Why Does Rwanda Stand Out Among Coffee Growing Nations?

Rwanda is small but has become a notable name among coffee growing nations because of Bourbon-lineage varieties and washed processing. Light roasting suits its beans, keeping the citrus, berry and nut notes intact instead of flattening them into generic roast flavor. Growers work at high altitude, which slows cherry ripening and builds density in the bean.

Coffee arrived in Rwanda through German missionaries in the early twentieth century, and the industry later expanded under Belgian colonial rule before stagnating during the 1990s. Independence brought the first official coffee organization, OCIR, and production climbed from the 1960s to a peak in 1986. Today Rwanda is among the main coffee producers recovering in East Africa.

Although Rwanda is a small country, it has gradually emerged in the specialty coffee landscape thanks to Bourbon-lineage varieties and washed processing. This article starts from Rwanda's growing environment, historical background, varieties, and processing methods to explain why light roasting best showcases its interwoven notes of citrus, berries, and nuts. Front Street Coffee uses two washed Rwandan beans as examples to share cupping flavors and staged brewing parameters, helping you taste the unique charm of this "Land of a Thousand Hills" and understand why light roasting is the ideal choice for presenting its floral and fruity aromas.

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Rwanda is not large in land area, yet it produces quite a few coffees of good quality, and in recent years it has gradually appeared in cafes in various places. What exactly is the appeal of Rwandan coffee? This time Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) will talk about Rwandan coffee.

Rwandan Coffee

Rwanda is located in central Africa and is a standard landlocked country, with almost all its neighboring countries being major coffee producers. In the early twentieth century, Rwanda was successively colonized by Germany and Belgium, and coffee was first introduced by German missionaries.

Although coffee production rose noticeably during the colonial period, exploited labor, suppressed crop prices, and high export taxes meant coffee bean quality was not ideal. This was also the general situation of commercial coffee at the time.

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

Today Rwanda has gradually recovered. In terms of its urban appearance, public security, friendliness of the people, and cleanliness, it can be called an "atypical" African country. Rwanda is currently widely recognized as the safest country 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. Coffee and tea are the main cash crops, and on average 1 in every 30 Rwandans works in coffee-related jobs. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rwandan coffee sales suffered a considerable blow. To help local 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 (FrontStreet Coffee) said earlier, Rwanda is a landlocked African country, bordered by Burundi to the south, Tanzania to the east, Uganda to the north, and Congo to the northwest.

Rwanda is known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills." Its territory is full of layered mountains, with as many as 5 volcanoes alone. In addition to mountains, it also has 23 lakes and numerous rivers, with abundant water resources.

Rwanda has a temperate and tropical highland climate, with an average temperature of 24.6 to 27 degrees Celsius, lower than that of typical equatorial countries. Coffee is mostly grown in mountainous areas such as the west, where temperatures are lower and temperature differences are greater than in the low-lying eastern areas. For example, Lake Kivu in the north has an average altitude of 1,463 meters and an average daily temperature of about 22 degrees Celsius. Together with fertile volcanic soil, this is very suitable for growing coffee.

Rwandan Coffee Varieties

Common coffee varieties in Rwanda include Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believes that the flavor profiles of these three are all relatively close to the Bourbon family and easily bring to mind citrus and nuts.

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

Rwandan Coffee Processing Methods

Rwandan coffee is mainly washed processed. During washing, the harvested coffee cherries are first floated to remove cherries with insufficient density, then the skin and pulp are removed, and 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 until the moisture content drops to about 11% to 13%. Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) believes that washed coffee has higher acidity, good cleanliness, and a more stable overall performance.

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

This plan is abbreviated as PEARL (Chinese "pearl"; full English name: Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages project). The PEARL project aimed to promote both quality and quantity improvements in Rwandan coffee and help farmers obtain better incomes, forming a virtuous cycle.

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

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

Although the rainy season has sufficient rainfall, which is beneficial to coffee growth, it also makes it difficult for Rwanda to carry out processing methods that require long drying times, such as natural processing (which averages as long as 3 to 4 weeks). Moreover, the coffee quality of natural and other methods is not as stable as that of washed coffee.

Therefore, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) has two Rwandan coffees, one is Front Street Gaseke Coffee and the other is Front Street Rwanda Red Bourbon Coffee. Both use washed processing and are light roasted to highlight floral and fruity aromas.

In cupping, this Rwandan Gaseke has obvious citrus and plum acidity, nuts in the middle and finish, and honey in the aftertaste; after the temperature drops slightly, berry-like flavors become obvious, the mouthfeel is smooth, the aftertaste is fresh, and the balance is good.

Flavor: berries, apple, green tea, apricot

In cupping, the dry aroma of Front Street washed Red Bourbon has the fresh scent of apple and green tea, as well as a faint floral note, very refreshing. After hot water is poured in, berry and green tea aromas can be smelled. On the palate there is berry-like sweet acidity, and then the acidity quickly fades, revealing clear sweet flavors such as apple and apricot.

For brewing, Front Street Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) recommends staged brewing: 15 grams of coffee powder, a common v60 conical dripper, water temperature 90 degrees Celsius, medium-fine grind, with 80% passing through a 0.85 mm standard sieve.

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

The conical v60 dripper can increase the coffee's layering, the 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio enhances body and sweetness, and staged pouring keeps the extraction time from being too short while also allowing adjustments according to the early, middle, and late stages.

Rwanda's brewed flavor has obvious fruity acidity and nuts, 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 past 20 years, still has room for progress, and I believe that in the near future more Rwandan specialty coffees will enter the domestic market.

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