Rwanda Dry Process Tumba

This is only the second year we purchased a dry process lot ("natural") from the Tumba mill, who continually produce some of our top washed Rwandan coffee. At 15 bags, it's a pretty small lot for Rwanda, and the berry-toned, bright cups have made it a favorite East African natural around here. The coffee from Tumba washing station was on my radar for years before we first bought it almost a decade ago. When I first tasted it, the sweetness and bright acidic snap in the cup made a great impression. But at the time I noticed varied quality from one cup to the next, and a lack of consistency can mean problems in the processing. For a coffee buyer, it signifies that what you taste now might not be what you get upon importation. The backstory at the time was Tumba Station was a private processing wet mill that had 2 owners with very different ideas of quality and how to run a mill. Fast forward a few years, and we found ourselves purchasing Tumba for the first time under a very different light. A local teacher in the Tumba area for which the mill is named, had taken over all aspects, and the coffee was consistent in every cup ... and amazingly good! Venustre Mugraneza, the teacher, is esteemed in the local community and has been systematically improving the mill. Tumba is situated at 1825 meters in the Rulindo district, where we've also sourced the excellent Cocatu Cooperative lots.