Rwanda Ejo Heza

For the 8th year, we are so excited to welcome back Ejo Heza to our menu! Ejo Heza is an all women's cooperative group within the larger Kopakama cooperative that was founded after the Rwandan genocide with a mission of uniting people for a common good and rebuilding a healthy industry and community, which led them to create this subgroup to provide even greater opportunities for equitability and growth for women in the community. The group was appropriately named Ejo Heza which translates to “brighter tomorrow”.

The cooperative has become a leader in social and gender equality within their community, creating opportunity and reinvesting into the community. All while producing award winning, exceptional coffees. Nate Hamood, President & Director of Coffee at DOCR, began working with Ruth Ann Church from Artisan Coffee Imports to bring this coffee in about 8 years ago. We are so excited about the coffee quality itself but also the quality of programs and initiatives the organization has committed to. Being able to taste and experience this coffee each year, we’ve noticed every years crop has been better than the last. We have joined in an initiative with a few roasters paying additional premiums on top of the price of the coffee in order to further invest in their community programs and the investment in infrastructure of the operation and its resulting product. That burden on each of us is much smaller than the combined impact at origin. 

This lot is a bourbon variety, washed process. This washed process involves a disk de-pulper, wet fermentation for 12-18 hours, then soaked in a separate tank fro 16-24 hours before being dried on raised beds in the sun. We are tasting this year’s crop is even cleaner and juicier than last. We’re tasting notes of plum, apricot and chamomile in this year’s lot. Like last year, it is reminding us of a dole fruit cup, a quality we look for in well executed Rwandan coffee's. Syrupy, sweet, and clean.