By AAGD STAFF
While most coffee brands use taglines to sell you their products, usually by emphasizing the heightened caffeine content or other ingredients, Igihango Women’s Coffee is extraordinarily different. When you purchase a bag of this brew, you get the instant gratification of knowing that you have financially helped a woman in Africa.
“Drink a cup and Empower a Woman!”
Its tagline, “Drink a cup and Empower a Woman,” is how Igihango Women’s Coffee has burst onto the world stage. Following the Tutsi Genocide in 1994, Rwanda’s coffee industry was left in shambles and so were many of its population of women and children. According to reports, over 1 million people were massacred and 3 million fled the country. Through government rebuilding that sought to end gender inequities and inequalities, a women’s coffee farmer’s cooperative formed an export company in 2014 to help genocide widows and women whose husbands were imprisoned due to genocide crimes.
Handpicked green coffee beans
The coffee is hand-picked, processed, dried and sorted throughout its entirety by the Hinga Kawa Women’s Association within the Abakunda Kawa Women’s Coffee Cooperative in Rwanda. Packaged in a beautiful, pink, resealable bag, the 12-ounces (340g) of finely ground coffee inside is a delight to inhale. The coffee bag itself is intricately designed and showcases the image of a black woman with her head turned towards the green coffee mountain fields in the distance. The pink color of the bag resonates with the universally accepted color representing feminity.
100% Arabica ground, certified organically grown coffee
Once the package is opened, the 100% Arabica ground, certified organically grown coffee has a sensuous aroma and its grounds are a mix of light brown and dark brown colors.
The Igihango Women’s Coffee is best enjoyed using 2 rounded teaspoons added to 6 ounces of hot boiled water. The mixture produces a rich-bodied coffee that precipitates a fruity, rosy flavor.
Grown at over 5,905 feet (1,800 meters) above sea level in the Volcanic high land soils of the Virunga region of the Thousand Hills nation of Rwanda, the coffee flavor is smooth with a mellow taste that lingers on the tongue several seconds after the beverage is swallowed. There is no bitter aftertaste to interfere with the pleasure of enjoying each delicious sip. This consistent flavor derives from the high altitude and ambient climate of the coffee fields along with the slow maturity process of the blue bourbon Arabica variety of coffee and its cherries.
Briggette Harrington, president, and CEO of Harrington Dorsey Inc. has partnered with the Hinga Kawa Women. Her company roasts, packages and distributes the Igihango Women’s Coffee. But, Harrington, an avid golfer and seasoned businesswoman, has taken her involvement one step further; she has personally experienced working side-by-side with the women in Rwanda processing the coffee beans.
In an informative marketing video (shared below), Harrington explains the passion that she has for the coffee brand and its cause. “It’s hard work. It’s backbreaking work,” she says while being seen in the video washing, sorting and helping to pack the coffee beans.
Briggette Harrington, Harrington Dorsey Inc.
Harrington is former Managing Director for Golf World, Ltd., Tema, Ghana where she operated a 3,000-square-foot golf store carrying originally manufactured golf equipment and accessories, including profitably negotiating with the top three manufacturers to carry their products within Ghana.
Harrington Dorsey Inc. is based in Silver Spring, Maryland and handles the Igihango Women’s Coffee, a Fair Trade Certified brand.
Retail price $15.00.
Available online at http://www.harringtondorsey.com/shop
