Rwandan Coffee, and Why You Have Probably Had Better at Home

Here is a strange thing about Rwanda: most visitors drink better Rwandan coffee at home than they do here. The country grows outstanding bourbon-varietal arabica at altitude, and almost all of the good lots are bought by specialty roasters abroad before they are picked.

That is changing, slowly, and it is worth seeking out the places where it has.

Why the coffee is good

Three things: altitude, variety and processing. Most Rwandan coffee grows between 1,500 and 2,000 metres, which slows the cherry's development and concentrates the sugars. The dominant variety is bourbon, an old and well-regarded arabica. And nearly all of it is washed, which produces the clean, bright, citrus-and-red-fruit cup Rwanda is known for.

The washing station is the thing to see

Rwandan coffee is grown by hundreds of thousands of smallholders, most with a fraction of a hectare, who deliver cherry to a central washing station. That station is where quality is made or lost, and it is the most interesting place to visit.

You can follow the whole process in a morning: sorting and floating the cherry, pulping, fermenting in tanks, washing through the channels, and then the drying tables where women turn the parchment by hand and pick out defects.

Go in harvest season. Outside it, a washing station is a quiet yard and some empty tanks.

When to go

The harvest runs broadly from March to July, varying with altitude and the year. If coffee matters to you, tell us and we will time the itinerary so you see a station actually working.

Outside those months you can still visit farms and cup the results, and Kigali's roasters operate year-round.

Where to do it

• The hills above Lake Kivu, particularly around Karongi and Kinunu, where the terrain is spectacular and stations are used to visitors.
• The Huye area in the south, close to Nyungwe and easy to fold into that leg.
• Kigali roasteries, which are the easiest option and where the cupping is usually most rigorous.

A cupping is worth doing

Tasting a flight side by side is where Rwandan coffee makes its case, and where you understand why a station's processing decisions matter. Slurping loudly from a spoon feels ridiculous for about ninety seconds and then stops feeling ridiculous.

Buying beans

• Buy from a station or a Kigali roaster rather than a souvenir shop; freshness matters more than packaging.
• Look for a roast date, not a best-before.
• Whole beans travel far better than ground.
• Leave room in your bag. People routinely come home with more than they planned.

One last note: coffee is one of the more direct ways your money reaches rural households here. A cooperative visit that ends with you buying two kilos is not a token gesture.