Rwanda Sholi Natural
Blueberry, Lemon candy, Toffee
WHY WE LOVE IT: This relationship coffee offers big citrus notes in a rounded, complex cup.
REGION: Muhanga District, Southern Province
PROCESSING METHOD: Natural
ALTITUDE: 1,800 - 2,000 m
VARIETY: Bourbon
The arrival of the latest harvest from our partners at the Sholi cooperative is one of our favorite annual traditions and when you taste it you will see why.
In the cup, a muted orange citrus plays with the bright bitters of a grapefruit. This coincides with the juiciness of a plum, and is underpinned with a black tea finish.
We love this coffee, and its great quality is only made better by the wonderful cooperative that produced it.
MORE ABOUT SHOLI:
In the past few years, perhaps no other coffee has become as anticipated or as special to us as our annual release from Rwanda Sholi. During our trip to Rwanda in 2019, we cupped their coffees and toured one of the processing stations, a farm, warehouse, and the health and community centers and formed lasting relationships along the way.
The Abateraninkunga ba Sholi cooperative (meaning 'mutual assistance') was originally established in 2008 by 30 women and received official recognition in 2013. In 2014 they received funding to build their own washing station, and in 2015 received their Fair Trade certification. Today, the cooperative continues to grow, now constituting 619 members, 241 of which are women.
In 2016 the cooperative received a grant to build a community center and a health center to serve its members and other local residents. The nearest hospital is over 45 minutes away on poor roads, so services for things such as malaria, parasites, pregnancy check-ups, and basic first aid that the health center can provide are invaluable. The community center also provides education on nutrition, cooking, and gardening in order to combat childhood malnutrition. In recent years, the cooperative started a community transformation program aimed to help 70 young mothers from the ages of 18-25. The program is designed to teach them how to save, includes small savings and credit groups, and gifts them a collective coffee field. All sales of cherry from this field go directly to the women.
We're excited and proud to be able to again offer this exceptional coffee that has done so much for the community from where it hails.
WE TASTE
Blueberry, Toffee, and Lemon candy
roast level
Light-medium
fresh roasted
Ships fresh roasted from our St. Louis roastery
CUPS PER BAG SIZE
Freshness Tip: Choose the size that you'll drink within 3 to 4 weeks
12 OUNCE
~18 cups
2 POUND
~48 cups
5 POUND
~121 cups
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Select "Subscribe & Save" and then choose the frequency that you want to get fresh roasted coffee to your door.
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FAQ
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When you place an order from us, our highest priority is sending you the freshest coffee possible. You deserve it, and frankly so do our world class coffee producers and their coffees.
Read our blog on the benefits of fresh roasted coffee to learn more.
- If you order on Monday - Thursday before 3:00pm CST, your order will ship out the next business day.
- If you order on Monday - Thursday after 3:00pm CST, your order will ship out the day following the next business day. (ex: orders placed at 4:00pm CST on a Monday will ship on Wednesday).
- If you order Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, at any time, your order will ship out on Monday, barring holidays.
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We offer three different grind sizes on the vast majority of our coffee offerings: drip, espresso, and French press.
- Use drip grind if you plan on making your coffee using a coffee machine, in a pour over brewer, or if you want to try a newer way to make your trusty French press.
- Use espresso grind if you have an espresso machine at home. This grind will be very fine and will over-extract (in other words, taste bitter and chalky) in other methods.
- Use French press grind if you are making a coffee in the more traditional French Press method, or making cold brew, or do very large batches in a Chemex (greater than 60 grams of coffee).
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Please visit our brewing page here. Coffee brewing is as much an art as it is a science, and it might take a few tries for you to find a sweet-spot that matches your taste preference. We recommend not getting too lost in the "right" way to brew, but instead focus on what you like and try to educate yourself on some best practices. And then just take it from there!
That said, we offer several how-to's for many popular brewers:
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Our blends run from medium-light to dark. You can get a full breakdown of the blends in our Blend Buying Guide.
Core Blends include:
700 is our medium-roast core espresso blend that also tastes great as drip.
Cafe Kaldi has been our house blend since 1994. It contains coffee from Ethiopia that gives it a touch of complexity.
Dancing Goats Blend is a little more developed and gives a bit bolder of a cup.
Highlander Grogg is a fan-favorite flavored coffee.