Jabulani is a new single origin organic coffee from Owens Coffee. Jabulani is coffee with a purpose. It supports communities in both the UK and in Rwanda, and behind it is a story of a vision for a greater future.

Organic Coffee directly imported from Rwanda's Twongerakawa Coko Cooperative

Jabulani is a single origin coffee from Rwanda. The beans are imported as a result of a partnership between Owens Coffee and Jabo Butera, Managing Director of the Diversity Business Incubator (DBI) in Plymouth, and through a direct relationship with the Twongerakawa Coko Cooperative.

The DBI is a business hub for minority ethnicity entrepreneurs in Plymouth (UK) and has been heavily involved in the regeneration of the City’s Union Street area for families and community.

The Jabulani Food Court and Plymouth's Union Street community 

'Jabulani' is the name of the food court established as part of that regeneration project. It can be found in The Plot on Union Street, Plymouth. The Jabulani food court aims to use locally sourced ingredients to create a multi-cultural dining experience, representing inclusivity, diversity and integration in local community.

Owens Coffee provides the coffee for the Jabulani food court, which is where this partnership began.

Jabo discovered Owens Coffee in the process of planning the Jabulani food court. The Roastery fitted the concept well. Not only is the facility just 15 minutes from Plymouth, Jabo liked that the Roastery is family run, has a small, welcoming, predominantly female team, and that Owens is committed to sustainability.

Organic farming methods are important to the creators of the food court who want to ensure that we protect the earth from which our crops are grown. Providing a locally roasted, organic coffee for its customers was the perfect choice for the food court.

Having agreed to Owens supplying the coffee for the Jabulani food court, a seed of an idea began to grow.

Jabo and Owens Coffee began to explore the potential of a joint coffee initiative and the partnership has developed into something bigger.

Vision for a knowledge-exchange platform between the UK and Rwanda

Rwandan society is matriarchal, and the mostly female workforce of cooperatives like the Twongerakawa Coko Cooperative are seen as respected leaders in their communities. Supporting them supports these wider communities.

Jabo Butera shared his vision with Owens to create a knowledge-exchange platform for the people of Rwanda and the people of the UK. The goal is to discover values and benefits behind the differences in the ways that communities operate and exist in each. Both countries can learn and benefit from one another.

Owens Coffee supports this vision through the coffee beans for Jabulani. In addition to the normal Fairtrade price and the Fairtrade premium, a share of profits from our Jabulani coffee will contribute towards projects supporting communities at both ends of the coffee production line.

Jabulani Organic Coffee: About the coffee

Jabulani is a single origin organic coffee from the Gakenke District of Rwanda. The coffee offers a juicy, black tea finish with sweet notes of ripe citrus and Champagne. The coffee makes a great espresso as well as a filter coffee. 

Coffee from Rwanda is mainly produced by smallholders who own land less than one hectare per family. 

The Twongerekawa Coko Cooperative is a group of 138 members who grow their coffee at unusually high levels (2000m above sea level) so the beans are slowly ripened and full of flavour. 

The Coko Cooperative is a small, mostly female cooperative based in Northern Rwanda and found in the highest areas of the Gakenke District.  

Expanding opportunities to encourage global change

The import and production of our Jabulani coffee is a collaborative step towards our vision. It will help us to develop a deeper understanding and connection between the people of Rwanda and the UK, expand opportunities for improving community leadership and enable future generations of leaders to benefit from shared resources, ideas and information, with the ultimate goal to encourage global change.

Buy Jabulani, our 'organic coffee with a purpose' here. Available in 200g and 1kg bags, fine/medium ground or whole beans.