Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees
  • What We Do
  • Que Hacemos
  • Origins
    • Ethiopia >
      • Ethiopia Oba Toli Natural
      • Ethiopia Kolla Bolcha
      • Ethiopia Nano Challa
      • Ethiopia Kenisa
      • Ethiopia Genji Challa
    • Kenya >
      • Kenya Mchana Natural
      • Kenya Mugaya AB
      • Kenya Kaganda PB
      • Kenya Getuya AA
      • Kenya Gachami AB
      • Kenya Kiagundu AA
      • Kenya Karimikui AA
    • Rwanda >
      • Rwanda Muhororo FW
      • Rwanda Gasharu Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Anaerobic Natural
      • Rwanda Gasharu Anaerobic Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Orígenes
    • Etiopía >
      • Etiopía Oba Toli Natural
      • Etiopía Kolla Bolcha
      • Etiopía Nano Challa
      • Etiopía Kenisa
      • Etiopía Genji Challa
    • Kenia >
      • Kenia Mchana Natural
      • Kenia Mugaya AB
      • Kenia Kaganda PB
      • Kenia Getuya AA
      • Kenia Gachami AB
      • Kenia Kiagundu AA
      • Kenia Karimikui AA
    • Ruanda >
      • Ruanda Muhororo FW
      • Ruanda Gasharu Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Anaeróbico Natural
      • Ruanda Gasharu Anaeróbico Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Education
  • Educación
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  • Tienda del Home Roaster
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spanish

The Bitter Truth Behind Coffee Festivals

6/26/2025

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We've attended coffee festivals on four continents, and no matter the location, the experience is often the same: a celebration of competitions, machines, and coffee culture that feels very disconnected from those who grow the beans. The industry loves to talk about "origin," but at these festivals, origin is reduced to a booth in the least coveted corner of the fair that no one ever visits.
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​Rather than levelling the playing field, coffee festivals tend to reinforce the industry's most damaging imbalance: those at the top of the supply chain are the protagonists, while those at the bottom are marginalised or completely ignored. We constantly see roasters, baristas, and influencers posting endless selfies, but never the producers themselves. What's missing is not just representation, but respect. Festivals rarely invest in bringing coffee farmers in, offering translation services, or creating spaces for real dialogue about challenges at origin.

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Record future prices V/S average cherry prices

2/5/2025

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The recent surge in Arabica coffee futures on the New York Stock Exchange, which yesterday reached an all-time high of $3.75 per pound, has complex implications for African coffee producers. While economies such as Ethiopia, Kenya or Rwanda will benefit from higher prices, small farmers, who account for 90% of African coffee producers, often struggle to capitalise on these gains. Factors such as rampant inflation, high input costs and reliance on middlemen reduce their potential profits.
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​In Ethiopia, 6 kg of cherries are needed to produce 1 kg of green coffee, the price per kilogram of cherries is still low compared to the price achieved by coffee futures on international markets. During the 2024-25 harvest that just ended, the average price per kg of cherry on the local market has fluctuated between 80 to 90 birr per kilogram (approximately $0.5 to $0.55 USD), which represents a fraction of the value that coffee futures fetch on the global market. This is partly due to the intermediation structure in the Ethiopian market, where farmers often rely on local cooperatives and traders who buy the cherry at lower prices before it reaches the international market.

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Coffee prices, EUDR, Trump and other calamities.

11/28/2024

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How these chaotic times affect roasters?
 
Coffee has been traded in the world for 400 years, and the harsh reality is that during each of these years, without exception, coffee growers have remained poor and exporters rich. This is, of course, a basic, simple and shallow analysis, but it only has one thing in its favor, and that is that it stands the test of time.

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​The test of time must be framed in a period long enough to understand a long-range phenomena, with the slow movement and measurement of its parameters. As it is in this case, about money, coffee and 400 years, a basic but fundamental tool to identify the errors of a system and to be able to establish its potential solutions. This is why the impact of specialty coffee on the coffee industry CANNOT be assessed on the basis of a very specific set of situations that generated an exponential rise in coffee prices to a 50-year high on the New York Stock Exchange.

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MEET THE PRODUCER: RWANDA GASHARU

9/20/2024

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Gasharu Coffee is a specialty coffee producer located in Southern Rwanda. It has gained a reputation in the specialty coffee world for its high-quality beans and commitment to sustainability and community development.
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History and Background
Gasharu Coffee is a family-owned business that has been growing coffee for generations. The Gasharu region, located in the Western Province of Rwanda near Lake Kivu, is ideal for coffee cultivation due to its rich volcanic soil, high altitudes, and favourable climate. The family behind Gasharu Coffee has taken advantage of these natural advantages to produce some of Rwanda's finest specialty coffees.

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WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT IN SPECIALTY COFFEE?

3/6/2020

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Environmental sustainability consists in making responsible decisions that tend to reduce the negative impact of your business on the environment. It implies defining a line of action in the interest of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the ability of the environment to make human life endure.
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​There is a simple rule in the world of environmental sustainability, and this is: "If any waste or pollution of any kind is generated, someone further down the production chain will be affected and will have to pay for it."

