What Does the Rwandan Coffee Flavor Profile Look Like?

Rwanda grows Bourbon, Caturra and Catuai varieties, mostly processed with the washed method, and its coffee has gained attention in the specialty market. In October 2020, McDonald's McCafé added Rwandan beans at about 25% of its espresso blend, alongside Brazil at 55% and Colombia and Ethiopia at 10% each, bringing the origin to a wider audience.

Coffee reached Rwanda through German missionaries in the early 20th century, and German then Belgian colonial rule raised output while quality suffered from low farmgate prices and heavy export taxes. After independence the country formed its first official coffee organization, OCIR, and quality work gradually improved. Nearby origins offer useful comparison points, including the Burundi coffee flavor profile and Uganda coffee beans taste.

Although Rwanda is a small landlocked country in Africa, it has gradually emerged in the specialty coffee world by virtue of varieties such as Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai, along with its predominantly washed processing method. In 2020, when McDonald's McCafé upgraded its brand, it included Rwandan beans in its espresso blend at about 25%, which sparked widespread discussion. Front Street Coffee took this opportunity to sort out Rwanda's coffee-growing environment, variety characteristics, processing techniques, and brewing suggestions, and to share a cupping performance of a washed Red Bourbon, bringing you a comprehensive understanding of the coffee charm of this "Land of a Thousand Hills."

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In October 2020, McDonald's McCafé announced the launch of its brand upgrade, planning to invest 2.5 billion yuan in its coffee business over the next three years, and the news quickly spread within the coffee community. Along with the upgrade, McCafé adjusted its espresso blend formula, adding Rwandan coffee beans to the original blend of Colombia, Ethiopia, and Brazil. Rwandan beans made up about 25% of the entire blend, Brazil accounted for 55%, and Colombia and Ethiopia each accounted for 10%.

Rwandan coffee thus once again entered the public eye. Although the country is not large in area, Rwanda produces quite a lot of good-quality coffee, and in recent years it has gradually appeared in various cafés. What exactly is the appeal of Rwandan coffee? Front Street Coffee takes Rwandan coffee as its theme for this sharing.

Rwandan Coffee

Rwanda is located in central Africa and is a standard landlocked country, with almost all its neighboring countries being major coffee-producing nations. In the early 20th century, Rwanda was colonized by Germany and then Belgium, and coffee was first introduced by German missionaries.

During the colonial period, although coffee production increased significantly, the quality of the coffee beans was not ideal because of labor exploitation, low purchase prices paid to coffee farmers, and high export taxes. This was also the general situation of commercial coffee development at the time.

It was not until Rwanda became independent and established its first official coffee organization, OCIR, that coffee bean production gradually received attention. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Rwanda's coffee production continued to grow and reached a historic peak in 1986. However, in the early 1990s, domestic political turmoil (the Rwandan genocide) caused the coffee industry to stagnate.

Today Rwanda has slowly regained its vitality. In terms of urban appearance, public security, friendliness of the people, and cleanliness, it can be called an "atypical" African country, and it is currently widely recognized as one of the safest countries in Africa. In the "2017 World's Safest Countries and Destinations" list, Rwanda ranked ninth among global cities and was the only African country to enter the top ten.

Rwanda is a developing country whose economy is mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry. The agricultural and pastoral population accounts for 92% of the country, and coffee and tea are the main cash crops. One out of every 30 Rwandans works in a coffee-related industry. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rwanda's coffee sales suffered a considerable blow. To help coffee farmers get through the difficulties, on May 14, Alibaba livestreaming host Viya recommended Rwandan Gorilla's coffee beans and sold a year's worth of sales in one second.

Rwanda's Coffee-Growing Environment

As Front Street Coffee previously stated, Rwanda is a landlocked country in Africa, bordered by Burundi to the south, Tanzania to the east, Uganda to the north, and the Congo to the northwest.

Rwanda is known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills," with towering mountains throughout the country, including as many as 5 volcanoes. In addition to mountains, there are also 23 lakes and numerous rivers, making it rich in water resources.

