The Encore: A Story of Two Gardens

by Mike & Dawn Kennedy

In the hills of Rwanda, 700 women coffee farmers tend their trees with the same precision and passion that a conductor brings to an orchestra. They call their coffee "Kawa Yacu" - simply, "our coffee" - because it represents something far greater than beans. It's their voice, their independence, their future.

Led by founders Aline Christine and Odette Uwamariya, these women have transformed not just their yields (from 6.6 to nearly 9 pounds per tree), but their entire communities. Through the Women Coffee Extension, they've created something beautiful: a network of empowerment that provides everything from agricultural training to family planning, from livestock to dreams of nursery schools for their children.

The Rwanda peaberries in your cup are nature's rare gift - a genetic anomaly that occurs randomly, creating a single, concentrated bean instead of the usual two. Like a solo performance that captures the entire audience, these beans carry twice the intensity, twice the story.

Halfway across the world, in the volcanic soils of Java's Ljen Plateau, coffee grows in literal flower gardens. "Taman Dadar" means flower garden in Javanese, and here, coffee trees share space with paprika plants, avocados, and shade trees that infuse the beans with exotic spice notes. This is where coffee earned its nickname centuries ago - when "Java" became synonymous with the perfect cup.

The Encore brings these two gardens together: the empowering voices of Rwandan women harmonizing with the exotic complexity of Java's flower gardens. Like any great encore, it's both familiar and surprising - the smooth, full-bodied satisfaction you expect, with layers of flavor that keep revealing themselves sip after sip.

Each cup supports not just great coffee, but the dreams of 700 women building a better tomorrow.