taken at the farms (by farmers incentivized to do so), at the washing station, during cherry collection, and on the drying tables has resulted in some of the highest-scoring coffees in the region.

This year's lot comes from 342 smallholders in the villages of Kinini, Tumba, and Mageragere.