Our geographical journey of our beloved coffee continues where our next stop is Rwanda, a country with an unfortunate history of conflicts and serious socio-political problems that has resulted in bloody civil wars but which nonetheless still carries on its fine coffee traditions in local markets, impoverished but rich in flavours and aromas.

Land of suffering, land of coffee

 As mentioned, the history of Rwanda is a sad and difficult tale, made up of different peoples and conflicting ideologies, but it is also a mainly mountainous territory where the climate and the natural topography of the   country is conducive to the growth of quality coffee plants. Rwanda is a place where the coffee-growing culture has been handed down over the decades from father to son. Today, producers are mainly organised  I   into cooperatives that cultivate, harvest and manage the entire coffee supply chain all the way to export, on their own.

 The Rwanda vademecum is“low production, high quality”; this does not mean that they produce little, but compared to coffee giants like Brazil they supply far less quantities. What makes Rwanda a pioneering   coffee country is the pursuit of the highest levels of quality and a purposeful orientation towards Specialty Coffees.

Where coffee is produced in Rwanda, and in what quantities?

Coffee is produced absolutely everywhere in Rwanda. There is no productive region less than any another, but there are physical conformations of the land that distinguishes one cultivation over another. For example in the Kabrizi region the floral and fruity aromas stand out, while in the northern region Rulindo it is the full-bodied, intense taste that prevails. Then there are the regions of Lake Kivu in the west and Butare and Nyana in the south which produce more coffee than

other areas and alone can ship about 13 thousand tons of coffee per year, which corresponds to 0.2% of world production.

In summary, coffee in Rwanda is a pleasure and a tradition as useful to the country's economy as it is rooted in the hearts of its people.

Different qualities, different flavors

Don't believe anyone who tells you they have drunk Rwandan coffee and found it boring. Coffee that comes from African countries is characterized, by its ancestral nature, by legends and stories that revolve around it, by unique, imaginative flavours, aromas and textures; that of Rwanda in particular lives on in the memory of a people who have not given up and who are committed to bringing the best quality that the world can offer – it’s that good!

The commonly cultivated varieties are Red Bourbon and French Mission Bourbon; we are talking about coffee that, in the cup, have delicate and fragrant tastes, romantically reminiscent of spring. They range from fruity and tropical aromas to the sweet notes of vanilla, chocolate and caramel, sometimes not excluding some complex and perhaps acidic notes for the most experienced palates. In fact, the texture of most of the coffees we export from Rwanda has an almost buttery tinge and a silky, velvety, soft texture.