About the Producer

Tropic Coffee was started by husband-and-wife team Christophe Rugira and Divine Mutuyimana in 2015. Meeting in 2014, Divine was a fountain of coffee knowledge, being born into a family with a long history in coffee trade. Christophe was a complete coffee novice, but was excited to jump into the industry headfirst.

They now own and operate three washing stations: Gisanga in the South, Kabyiniro in the West and Cyato slightly more inland near the Nyungwe Forest, each processing coffee from neighbouring producers. One of their main focuses is training female farmers in the best agricultural practices - from seedling preparation, to planting and harvesting.

Gisanga Washing Station comprises a mainly female workforce and processes approximately 650 tonnes of cherries per season, delivered to the station by foot or on a bicycle. Cherries are intensively hand-sorted and floated to check for ripeness. For this lot, they're then fermented in closed tanks for up to 72 hours before drying on raised beds and being raked every 30 minutes, to avoid mould and unwanted fermentation.