Coffee Description
This coffee launches with fragrances of tart cherry, bran muffin, butterscotch, and a hint of citrus candy. Tasting notes include delicate florals, nectarine, and white grape, with pomegranate and lemongrass in the mix. Join these to sweetly tart acidity and velvety body for island experience to remember.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light
Variety
Bourbon
Process
Washed
Elevation
1714 masl
Region
Western Province
About Emmanuel Rwakagara of Rwanda
There’s something magical about an island, so it only stands to reason there’d be something extra special about coffee grown on one: Gishamwana Island, to be exact. This private bit of land in Lake Kivu is home to the coffee estate of Emmanuel Rwakagara. A relatively short boat ride from the Rwandan shore, Emmanuel cultivates 35,000 coffee trees. Shade-grown, organic, and isolated from pests and diseases by the wide stretch of water, Gishamwana Island coffee is milled and dried on the island as well.
A place of great biodiversity which includes cows, goats, and allegedly an albino rabbit, the island grows some of Rwanda’s finest coffee. But Emmanuel does more than own an island and grow coffee. In 2001, he and 110 other coffee farmers founded COOPAC, with the goal of reviving the coffee industry in their area. Currently Emmanuel serves as the managing director.
Western Province, Rwanda
Onyx Coffee Lab
Lest the myth perpetuate that specialty coffee does not come from Arkansas, Onyx Coffee Lab is blowing that particular urban legend out of the water while creating a few of their own. Husband-wife owners Jon and Andrea Allen have rapidly taken the coffee world by storm with their combination of art and science.
The magic starts with sourcing, with countless small sample batches from coffee importers and with direct visits to farms around the world. "I know direct trade means a lot of different things to different people, but for us if we don’t put money in the producers hands we won’t call it direct trade," says Jon. Once found, the coffees are carefully roasted in twenty-pound or smaller batches, then shared with the three Onyx cafés and over 150 wholesale customers in thirty states.
Clearly Onyx Coffee Lab knows what they're doing: this northwest Arkansas matrix of coffee know-how routinely cleans house at the U.S. Coffee Championships; Andrea Allen placed first in the 2020 Barista Championship, while Elika Liftee placed first in the 2020 Brewers Cup Championship, and they both went on to the 2021 World Coffee Championships to place in 2nd place for Barista and 3rd place for Brewers Cup. Onyx has been chosen by Architectural Digest as Arkansas' most beautiful coffee shop, garnered multiple Good Food Awards, and been described as the "Best bags of coffee you can buy online" in GQ.
