Rwandan Coffee: Top Quality Coffee from Heirloom Varietals

I first came across Rwandan coffee when I saw a large bag of coffee from Rwanda in Costco, of all places. The Rwanda Coffee Beans are one of Rwanda's cash crops, destined for export, and account for a full 2/3rds of Rwanda's exports. Yet it was only after the civil war ended, reconstruction efforts got underway to export Rwanda's crop to the outside world.

Wake up, Smell the Coffee!

Unlike many South American Coffee or Central American Coffee, Rwandan Coffee is a seedling in the world of coffee growing, even now. More ironically, Rwanda is actually a tea consuming country, where very little of the coffee is actually sold locally.

It was only 1904 that missionaries (particularly those from Germany) brought Arabica coffee to Rwanda as a way to improve farmers' incomes, though by 1930 growing the low-quality coffee had become a major income source for many rural families. It is estimated about half a million farmers make their living growing coffee in Rwanda these days.

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The entire crop is grown on approximately 28,000 hectares in the western part of the country and in the central area near Kigali, the capital.  There is no coffee grown in the eastern part of the country because that acreage is an important national park.

Rwandan Coffee Cultivation

Rwanda coffee is generally grown in small batches on farms of a very small size. There are on average about 160 trees per farmer. But with good soil, and a good mountain elevation and climate (enough rain, too), the farmers cultivate increasingly high quality Arabica coffee beans, with bourbon varieties predominant.

The coffee beans are typically processed using traditional wet processing methods in shared or communal washing stations.  Farmers used to use a hand pulper or even rocks to take the skin off the beans.  They dried them in the sun, fermented them in a small bucket and dried them again. 

Of course, the quality of the beans varies widely, depending on the quality of the water and how long the beans were fermented.  They were delivered in parchment lots, which means the beans were still surrounded by a layer referred to as parchment.

Transportation has also been making coffee shipments difficult for farmers; farmers had to travel across Uganda to Kenya where the beans are shipped to Europe.  The trip could damage the beans and was very dangerous for the farmers.  However, there have been a lot of efforts to improve all aspects of coffee production in Rwanda, since the tremendous damage to the country caused by the genocide of the 90's.

Fast Brewing Business

Rwandan authorities undertook a study in 2000 that showed how growing the best coffee beans would pay big returns. From this, with cooperation from organizations like USAID, they began to help the farmers in a number of practical ways. 

They taught harvesting, fermenting and drying techniques and set up washing stations.   Additional workers were hired to pick out overripe or under ripe cherries, providing jobs for local women to earn additional income for their family.  The goal is to get the entire country to produce fully-washed coffee and put more people to work.

Of course, once you start using the heirloom varietals introduced at the turn of the century, improved quality control and processing techniques would ultimately lead to a dramatic improvement in the coffee quality.

This allowed Rwanda coffee to finally be sold in the specialty coffee market, attracting top pricing and decent returns for farmers for the first time!

Rwandan Coffee Flavors

There are many descriptions of how Rwandan coffee tastes.  Some say it has a slightly charred flavor softened with butter and chocolate tones while others compare it to sweet brown malt with caramel. 

In general the coffee has an aroma infused with floral and citrus notes while the coffee itself is a bouquet of orange and lemon and is bright and sweet.  It has a silky yet not heavy body and a vivid aftertaste. 

The descriptions vary in part because of different roasts; though many people, perhaps unaware of how to roast coffee properly, tend to over-roast these beans.  Professional tasters generally agree that the beans should be medium roasted rather than dark roasted if you want to enjoy all the various flavors and nuances of Rwandan coffee.

Unfortunately, the coffee we tried was much towards the dark roasted side, typical of Kirkland coffee, dampening some of the additional flavors, and muting the whole effect. But I wouldn't expect this to be true of other coffee brands.

Prize Winning Rwandan Coffee

In 2007 Rwandan coffee was chosen for the Starbucks Black Apron award and is now featured in many European, Swiss and Middle Eastern stores.  And it is winning the hearts, mouths and cups of coffee lovers worldwide, in their never ending quest for the truly the best coffee bean ever.

In fact, many of the major coffee corporations have pitched in to help Rwanda; they have built washing stations, contributed cows to provide nutrition and fertilizer and sent their own experts to help improve growing and harvesting techniques.

And now we're beginning to see why Rwanda Coffee Beans are now considered some of the best African coffee, as well some of the world's finest.

And finally...

Wherever you are, remember "Only Coffee Beans Make Great Coffee"! And enjoy that cup of coffee!

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