Kivu, Kigali, and the Journey Home: Our Rwanda Coffee Documentary, Part Three
Part three of our Rwanda coffee documentary series: a mission-focused conversation with Aimé, a boat trip on Lake Kivu, a last look at cherry delivery at Gitesi, a cupping session in Kigali, and the long road home. Episode 3 is now live on YouTube.
This is the final article in our three-part series about our video documentary on Chris's trip to Rwanda in April 2025. Episode three is now live on our YouTube channel.
In part two, Aimé walked Chris and Leon through every stage of coffee processing at Gitesi, from the first cherries arriving at the station to the community initiatives that keep the operation running responsibly. In this final episode, the trip comes full circle, with one last stop at the washing station before the journey back to Berlin.
A boat trip on Lake Kivu
Before they left, Aimé wanted Chris and Leon to experience one more thing: a boat trip across Lake Kivu itself. The lake is genuinely stunning, and the highlight of the ride is a stop at a few small islands inhabited entirely by cows, a memorable detour before heading back to the washing station.
Back at Gitesi at cherry-delivery time
By evening, the group returns to the washing station right as farmers are dropping off the day's coffee cherries. There's no pause here; processing starts immediately, a fitting last look at how closely the rhythm of harvest shapes daily life at Gitesi.
Cupping in Kigali, then home
From Gitesi, Chris, Leon and Aimé drive back to Kigali and stop at Ikawa House to cup fresh samples from the Gitesi farm, tasting the result of everything they had just witnessed in the field and at the station.
We taped a short interview with Laetitia Mukandahiro, a certified Q-Grader and co-founder of Ikawa House in Rwanda. Laetitia gives us an insider view of the evolution of the specialty coffee industry in Rwanda and the difference it makes in the lives of farmers. You can watch the interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-CpnMwXu_o
From there, Chris and Leon begin the long trip home, with a layover in Brussels, where Chris has some time to reflect on what the visit meant, not just for the documentary, but for Warawul as a whole.
Thank you
We want to thank photographer and videographer Leon Fülber, whose regular visits to our café in Neukölln turned into a friendship and made him the natural choice to film this project. You can contact Leon through his website: https://www.fuelber-foto.de/. Thanks also to David Bozzaro, a longtime friend from Berlin, for the soundtrack.
And of course, we thank Aimé and the entire Gitesi Coffee team for such a warm welcome. Like all visits to origin, this trip was opportunity to listen and to learn directly from Aimé and his team. Encounters like these are what inspire us to keep imagining a different type of coffee industry, one that places equitable relationships at the center.