Cafés in Rwanda Kigali

From Mibirizi to compulsory planting

German missionaries planted Rwanda's first coffee in 1904 at Mibirizi, in what is now Rusizi District in the Western Province.⁴ Under Belgian rule, high-yield, low-cost varieties were introduced in the 1930s and growing them was made compulsory, while the colonial government controlled exports and taxed growers heavily.⁶

By 1970 coffee was the largest export, bringing in 70% of export revenue, and uprooting coffee trees became illegal in 1973.⁵ Farmers processed their cherry at home into low-grade semi-washed coffee.⁵ Almost all of it left the country: the economist Teddy Kaberuka told Al Jazeera that farmers "were never taught to drink coffee" because the whole crop went to the international market.⁸

After 1994: washing stations and Cup of Excellence

The 1994 genocide, in which nearly a million people were killed, brought coffee exports close to collapse.⁶⁵ The recovery ran through central washing stations, the first of which opened in 2001.⁵ Between 2001 and 2006 USAID put US$10 million into washing stations and farmer training, alongside the PEARL partnership.¹¹ Rwanda now has more than 300 stations.³

In 2008 Rwanda became the first African country to host a Cup of Excellence competition.⁷ When the contest returned in 2018 after a two-year break, 344 washing stations entered coffees; the winner, from Twumba Coffee in Karongi, scored 90.53.⁷

Where Rwandan coffee grows, and the potato defect

The coffee map is often split into five regions: Lake Kivu, Virunga, Muhazi, Akagera and Kizi Rift.⁴ Smallholders typically farm less than a quarter of a hectare, and Bourbon types make up about 95% of the trees, alongside French Mission Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai and Mibirizi.⁵ The Western Province, on the shores of Lake Kivu, starts picking in late February, and the Northern Province can run into August.¹

The region's known flaw is the potato defect, caused by bacteria in the cherry. It is virtually undetectable in green coffee and mostly confined to single beans, but after roasting an affected bean smells and tastes of raw potato; it turns up in Rwanda, Burundi and, less often, DR Congo.⁶ Rwanda is landlocked, so its exports travel about 1,500 km overland to a port in Kenya or Tanzania.⁵

Kigali, where Rwanda learned to drink its coffee

Coffee long counted as a luxury and tea as a utility. In 2018 a cup cost from Rwf 1,500 at a Kigali coffee house, against Rwf 100 for tea at a common stall, and in 2016 the country had only 15 roasting companies.⁸

Bourbon Coffee opened its first café in 2007 at the Union Trade Centre in Kiyovu, later adding branches at the MTN Centre in Nyarutarama and at the airport.⁹ Question Coffee, a social enterprise set up by Sustainable Harvest, roasts on site at its cafés in Gishushu and Kiyovu and reinvests in training women farmers.¹⁰ Kivu Noir, in Kimihurura, belongs to Caferwa, founded in 1995 to support genocide survivors and now running five farms.¹⁰ In 2025 NAEB's chief executive put a café cup at about Rwf 2,000.³

Rubia Coffee Roasters, founded by Mathias Kalisa, works from a leafy courtyard on KG 2 Ave with the stated aim of promoting a coffee culture at origin, and Golden Coffee Roastery, a brand from Addis Ababa, opened its first Rwandan café on KG 9 Ave.¹⁰