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WHERE IS THE SPECIALTY COFFEE INDUSTRY GOING?

6/21/2018

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We live in a world of constant change, everything happens quickly and technological advances make us live in a permanent pursuit of new knowledge.
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​Certainly, the specialty coffee industry has grown exponentially in the last five years. The progress we have seen and experienced in farming, processing, logistics, roasting and brewing are undeniable and certainly admirable. But is this level of growth sustainable in the long term? Are we neglecting quality to privilege the quantity?

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The renaissance of Tanzania

3/24/2017

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We just had a great origin trip to Tanzania. It was amazing to see on the ground, the massive work that is being done in different spheres of the country, with the aim of revitalizing their coffee industry and re-obtaining a global prestige, already lost since the 80-90's.
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​With young local professionals bringing new ideas and energy, the help of foreign experts, serious government projects and planning, and the always present example of the "elder coffee brother" (Kenya); the industry in Tanzania is rising from the ashes and paving a great future.
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​Today, the best lots are being produced in the area of Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Karatu in the north of the country, and Mbeya in the south. Unlike Kenya (with two harvests), in Tanzania there is only one very long harvest a year. It extends from June and can last until December, in the highest areas. Soils are volcanic and very rich in essential nutrients, perfect for the cultivation of high quality Arabicas.
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Although, there are important challenges that must be overcome: one of the most urgent is the low productivity of the coffee plantations in the northern areas. A coffee tree is considered not economically profitable when it reaches 20-25 years of age. In Tanzania there are over 240 million coffee trees, and the vast majority are over 40 years old. If we add to this, that most coffee growers are improperly combining coffee with other “more profitable crops” such as bananas, overshadowing coffee trees and destroying the soil with an excessive use of pesticides. And lastly, the lack of infrastructure, especially in the south, make the costs of marketing and sale of coffee extremely high, and in some cases farmers get as little as 50% of the FOB price.
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​From our perspective, we are convinced that working towards strict lots separation, direct trade and building coffee-relationships with farmers and co-op's committed to quality, are the key to open the gateway of this origin, which has a potential as big as the Kilimanjaro, to produce high quality coffees.
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Rwanda SPECIALTY COFFEE: HAND-SORTING THE POTATO DEFECT 

12/11/2016

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​Potato defect, quakers, coffee berry disease, immature cherries, anthracnose, etc. All these are potential threats to your wonderful Rwanda, Burundi or Congo cup of coffee.
 
But how can we get rid of them? Or cut to a minimum the chances of getting a bad bean into so much goodness?
 
Some cooperatives in Rwanda are adopting this unique practice of hand-sorting wet parchment after being washed and fermented.
 
Some defective beans can be visually detected more easily when the parchment is slightly transparent with moisture. It is another opportunity to eliminate immature green beans, floaters, quakers, beans with anthracnose and insect-damaged (Antestia Bug) coffee that can result in the awful "potato taste defect".
 
Also, the slow introduction of air before the sun in the drying process, helps to keep the parchment intact and without cracks. If we think that the parchment is a small protective layer that reduce the shock of too much heat in the bean, this initial drying phase in raised beds and under shade, promotes that these internal molecular changes happen slowly and progressively.
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Copyright ©2025 | Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees España S.L.U. All Rights Reserved.
  • What We Do
  • Que Hacemos
  • Origins
    • Ethiopia >
      • Ethiopia Oba Toli Natural
      • Ethiopia Kolla Bolcha
      • Ethiopia Nano Challa
      • Ethiopia Kenisa
      • Ethiopia Genji Challa
    • Kenya >
      • Kenya Mchana Natural
      • Kenya Mugaya AB
      • Kenya Kaganda PB
      • Kenya Getuya AA
      • Kenya Gachami AB
      • Kenya Kiagundu AA
      • Kenya Karimikui AA
    • Rwanda >
      • Rwanda Muhororo FW
      • Rwanda Gasharu Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Anaerobic Natural
      • Rwanda Gasharu Anaerobic Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Orígenes
    • Etiopía >
      • Etiopía Oba Toli Natural
      • Etiopía Kolla Bolcha
      • Etiopía Nano Challa
      • Etiopía Kenisa
      • Etiopía Genji Challa
    • Kenia >
      • Kenia Mchana Natural
      • Kenia Mugaya AB
      • Kenia Kaganda PB
      • Kenia Getuya AA
      • Kenia Gachami AB
      • Kenia Kiagundu AA
      • Kenia Karimikui AA
    • Ruanda >
      • Ruanda Muhororo FW
      • Ruanda Gasharu Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Anaeróbico Natural
      • Ruanda Gasharu Anaeróbico Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Education
  • Educación
  • Contact
  • Contacto
  • Home Roaster Store
    • Green Coffee
    • Brewing Tools
    • Cupping Tools
    • Roasting Tools
  • Tienda del Home Roaster
    • Café Verde
    • Artículos de Brew
    • Artículos de Cata
    • Artículos de tueste