Bonkers for Cake Sample

While this coffee tastes awesome in every device, our favourites are a filter, Chemex or cafetiere.

If you want to know more, see our brew guides for making coffee.

These amazing beans have been fully washed at the Mutendero Coffee Washing station, located at 1,820masl in the Isale region of North Kivu. This area boasts incredible conditions that are perfect for growing high-quality Arabica. Rainfall, high altitude, and fertile volcanic soil are all gold-star-worthy for coffee growing, and this area has it all!

The Virunga Coffee Company owns the Mutendero station and has worked hard to improve the local infrastructure to make farms more accessible. Investment in roads and bridges has allowed a higher yield of cherries to be harvested, transported and processed.

In steps to further improve the quality of the coffee, 40 field officers, who are trained agronomists (scientists who study plants and soil), distribute over 3 million seedlings a year to farming communities in Eastern DRC. They can also provide guidance on how to improve soil health, pest management, and crop production and quality. So far, they have trained over 11,000 farmers in GAP (good agricultural practices).

The journey of these beans begins with the perfectly ripe cherries being hand-picked before being transported to the Mutendero station, where they are sorted and pulped. They are then fermented for 18-24 hours (weather dependent) until the mucilage is broken down.

The beans are then washed in water channels before being graded by density and laid on raised African beds to sun dry for 12-18 days. During this period, they are closely monitored and raked to ensure they dry evenly.

Once they have reached the optimum moisture level of 10-12%, they are bagged and sent to the dry-mill Butembo for grading and sorting. Then, they are finally ready to be exported to Two Chimps HQ to be roasted to perfection, ready for your cup.

To find a coffees ‘quality’ score, a process known as ‘cupping’ is used. The only coffee we source and roast is speciality coffee. This type of coffee must get a score of at least 80 points. If this score is not achieved, the coffee won’t be speciality coffee. Want to know more? Check out our guide to coffee cupping to see what’s involved.

When we hand roast our coffees, we never ‘over roast’. The roasting process is used to bring out the natural flavours and aromas in the coffee. If we roast a coffee too dark, it’ll hide these natural flavours as they migrate towards burnt and bitter flavours. As the coffee we roast is such high quality, instead of roasting to hide the flavours, we can roast to highlight them! The coffees we roast are never bitter or burnt. Instead, they are all naturally sweet (not like a sugary sweetness, just naturally sweet) and all bursting with different flavours.

None of the coffees we source are ever the same. Some of them have a chocolatey note, and others are fruity. The farmers and workers who harvest and nurture the coffee work tirelessly to always produce a great product. We feel it’s our duty to get the most out of every bean we have.

Roast Style: Light & fruity

Location: North Kivu

Varietal(s): Bourbon

Processing: Washed

Altitude: 1500-1800 metres above sea level

Country: The Democratic Republic of Congo

Certification: Speciality

Producer: Mutendero Coffee Washing Station

Score: 85.75

What does this all mean? Check out our Jargon Buster.

By you purchasing speciality coffee from us, you are helping coffee farmers and workers throughout the globe who we source our coffee from. We ensure that we pay between 30 and 150% more than the ‘going rate’ for our green coffee. This means the farmers get paid more for their crops. This gives them the opportunity for better living conditions and, hopefully, an even better harvest next year.

We make sure the supply chain is kept as short as possible. This way, even more makes it back to the farm and its workers.

So pat yourself on the back. You are making a difference.

Love cake? Even in the morning? You are officially Bonkers for Cake, and there is nothing wrong with that ;-).