The Rwanda Coffee Factory!

A friend in my aerobics class, Nalani and her husband opened a coffee factory here

many years ago... even before 1994...and they have been here ever since.  Their 

business has grown and grown. Today (well, last Saturday) we had the privilege

of going on a tour of their factory.  

It was a little hard to find... but huge once we got there.  

I'll tell the story as we go since it is a long one!

I have to say this was a very interesting learning experience. 

Pictures along the way. Mattress piled high!  
A common sight around the city and in villages.

This bridge intrigued us.... What in the world is holding it up?
Yes, it is just for walking but even still!!!

This is the home of Rwanda Coffee--RWACOF!

Signature Silos!

This man runs the day-to-day operations of the plant itself.
He weighs the trucks when they come in with the beans and makes
sure all the steps in between are covered!
He gave us an incredible lesson on how the coffee beans are processed.
He was a great teacher! 

The trucks, after being weighed... unload the beans at the dock.
They come from local coffee growers all over Rwanda
so the quality and kind of bean is always different.
That is why this process is so critical if great coffee is
the goal. 

 Here they begin the pre-cleaning process....

 This sucks up the beans and throws them
into the pre-cleaning machine.

Cleaning out the junk:  rocks, dirt, stems.
This machine
was spitting out the yucky stuff. 

 Next the beans go through the drier.  It is on the left
and it spins just like a clothes drier only slower..
This drier doesn't take all of the moisture out of the beans
but it dries then at a constant temperature.

Then they are put through the destoner to make sure all of the rock or
any other substance is gone--- leaving only coffee beans.

This looks like gravel but it is coffee beans..

After destoning, the coffee beans are put through a huller. Yummm, I just had a sip
of some coffee from this place and it is soooo good!   Nalani gave me some beans last week.  She is very generous.  (They don't sell the coffee or roast the beans here but they do roast some small bags of coffee here to give away.  Lucky us.)
 They sell the beans to buyers in Europe and they roast it there.

This wasn't operating the day we were there.

Now the refining really begins...  The beans are put through a grader by size. 

 This machine has 7 different "trays" that sift the beans.  Each tray
has different size holes for the coffee beans to "fall through".
So, once they go through, the best/biggest beans remain on top and the
other categories or sizes continue to sift their way through.
After this they are graded by weight with a gravity table.
 
( I just erased this picture, sorry)

 And then the last stage is the Color Sorting.  I could't
figure out how this worked but the end result was
different colored beans.  

Can you tell which ones are better?

I didn't know that coffee beans were white.
Well, those are the best ones and the ones that
make the most expensive cup of coffee.

Quite a difference.  

These guys were bagging the coffee as
it came out of the auger.
This is the final process before shipping.
The Bagging Off Process!

All hands in!
See how white the beans are?

Another bag done!

As you can see the warehouse is brimming with beans.

This is where the bags are completed
and readied for shipment.

This room is usually filled with at least 600 women sitting
on the concrete... sorting the beans that didn't
quite make the grade. This process is all done by hand.
(They were out for their lunch break)

Can you imagine going through each of these beans?

 A huge and endless job... sorting all the 
"these won't make the best coffee" beans.


I wonder which companies use these beans?  

Just another view!

This pile of bean bags is tagged for shipment.

 And this is the huge loading dock area. 

The end result... Four different 
qualities of coffee beans--
 

This is quality control room.  This is where the coffee
receives its final approval. 

This is a smaller version of the sifter... that is used
on the large scale.  The grader by size is much larger than these little trays.
These are just used for a small sampling of beans.  These beans are really refined.

This is their small roaster.. It runs on gas.  

And THIS is the final quality control. This guy takes a one sip out of each
of the 6 cups of coffee samples to test. 

 He swishes it around in his mouth....over his taste buds and then.....

 spits it out into this pitcher!  
If each of the 6 cups have the same flavor, body, etc.  
they pass and can be processed. 

And as you can tell... from his reaction--They aren't just
good coffee beans.... 
THEY ARE HAPPY BEANS! 

Then, of course, it was our turn...
What a funny job to have... but we had fun trying.
Slurp, Swish and Spit!  HAHAHAHA


Did you have any idea this is how your coffee is tested? 
We sure didn't! 

Bruce really was really taking this seriously...Slurp!

  

 
  Swish and Spit! 

Hard to imagine that this would be how coffee beans are tested...
but I suppose they do this everywhere!

After the truck was unloaded

 it came back for his final weigh-in. 

Then the preparation for shipment around the world. 

This was another building where over 1000 women could work
at one time.  It is hard to see but they were on their lunch break and many
were laying down taking naps.

What an incredible time to see all of these things and learn all about this process.
It makes me appreciate a good cup of coffee even more! 


Thank you Nalani and your husband and all the workers for allowing us 
to see what you do and how you do it!  


Coffee drinkers around the world thank you, too! 

Just took these pictures to show you how "dusty" all the roofs are!  

Some of them used to be blue.  

The dry season is in full swing here. 

 The dirt has taken over everything.
Even the plants and trees are all turning a clay brown color.
I think our throats have, too! 

 There is no "winter" here, as many of you have been wondering.
It is eternally summer..,warm summer days and cool summer evenings
The only variations are wet and dry seasons.  


I guess that is why great coffee beans are grown here and why
every morning we can have such great coffee to drink. 


We are grateful for this.  The tea is equally good here. 
The climate and seasons are perfect for growing both. 


Well, at this writing it is Sunday morning and I need to 
get ready to go to church.. Teaching 7-12 years olds this morning. 


Hope you've enjoyed your Coffee Tour.  I hope it made sense.
There was a lot more explanation about it all but at least 
this gives you a picture of how it is done. 


So.. go have a cup of coffee and decide if the beans it was made from
are white or shades of brown, black or gray. 


You can taste the difference!  


love, 
margie