Rwanda has a temperate and tropical plateau climate, with an average temperature of 24.6–27°C, lower than that of typical equatorial countries. Coffee is mostly grown in mountainous areas such as the west, where temperatures are lower than in the low-lying eastern regions and the temperature difference is also greater. For example, the average altitude of northern Lake Kivu is 1,463 meters, with an average daily temperature of about 22°C, and combined with fertile volcanic soil, it is very suitable for coffee cultivation.

Rwandan Coffee Varieties

Common coffee varieties in Rwanda include Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. Front Street Coffee believes that these three have similar flavor profiles, all belonging to the Bourbon family, and are easily associated with citrus and nuts.

Well-grown Bourbon coffee has excellent sweetness; Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, with higher yield than Bourbon and shorter spacing between plants; Catuai is even more productive and has stronger resistance to disease and wind and rain.

Rwanda's Coffee Processing Methods

Rwandan coffee is mainly washed. During washing, the harvested coffee cherries are first floated to remove insufficiently dense fruit, then the skin and pulp are removed, and then the mucilage-covered coffee beans are left to ferment in water tanks. After fermentation is complete, the mucilage layer is washed off with clean water, and finally the coffee beans are dried to reduce moisture content to about 11% to 13%. Front Street Coffee believes that washed coffee has higher acidity, good cleanliness, and stable overall performance.

In 2000, in order to improve its coffee industry after just experiencing internal chaos, Rwanda was assisted by Michigan State University in the United States, together with multiple researchers from institutions such as Texas A&M University and the National University of Rwanda, to jointly help Rwanda upgrade its coffee industry.

The plan is abbreviated as PEARL (Chinese "pearl"; full English name: Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages project). The PEARL project aims to improve the quality and yield of Rwandan coffee, help farmers obtain better incomes, and form a virtuous cycle.

After the implementation of the PEARL project, 46 coffee washing stations were successively built in Rwanda, and the strong export of coffee beans drove significant economic growth. This project was also the largest and most complete development plan implemented since Rwanda became independent.

In addition, Front Street Coffee also believes that Rwanda chose washing as its main processing method, first for high yield and stable quality, and second because Rwanda has two rainy seasons a year, from February to May and from September to December, while the coffee harvest season is generally from March to June, almost entirely falling within the first rainy season.

Although abundant rainfall in the rainy season is beneficial to coffee growth, it also makes it difficult for Rwanda to carry out processing methods that require long drying periods, such as natural processing (which averages as long as 3 to 4 weeks), and the coffee quality of processing methods such as natural is also less stable than washed.

Therefore, Front Street Coffee once offered a washed Rwandan Red Bourbon. During cupping, this Rwandan Red Bourbon had obvious citrus and plum acidity, with nuts in the middle and back sections, and honey in the aftertaste; after the temperature dropped slightly, it showed obvious apple flavors, with a smooth mouthfeel, fresh aftertaste, and good balance.

For brewing, Front Street Coffee recommends a staged brewing method: 15 grams of coffee powder, a common V60 conical dripper, a water temperature of 90°C, and a medium-fine grind with 80% passing through a 0.85 mm standard sieve.

For the first stage, use 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom. For the second stage, pour in a small stream in circles until reaching 125 grams, then pause. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring the third stage until 225 grams and then stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. The total extraction time (starting timing from the beginning of the bloom) is 2 minutes.

The conical V60 dripper can increase coffee layering, and the 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio enhances body and sweetness. Staged pouring avoids too short an extraction time, and adjustments can be made according to the front, middle, and back stages.

After brewing, Rwandan coffee has obvious fruity acidity and nutty flavors, and is balanced and smooth overall. Although its berry-like flavors are not as prominent as Kenya's, Rwanda, as a coffee-producing country that has only caught up in the last 20 years, still has room for improvement, and it is believed that more Rwandan specialty coffee will enter the domestic market before long.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.