Recommended Pour-over Coffee from Rwanda: Flavor and Taste Characteristics of Rwanda Bourbon Washed Coffee Beans

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Introduction to Rwandan Coffee

When it comes to African coffee beans, the most famous are undoubtedly Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans and Kenyan coffee. However, in recent years, a single-origin coffee bean from Rwanda has been active in the specialty coffee market. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee also procured this coffee bean for tasting and found its flavor to be quite excellent, without being overly similar to other brands' single-origin coffee beans. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce some relevant information about Rwandan coffee.

History of Rwandan Coffee

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Rwanda is located in central Africa and is a standard landlocked country, with all neighboring countries being major coffee producers. In the early 20th century, Rwanda successively became a colony of Germany and Belgium, with coffee first introduced by German missionaries. During the colonial period, coffee production increased significantly, but due to exploited labor, suppressed prices for coffee crops, and high export taxes, the quality of coffee beans was not ideal, which was a common phenomenon in commercial coffee development at that time.

It was not until Rwanda's independence and the establishment of the first official coffee organization, OCIR, that attention was gradually paid to coffee bean production. Rwanda's coffee production continued to grow from the 1960s to the 1980s, reaching an unprecedented peak in 1986, until the political situation became unstable in the early 1990s (Rwandan Genocide), which caused the coffee industry to stagnate.

Today, Rwanda has gradually recovered its vitality. In terms of urban construction, security, people's friendliness, and cleanliness, it can be said to be an "atypical" African country. Rwanda is currently recognized as the safest country in Africa. In the "2017 World's Safest Countries and Destinations" ranking, Rwanda ranked ninth among all cities worldwide, the only African country to rank in the top ten.

This year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rwanda's coffee sales have undoubtedly been significantly affected. To help Rwandan coffee farmers overcome difficulties, on May 14th, Alibaba's livestream superstar Weiya recommended Rwandan Gorilla's coffee beans, selling a year's worth of sales in one second. This also demonstrates the potential of Rwandan coffee.

Rwanda's Coffee Growing Environment

In addition, Rwanda, known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills," has a terrain of mountains and plateaus throughout the country, with most coffee trees planted on mountains at elevations between 1,700 and 2,000 meters. Most parts of Rwanda have a tropical highland climate and tropical savanna climate, which is mild and cool. There are approximately 33,000 hectares of coffee plantations, with 500,000 people engaged in coffee cultivation. Rwanda is one of the few countries in the world that can fully enjoy the harmony between soil, altitude, and climate.

FrontStreet Coffee believes that it is precisely these unique growing conditions that make Rwandan coffee beans taste distinctive, with the freshness and sweetness of fruits, the fragrance of flowers, and a black tea-like aftertaste. Secondly, Rwanda's coffee production model is based on small-scale farming rather than large-scale enterprises. Although it cannot compare with the assembly lines of large enterprises, small-scale farming allows for greater focus on coffee beans.

As FrontStreet Coffee has often mentioned in previous articles, the formation of a coffee bean's flavor is influenced not only by the geographical location of the producing region but also by coffee varieties and processing methods. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will explain these three major factors that contribute to the flavor of Rwandan coffee.

Rwandan Coffee Growing Regions

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Rwanda's specialty coffee bean producing regions are mainly distributed in the southern and western parts. In the southern Huye mountain area and Nyamagabe region, due to higher altitudes, coffee beans have floral and citrus flavors; while in the Nyamasheke region on the shores of Lake Kivu in the west, high-quality coffee with rich, aromatic, and juicy tastes is produced. Although the flavor differences between regions are not significant, there are still distinctions when tasted carefully. People often ask FrontStreet Coffee how to distinguish them, feeling that flavor is quite mystical. In fact, FrontStreet Coffee has undergone extensive flavor recognition training to distinguish the coffee flavors of different regions, which requires time, effort, and persistence.

Rwandan Coffee Varieties

Over 90% of Rwanda's coffee varieties are Bourbon varieties introduced earlier, as well as mixed varieties from the Bourbon family, which have the ability to withstand natural disasters. Bourbon coffee was originally cultivated on Réunion Island and introduced to Brazil in 1860, quickly expanding northward throughout Latin America. Generally, after Bourbon coffee trees flower and bear fruit, the color change of coffee cherries follows: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red, so some people call it "Red Bourbon." In fact, Red Bourbon is what we generally call Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has better aroma and brighter acidity.

For example, several Latin American Bourbon coffee beans currently procured by FrontStreet Coffee include Brazilian Red Bourbon, Brazilian Yellow Bourbon, and Colombian Pink Bourbon. However, the advantage of Bourbon varieties in Latin America no longer exists due to poor disease resistance. In contrast, Rwandan Bourbon varieties still maintain an advantage, which is one of the reasons why FrontStreet Coffee procures Rwandan coffee beans.

