Is Rwandan Coffee Delicious? An Introduction to Rwandan Coffee Bean Varieties

The Land of a Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Coffee Paradise

Rwanda, known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills," is mountainous and highland throughout. Most of the country has a tropical highland climate, mixed with tropical savanna, so it stays mild and cool. High altitude and fertile volcanic soil make the country's land exceptionally rich and its climate well suited to plant growth. Rwanda is one of the few places in the world where soil, altitude, and climate come together so completely. In this distinctive environment, Rwanda's high-quality coffee develops a taste and aroma all its own.

A Distinctive Flavor Profile

Rwandan coffee is described as having a "grass-like fragrance" with tropical character. Beyond the fruity sweetness, it delivers a refreshing, bright, and fresh sensation. The Bourbon coffee grown in Rwanda is acclaimed for its fruity sweetness: the aroma is rich and full with absolutely no astringency, and the finish lingers long. It is prized for a delicious citrus-like sweet fragrance and a deep chocolate color.

Cup of Excellence (COE)

COE stands for Cup of Excellence, sometimes rendered as "Extraordinary Cup."

COE is held once a year, with specialty growers submitting their best beans for evaluation by domestic and international judges from the association. After at least five cuppings, the beans judged to be of the highest grade are awarded the COE designation.

Coffee that carries the COE designation can be traded at high prices in international online auctions devoted to specialty coffee.

The Impact on Coffee Estates

The Cup of Excellence's role in advancing estates is not about raising volume but about sharply improving quality. From water and soil standards to climate, cultivation, harvesting, and processing, the requirements for advancement are strict. Because COE beans can be auctioned online, a farm's income can multiply.

Specialty quality is the king's road, and it has nothing to do with quantity.

Rwanda's Coffee Excellence

Some say the world's best coffee comes from Jamaica Blue Mountain, yet a premium washed Bourbon from Rwanda's Aromec defeated Blue Mountain to win the 2008 Cup of Excellence championship.

In 2010, Rwanda became the first African country to host COE.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Rwanda's bright, fruit-forward washed character belongs to the same family as the light-roast, floral-and-fruity beans below. All are FrontStreet favorites:

FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Guodingding — the first stop for many drinkers new to specialty coffee, and perennially popular. It carries vivid citrus, berry, and floral notes with a green-tea-like sweetness on the return. Unlike the "sour coffee" people imagine, a good Yirgacheffe is soft and bright, more like the natural sweet-tartness of fruit than a sharp acidity, making it very easy to accept for anyone starting out with pour-over.

FrontStreet Ethiopia Flower Queen — one of the most successful star products of the specialty market in recent years. Its signature is an emphatic tropical-fruit aroma — strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, even lychee. Sweetness is pronounced and bitterness very low, and the cup is smooth and full of juice, which is why so many drinkers call it "the coffee that tastes least like coffee." For anyone who dislikes the bitterness of traditional coffee, it can overturn the whole idea of what coffee is.

FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato — a Kenyan washed specialty bean whose core is vivid cherry-tomato and dark-plum acidity with abundant juice, from Kenya's Thika region at 1,550–1,750 meters and grown from the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties. Processed with Kenya's signature 72-hour double wash and roasted light, it shows bright, solid acidity like freshly squeezed juice, a sweet mid-palate with pear and black plum, and a clean, long finish of brown-sugar sweetness and a touch of green tea.