tea and coffee

I have been a coffee lover/addict for many years now and thanks to Anna Kendrick I also have a mild appreciation for that other common hot beverage. Last week I had the pleasure of field tripping to see the root of both - "crop to cup," if you will. The tea fields, which are primarily in the Western province are absolutely beautiful and the processing plant we toured was quite an experience. We thought about buying a 62 kilo bag on the spot, but it would've had to ride on the roof rack and we thought we might lose it on the bumpy, 3 hour, dirt road trek. Wise decision I think.



The coffee tree/plant is not as breathtaking as the tea fields, but the washing station for the coffee beans might be in my top five favorite tours ever. They simply use gravity and water to separate the different grades of beans, which seems to be primarily a matter of ripeness and density. Of course, it also requires of good bit of man power and hand-sorting during the drying stage. In some ways it was simple and yet I certainly couldn't have thought of it. Either way, I decided it was a good reason to become even more of a coffee snob. I have previously resisted indulging my tendency toward coffee snobbery because I don't want to get to the point where I can't drink gas station coffee on a road trip - always trying to keep my options open. However, being in a country where they grow some of the world's best coffee (yeah, its not just Columbia anymore kids), makes me think I should suck it up and just be elitist. Funny enough, Rwandans don't really drink much coffee, which is one of the obstacles to progress for some of the farmers - hard to know, much less improve, your product if you don't consume it.


If you live in Boston or DC, make sure to visit Bourbon Coffee when they open in the fall - Rwandan owned and operated and they pay farmers double fair trade!