Rwandan Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Currently, Rwandan coffee beans mainly use the washed processing method. During the harvest season each year, farmers gather ripe coffee cherries at washing stations for processing. Manual selection is also performed to ensure that no unripe or damaged fruits are mixed in. As FrontStreet Coffee has often mentioned in previous articles, the washed processing method best reflects the original flavor of coffee beans, with cleaner and brighter flavor performance. This is also one of the reasons why FrontStreet Coffee introduces Rwandan coffee.

Washed Processing Method Steps:

1. Pour coffee cherries into water and remove defective beans through flotation, such as unripe, overripe, or other impurities.

2. Use a pulping machine to remove the outer skin and pulp from the selected coffee cherries. The surface of the coffee cherries after removing the skin and pulp still has a layer of mucilage attached, so large amounts of clean water are needed to remove the mucilage from the surface of the coffee cherries.

3. The process of removing mucilage through fermentation takes about 18 hours. Because after fermentation is complete, fermentation bacteria still adhere to the surface of the coffee cherries, another round of thorough washing with large amounts of clean water is needed. For this step, to obtain 1 kilogram of coffee beans, 40 to 50 kilograms of clean water are consumed. FrontStreet Coffee considers this to be a very large number, which limits certain regions from adopting the washed processing method.

4. The washed coffee beans can then be dried. Some regions will directly place them outdoors to dry. If equipment is available, some processing plants will use machines for drying, reducing the coffee moisture content to around 11%. At this point, a huller can be used to remove the inner parchment and silver skin.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, in the short span of twenty years since Rwanda's coffee development began, washing stations have increased from 2 to 220. They are now all privately owned, that is, owned by exporters or farmer cooperatives. Due to the small average farm size (each farm averages fewer than 200 coffee trees), each station serves approximately 50 to 100 farms. NAEB employs 200 botanists and cuppers who regularly visit washing stations to inspect quality and educate farmers on soil management, organic farming, pruning, pest control, and harvesting knowledge.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce this Rwandan single-origin coffee bean, which comes from Rwanda's most famous Gashaka washing station.

FrontStreet Coffee's Gashaka Coffee Beans

Country: Rwanda

Region: Nyamasheke District, Western Rwanda

Altitude: 1,700-2,000 meters

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Washed

Flavor: Plum, citrus, berries, nuts, bright acidity, honey-sweet aftertaste

Gashaka Washing Station

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Fidele Ndagijmana, the owner of the Gashaka washing station, is a young trader in the Nyamasheke region. He saw the development potential of Rwandan specialty washed coffee, so he applied to the government to build this processing plant and successfully processed 170 tons of coffee cherries in the first year. He then used the off-season to improve and expand production equipment, providing better production machinery and superior storage environments for the next harvest season. This excellent trader also secured more land near the processing plant for coffee cultivation. This laid a solid quality foundation for these Gashaka coffee beans.

Before launching any new coffee bean, FrontStreet Coffee conducts extensive roasting and brewing tests, and this Rwandan Gashaka coffee bean is no exception. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the roasting and brewing data for this coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Recommendations

Since Rwandan coffee beans have fresh acidity, to highlight this flavor, FrontStreet Coffee recommends light to medium roasting. The deeper the roast degree, the more the fruity acidic tones will be lost. Yangjia 800N, 550g bean input: preheat oven to 175°C, heat power 120, damper setting at 3; return temperature point at 1'36", when oven temperature reaches 112°C, open damper to 4, heat power rises to 140; when oven temperature reaches 151°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage; at 8'30", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast smell obviously turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'45", damper opens to 5, develop for 1'30" after first crack, discharge at 190.6°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pour-over Parameters:

Filter: V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Dose: 15 grams

Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: BG#6m (China standard 20-mesh sieve pass rate 80%)

First segment: Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom. Second segment: Small circular pour until reaching 125g, then segment. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring the third segment to 225g, then stop pouring. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the filter cup. (Timing starts from bloom) Total extraction time is 2 minutes. The conical V60 filter cup enhances coffee layering, the 1:15 ratio increases coffee body and aftertaste, and segmented pouring prevents the extraction time from being too short while allowing adjustments according to front, middle, and back segments.

Rwanda's brewing flavor: Obvious fruit acidity, nuts, overall balanced and smooth.

Conclusion

The above is some relevant knowledge about Rwandan coffee compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. We hope this helps everyone better understand the coffee knowledge of this producing region, so that you can choose coffee beans suitable for your taste in the future.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473