Tropic Coffee traces its roots back to 2015, when husband-and-wife duo Christophe Rugira and Divine Mutuyimana decided to combine their passions and expertise.

Having met the year before, Divine brought a wealth of coffee knowledge, passed down through her family’s longstanding involvement in the coffee trade. Christophe, entirely new to the industry, embraced the opportunity to learn and contribute.

Today, they operate three washing stations: Gisanga in the South, Kabyiniro in the West, and Cyato closer to the Nyungwe Forest.

Each station processes cherries from neighboring producers, with a special emphasis on empowering female farmers. The team provides training on best agricultural practices, covering everything from seedling preparation to planting and harvesting, ensuring women play a central role in elevating coffee quality.

Gisanga Washing Station is especially notable, employing a predominantly female workforce and processing around 650 tonnes of cherries per season. Cherries arrive on foot or by bicycle and undergo rigorous hand-sorting and floating to ensure proper ripeness. For this particular varietal, the cherries are pulped on the same day they arrive, then fermented in open tanks for 10 to 16 hours. Afterward, they are floated and graded once more in clean water before being laid out to dry on raised beds, ready to become exceptional coffee.

Sanctuary Coffee cares deeply about fairness and transparency in the coffee industry.

Trade in the coffee world can be very muddy, so we are more than happy to share our supply chain’s ins and outs for total transparent trade.

Importer/Farmer: LCM

Price Paid per KG: 9.81/kg

Amount Purchased: 120kg

Length of Relationship: 2 Years

We use Royal Mail here in the UK for all our orders. Please enjoy free, tracked shipping on all orders over £30.

We will be launching international shipping in early 2024, please keep an eye out.

If you have any questions, please see our FAQs. If you still feel like you need further assistance, feel free to drop us an email at hello@sanctuarycoffee.co.uk.