I’ve written before of the single bag of local coffee we purchased at the airport in Kigali on our way out of Rwanda back to Kenya when we visited Africa in 2005 and how it turned out to be the best coffee we’ve ever had. After we’d quickly emptied the bag I tried on several occasions to arrange shipment directly from the company since their beans weren’t available in the U.S. Eventually I connected with their marketing manager who kindly informed me via email that a 12-ouncer would run me $7 — not including shipping via DHL, which would be $265.
It was good coffee, but not that good.
Fast forward a few months ago and I get an email from a Doug Sherman in Massachusetts who wrote me because I believe he’d either found my trip pix on Flickr or my journal of our travels in Africa and had some questions about a Rwanda excursion he was thinking about making with his wife during their upcoming trip there.
In the exchange that ensued I encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity and answered his questions as best I could and at the close of one of my emails I think I practically begged him to bring us back a bag of coffee. He said he’d be happy to.
It arrived yesterday. And while it is a different company (COOPAC) than that which produced the bag we bought we’re nonetheless brewing up our first pot of Café de Maraba in anticipation as we speak. Thank you Doug!
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