Nova - Rwanda (NEW)

We are welcoming Nova back for the 3rd season! Agnes Mukamushinja founded Nova Washing Station in 2015 with her husband, Managing Director Felix Hitayezu. Together they used their 25 years of coffee experience to establish a washing station that focuses on Rwandan women coffee growers. Nova Coffee now engages with over 2,8000 local smallholders. They completed a curriculum and implemented practices that help organizations they work with to be ethically and socially responsible. Nova Coffee is committed to coffee education, gender equality, and the health of their community.

Ikawa House is exporting Nova for us again. An Africa-based, independent coffee exporter, Ikawa Hose is co-owned by Laetitia Mukandahiro and Uzziel Habimana. Laetitia entered the world of coffee as a cherry picker. She seized a training opportunity offered by the PEARL project that aimed to elevate the coffee quality in Rwanda in early 2000s. Having been introduced to the quality control and coffee sensory analysis, she was hooked! Uzziel grew up on his family's farm on the coast of Lake Kivu and has worked experience in coffee farming and processing before he joined PEARL project.
Having honed their coffee growing and quality assurance skills for over 30 years combined, Laetitia and Uzziel decided to start their own coffee exporter and to do things differently. Ikawa House is eager to create a sustainable coffee community in Rwanda, and support Rwandan youth in accessing to information and training to find meaningful jobs in coffee. They have an education center in Kigali where they teach and train the youth in coffee growing, sensory analysis and trade according to their own curriculum. They have also established multiple education l hubs that are located closer to the washing stations they work with. Through these hubs they provide on-going training and seminars to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the younger generation. Ikawa House is determined to increase awareness of the smallholders and the next generation of coffee people about the specialty coffee supply chain to help them elevate their own well-being and economic security.

This African woman-owned and exported coffee is made of fruity, sweet and dry-processed beans. While brewing Nova you’ll get a fruity, sweet, caramelized sugar aroma. Nova has a complex flavor profile; a creamy taste of vanilla-like brown spice, dried strawberry notes with zesty citrus acidity. Your cup will end with a lingering dark chocolate finish.