Founding Vision

Muraho Trading Company (MTCo.) is the brainchild of two brothers who were raised to call Rwanda home. They are driven to showcase to the world what Rwandan speciality coffee is all about. However, not only the coffee but more importantly the people and country that have given us so much. Rwanda has come very far from the horrific genocide against the Tutsi that took place in 1994 to the striving country it is today. This unbelievable turnaround is a huge credit to the Rwandese people and signifies the true meaning of HOPE to the rest of the world.

Muraho is a young, innovative, trend-setting, and fun company. With a focus on producing specialty coffees, they strongly believe in achieving something more personal in terms of the people, origin of Rwanda, and showcasing to the world the phenomenal quality of coffees this country has to offer.

Gisheke Station

Gisheke is the newest member of the MTCo family. Located in Nyamasheke District, the station overlooks Lake Kivu, with almost 40% of the cherries received at Gisheke coming by boat from Mushungwe Island. All the cherries from the neighbouring islands are delivered by boat to Gisheke, which is only accessible by water.

Coffee Processing Techniques

All cherry is hand-sorted before a pre-pulp float, underripe or damaged cherry is removed, along with any foreign objects. Cherry is then floated in pre-pulping tanks removing any floaters and later pulped. Next, coffee is fermented in dedicated concrete fermentation tanks for an average of 12 hours. During this time, the fermented parchment is agitated several times through the day by way of ceremonial foot-stomping.

After fermentation, coffee is released into a large serpentine grading channel. This process also separates parchment into different density grades. During the washing process, parchment is continuously agitated to encourage lower-density parchment to float and to clean any residual mucilage off the parchment. Once the parchment is separated into grades, it is given a final post-wash rinse. At this point, coffee is taken to a pre-drying area where the parchment is hand-sorted, removing any insect-damaged, discoloured, or chipped coffee. The parchment is laid out to dry and turned on a regular basis throughout the day for 30 days.