Red Gates • Rwanda • Seasonal Single Origin

What we're tasting: Red Berries , Sweet & Sour

Origin: Rwanda, Kinini
Producers: Malcolm Clear and Jaqueline Turner (and a lot of small holder farmers)
Varietal: Red Bourbon
Altitude: 2000+
Process: Natural

Roasted Light to place emphasis on the acidicty of these deeply sweet Rwandan beans.

About the Coffee

Kinini isn’t just a coffee. It’s what happens when someone decides “this isn’t good enough” and actually does something about it.

Jacquie’s roots are in Musenyi, a place where things like school, healthcare, and basic infrastructure aren’t guaranteed. What started as a push to build a school turned into something bigger. Because once you’re there, you realise it’s never just one problem.

Enter Malcolm. UK-based, but fully pulled in. Together they’d already built education and health projects on the ground, but they didn’t want to keep relying on donations forever. They wanted something that could stand on its own.

So they got into coffee. Not because they were “coffee people” but because Rwanda was shifting towards specialty, and it made sense. Build something that creates income, not dependency.

The model they built is kind of mad when you think about it. They didn’t just buy coffee. They planted it. Gave farmers seedlings, training, structure. Built a washing station. Set up systems so the value stayed with the people actually growing it.

Now you’ve got hundreds of smallholder farmers, most of them women, growing coffee at serious altitude on volcanic soil, bringing cherries into Kinini.

And it shows in the cup. Proper Rwanda profile. Bright, clean, citrus, a bit of sweetness running through it. The kind of coffee that doesn’t need explaining if it’s roasted right.

But the bigger thing is this:
it’s not charity dressed up as coffee.
It’s coffee that funds everything else.

A percentage of what comes out of Kinini goes straight back into schools, healthcare, and local infrastructure. Not as a side project. Built into it.

It’s long-term thinking.
Plant something, build it properly, let it pay people back.

No saviour complex. No fluff.
Just a good idea, followed through properly.

About the name

Named after the infamous party warehouse in Hackney Wick, Red Gates is a nod to the wild nights that once defined the area. The first Rwandan beans we roasted under this name had tasting notes of raspberry hubba bubba, which reminded us of people chewing their faces off at those all-nighters. These days, it’s more of a nod to a party in your mouth.

Based on Fish Island, Red Gates was legendary for its parties just a few years back, before Hackney Wick turned into a block of new builds. It's a little taste of that rebellious spirit in every cup.