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Rwanda Ngoma Washing Station

This Rwandan micro-lot comes from the country's Southern Province, and "Ngoma" is the name of the washing station that processed it. The station sits at 1,626 meters and was established in 2006 with the assistance of USAID, as part of an effort to bring more formal wet-milling standards to Rwanda's coffee market.

The station's capacity is substantial: 3-ton-per-hour hulling machines, washing channels, fermentation tanks, and soaking tanks. In 2013, Ngoma processed a total of 60 tons of parchment coffee.

After harvest, unripe green cherries are sorted out; the ripe cherries are then separated in the washing channels, and only the fully red ones go to the huller. Depending on the weather, the cherries — still coated with mucilage — ferment for 24–48 hours. The beans, still in parchment, are then sent to dry on African raised beds for 15–22 days.

Coffee Details

Rwanda Fully Washed Ngoma

Rwanda Ngoma Washing Station Fully Washed Red Bourbon

Moisture Content: 11.4% | Density: 1.25 g/cm³ | Water Activity: 0.64

Country: Rwanda

Region: Rushasi, Southern Province

Farm/Mill: Ngoma Washing Station

Variety: Red Bourbon

Altitude: 1,600–1,700 m

Processing: Fully washed

Flavor: Very sticky sweetness, rich caramel, stone fruit, red grape, and jasmine.

Additional Flavor Notes: Floral tones, the sweet-tart note of white grapes, syrup, marmalade, walnut, vanilla, and a subtle woody aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

More Washed Specialty Coffee from FrontStreet Coffee

If Ngoma's clean, fruit-forward cup shows what washing can do, it's worth knowing why: washed processing floats, pulps, ferments, and soaks the cherries to strip the mucilage before drying, and that long water contact consumes simple sugars while preserving the bean's own aromatics. The result is the style washed coffee is loved for — bright fruit acidity, clarity, and freshness. FrontStreet Coffee carries several benchmark washed beans:

The FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Guodingding Cooperative lot comes from a skilled processing team in Ethiopia's Gedeb area whose meticulous washing shows jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity at their purest; after a medium-light roast it adds green tea and honey tones and works beautifully as pour-over, cold brew, or even espresso. The FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato is the star example of Kenya's signature double washed process, where repeated rinsing and soaking push juiciness to the extreme — flavors of cherry tomato, dried plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar in a sweet-tart, juice-like cup that serious coffee players keep coming back to. And for classic balance, the FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 owes its very existence to washing: Jamaica's short island sunshine made drying whole cherries risky, so removing skin, pulp, and mucilage first shortened drying and cut defects. The result is a luminous, low-defect bean with pure hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel notes and a perfectly even balance where nothing dominates and nothing is missing.