Rwanda Coffee Bean Flavor Profile & Taste Characteristics - Is Rwanda Coffee Good & Price Guide

FrontStreet Coffee recently took delivery of a batch of Rwandan coffee, and to be honest Rwanda had never left much of an impression before; it was a bean encountered mainly through the country's pavilion at expos. Its flavor leans acidic, but the aftertaste lingers and lingers, and it is easy to fall for this African bean.

Rwanda has five major coffee-producing regions, and the coffee from each differs slightly in aroma and mouthfeel. The overall profile runs toward acidity, yet the finish goes on and on. As one Rwandan trader put it, good coffee is like tea, its sweetness showing only after you drink it. Starbucks, too, sources some of its raw material from Rwanda, and Rwandan growers, though their coffee has not yet entered the Chinese market in a formal way, are working toward it and hope to let China taste authentic, richly aromatic Rwandan coffee within a couple of years.

Rwanda is known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, with mountains and plateaus across the country. Most regions have a mild, cool tropical highland or tropical savanna climate. There are roughly 33,000 hectares of coffee plantations, and about 500,000 people work in coffee. Rwanda is one of the few countries where soil, elevation and climate fall into harmony so completely, with the volcanic soil, steady rainfall and even year-round temperatures that Arabica likes, which is what makes its coffee taste so distinct.

Rich Coffee Culture and International Recognition

The Land of a Thousand Hills has a long culture of growing highland coffee, focused mainly on high-quality Arabica. That specialty coffee accounts for 20% of Rwanda's total production and is much in demand internationally, and it shows a distinctive mouthfeel and aroma from its particular growing environment. According to the country's coffee association, Rwanda plans to export 3,000 tons this year, raising production further to meet growing demand. Starbucks, the world's largest coffee beverage retailer, has also partnered with the Rwandan government to import Rwandan coffee, and the national trademark shows a coffee-colored dove flying out of a cup alongside the words Cup of Hope.

The Bourbon coffee grown in the Rutsiro region of Rwanda's Western Province is one of the original Arabica varieties. It stands out for its high-quality washed beans and is gaining recognition in international markets.

Processing and Quality Control

As in many African countries, Rwandan coffee is grown mainly by smallholders. During the annual harvest, ripe cherries are gathered and sent to processing stations. The Mushonyi processing factory has an impressive record: besides winning the COE Cup of Excellence championship in 2010, in 2011 alone it took first place and 12th, 16th and 28th place with four different batches. In each harvest, farmers pick ripe cherries and bring them to the stations. Manual selection first keeps unripe or damaged fruit out of the lot. The skin is then removed, followed by a 12-18 hour washed fermentation in a cool, low-temperature environment. The remaining pectin is cleaned off in channels, and during trellis drying the station's workers turn and tend the beans by hand, making sure that under sufficient sunlight the parchment beans neither lose moisture too quickly nor dry unevenly, until the green beans stabilize below 14% moisture.

Flavor Profile and Characteristics

Rwandan coffee is often described as having a grassy aroma and tropical character. Beyond the fruit sweetness the cup presents, it also carries a refreshing, bright, fresh feeling. Bourbon from Rwanda impresses with its fruit sweetness and a rich, full aroma, with no astringency at all and a long aftertaste. It has a delicious citrus-like sweet aroma, deep chocolate color, and notes of red apple, cherry, cinnamon and honey, with quality sweetness and balance and a cinnamon, almond and chocolate finish.

Coffee carries the hopes of the Rwandan people. They want to raise exports to drive the national economy, and they hope the Hutu and Tutsi, once hostile, can work side by side planting coffee, set aside enmity and build a better future together. After tasting Rwandan Bourbon carefully, FrontStreet Coffee finds it genuinely excellent and well worth recommending.

Rwanda Coffee Bean Recommendation

Rwanda West Province Rutsiro Mushonyi CWS Bourbon

• Product Name: Rwanda Bourbon Premium Coffee
• Quality Grade: AA
• Roast Level: Recommended City or Full City roast
• Grade: Good
• Bean Size: Full
• Acidity: Slightly acidic
• Balance: Stable
• Coffee Region: Rutsiro Region, Western Province, Rwanda
• Growing Altitude: 1,500-1,800 meters
• Green Bean Variety: BM-139 (Bourbon)
• Green Bean Processing: Washed, raised trellis sun drying
• Flavor Characteristics: Red apple, cherry, cinnamon, honey

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Rwanda's appeal is the same clean, fruit-forward acidity that makes African washed coffee so refreshing, and it sits naturally beside the FrontStreet Coffee single origins that share that character. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedidit Cooperative is a washed Ethiopian from Gedidit village in the Worka area, where the station's skilled processing brings out an especially refined cup; jasmine and bright citrus acidity lead, and a medium-light roast adds green tea and honey. FrontStreet Huakui takes the same continent in a riper direction, a natural Ethiopian heirloom from Hambela in Guji whose field-blend of unidentified varieties gives uneven bean size and a bold fruit profile of cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus and blueberry with a ripe tropical sweetness, the same character that helped it take first place at the TOH green-bean competition.

For more structured fruit, FrontStreet Colombia Sidra pairs floral and tropical notes such as grape, dried fruit and passionfruit with the juicy body of a Sidra, while FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Estate leans toward cream, peanut, toasted bread and sugarcane. FrontStreet Panama Red Label Geisha rounds out the floral end, from Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, Chiriqui, layering jasmine-like florals, citrus and peach over a creamy body with an oolong-tea finish. FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 offers the opposite, a balanced, low-drama cup of nut, dark chocolate, cream caramel and gentle sweetness from the Clifton Estate, where coffee has been grown since around 1750 at an average of 4,300 feet, or 1,310.64 meters.

Brewing these coffees rewards patience with a light hand. Because the fruit and floral aromatics are delicate, keep the water moderate and pour gently in stages, which keeps the acidity soft rather than sharp, and let the coffee cool a little before drinking so the sweetness that Rwandan growers prize comes to the front.