Shyira Anoxic

Origin: Rwanda

Process: Anoxic Natural

Varieties: Red Bourbon

Importer: Raw Material

Harvest: 2024

Per-Kilogram green price: £17.3

Amount purchased: 60kg

Shyira is a young washing station situated at 2000 MASL in the Nyabihu district, which collects cherry from producers in the surrounding area between 2000 - 2400

MASL. This is the highest grown coffee we know of in Rwanda, and it’s from a region where very few washing stations are located making it unique. All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, under ripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Next, cherry is floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and then pulped. 

This coffee is fermented in concrete tanks for on average 12 hours. During this time, the ferment parchment is agitated several times throughout the day by way of ceremonial foot stomping. The process takes about 20 minutes and all the while, the fermentation process is assisted with the agitation of the coffee. After fermentation, coffee is released into a large serpentine grading channel. This process also separates parchment into different

density grades. The highest density grade, A1, is trapped by submerged gates early on in the serpentine, where lower density coffee is allowed to pass through.

Eventually, there are three grades, A1 and A2, and grade A3/A4. There is no quality difference between A1 and A2 grades, rather a difference in density.