Melbourne Coffee Merchants: IWD feature
Welcome to our fourth special feature! This time is extra special as we feature two female coffee producers from Rwanda. As part of our celebration of International Women's Day, we will be donating $1 for every order towards the "Supporting Strong Women" initiative by Melbourne Coffee Merchants.
Through "Supporting Strong Women" the Australian coffee community aims to raise $15,000 by June 2024 to construct a day care centre for the women of Rambagirakawa and the wider coffee producing community, from which both coffees featured have been produced. Accomplishing this long-held goal will directly impact the women's productivity and prosperity, while also ensuring their children are cared for in a safe, happy and nurturing environment, surrounded by their community and with their mums, aunties and grandmothers close by.
About Melbourne Coffee Merchants
"We’re very proud of the relationships we’ve developed at origin, and we feel lucky to have worked with many of the same producers since 2008. Investing in these relationships has allowed us to increase quality potential, and enabled our producing partners to grow sustainably and continue to invest in improving quality. Visiting these producers every year enables us to understand the complexities and local challenges they face, and to find creative and meaningful ways to support them.
We care a lot about supporting our customers – big and small – to help them grow, succeed and prosper. We love being part of a customer’s journey by providing the highest quality green beans and support along the way. Nothing makes us happier than seeing a customer get excited about our coffee offerings, and fall in love with the coffees they’re roasting. We strive to build open and honest relationships with our customers, and to provide exceptional service and support. Ultimately, it’s our relationships, both locally and globally, that bring true meaning to what we do. We feel so lucky to be part of a vibrant and passionate coffee community, and we want to contribute to it in the most positive way we can.
We add value and insight by providing as much traceability as possible on every single coffee we purchase. Wherever we can, we visit each of the producers we work with and develop long-term relationships with them. We share information with our customers about where our beans come from, how they are harvested and processed, and the backgrounds and stories of the people that grow them. We take our role as a link-builder between producers and purveyors seriously. We want to help our customers learn about our coffees and share these stories with their customers, to get everyone as excited about these coffees as we are."
"Marie has worked in coffee for nearly five decades, establishing her farm with her husband in 1976. In 1994 she was widowed during the horrific Rwandan genocide and was faced with the responsibility of caring for her five surviving children and grandchild. Armed with courage and determination, Marie returned to her farm and decided to make a living out of farming.
Before the establishment of cooperatives and centralised washing stations, coffee production was extremely arduous for Rwandan coffee farmers. Processing was labour-intensive and lengthy, with very little equipment, training or resources available to rural farming communities. Typically, coffee cherries were depulped by hand using stones and parchment was dried at farm level, before being sold to a middleman or ‘broker’ who would then on sell the coffee to traders or exporters based in Kigali. Not only did this result in a long and challenging harvest season for individual farmers, it also denied them any leverage for negotiating prices to achieve a fair and reliable income." Read more here
Producer - Marie Bedabasingwa
Origin - Ruli, Gakenke District, Rwanda
Roasted by - Legend Coffee Roasters
Roast Date - 29/02/2024
Variety - Red Bourbon
Process - Washed
Producer - Laurence Mukakabera
Origin - Ruli, Gakenke District, Rwanda
Roasted by - Legend Coffee Roasters
Roast Date - 29/02/2024
Variety - Red Bourbon
Process - Washed
(view from Maries' house)
Recipes
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Espresso - 9 bar Brew ratio - 1:2.3 (dry coffee : espresso liquid) Temp - 94 Deg C Time - 25-30 seconds. *Adjust grind size to achieve the desired time
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Espresso - 6 bar Brew ratio - 1:2.7 (dry coffee : espresso liquid) Temp - 94 Deg C Time - 25-30 seconds. *Adjust grind size to achieve the desired time
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Pourover Temp - off the boil Ratio - 1:16 (dry coffee:water) Bloom - 30 seconds Flow rate - fast *Adjust grind size to achieve desired flow rate |
Aeropress Temp - off the boil Ratio - 1:16 (dry coffee : water) Bloom - 30 seconds Brew time - 90 seconds (including bloom) Press consistently over 15-20 seconds. |
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Stove top Ratio - 1 - 8.5 (dry coffee : water) |
