Last May I had the amazing opportunity of being able to spend two blissful weeks submerged in the world of Rwandan speciality coffee when I travelled to Mbare to spend time with the Rwamatamu producers.
This was my second visit to Rwanda and it was fascinating to see how much the country had changed in the last decade since I had been here. Not least was the amazing food scene in Kigali - (tree tomato sorbet and nine course pan-African tasting menus anyone?) and, surprisingly in this nation of tea drinkers, a buoyant speciality coffee culture. Both Rubia Coffee Roasters and Question Coffee quickly become my two favourite Kigali hangouts for their tasty roasted beans, fresh juices and pretty outdoor seating.
Rwanda is an astonishing country. Less than half the size of Scotland but with two and a half times the population it remains one of the poorest nations in the world, tucked beneath the equator in a geopolitical region not best known for its stability. Yet I never once felt unsafe as a solo female traveller in my time here. Rwanda is a global leader in gender equality and has the highest percentage of women in parliament in the world. It is one of the most digitally advanced nations in Africa and, on a planet known for having a trash problem, the streets of Rwanda are pretty much litter free (in 2007, Rwanda became the first country in the world to legislate an outright ban on plastic bags).
But even 30 years on it is still impossible to escape the dark shadow of the Rwandan genocide that left the country decimated with “a society whose soul had been shredded… where hardly a person could be found who was not related to someone who had either killed or been killed”. How a nation can recover from the horrific events that unfurled over 100 days in 1994 seems unimaginable. Rwanda will never forget the genocide, countless memorials across the country a daily reminder to this fact, yet the country has striven to move forward, building a new nation and shaking off the ‘ethnic’ divisions of the past - “We are all Rwandans” is now the official mantra of the country where on the last Saturday of the month, citizens of all ages gather to take part in Umuganda - a mandatory community service involving activities such as school building, road fixing and tree planting - the aim of which is to promote nation building and social cohesion.
Amazingly, specialty coffee has also played its part in the re-building of modern Rwanda. In the years that followed the genocide, International aid programmes invested heavily in the region. Among them were programmes improving the quality of Rwandan coffee with the construction of the country’s first coffee washing stations. The initiative was a huge success not least thanks to Rwanda’s natural resources: Fantastic rainfall, fertile soil and plenty of altitude – it’s no coincidence the tourist board’s strapline boasts Rwanda “a land of a thousand hills”.
Coffee is now one of Rwanda’s top exports bringing in US$116 million to the country in 2025. Back in 2002 only about 1% of total coffee production could be classified as speciality and there were just two washing stations in the entire country. Today there are over 300 coffee washing stations with 60% of Rwanda’s coffee production now graded as speciality.
Founded by Mukantwaza Laetitia and Rutaganda Gaston, Rwamatamu operates washing stations in Nyamasheke and, since 2023, Mbare. Known for its commitment to quality coffee production, sustainable practices, and strong community impact, Gaston and Laetitia established Rwamatamu not only as a business venture but also as a means to address poverty in rural areas through fair wages, year round employment, and support for women in coffee farming.
Rwandans are well known for their warmth and hospitality and Laetitia, Gaston and their daughter Bernice were the kindest hosts, welcoming me with open arms to their beautiful home in Kigali, where I was treated to the most delicious food, good company and kindness.
Bernice and I headed west out of the city the next day on the Kibuye road, tackling the infamous Kigali traffic before crossing the Nyabarongo river, muddy and red and with its resident crocodiles. To my joy about an hour into the journey we stopped off for tasty flat whites at a roadside coffee roastery before eventually turning off the tarmac onto the red dirt road at Muhanga dam and down to the washing station at Mbare.
Unlike Nyamasheke, where coffee farming is well-established, Mbare’s community has historically focused on other crops, with coffee often treated as secondary. Rwamatamu is working to shift this perspective by engaging local farmers and establishing quality-focused practices to improve coffee production and increase profitability for the farmers involved. Their hard work is clearly paying off evident in the fact that last year a washed Mbare lot came second out of 300 at the Best of Rwanda coffee competition with a score of 90.81.
It was a real pleasure to hang out with the wonderful cupping lab team in Mbare. I always learn so much when I get to spend time at a cupping table at origin and cupping with Manzi, Francine, Clarissa and Adelaide in the Mbare lab was a real treat. It also made me realise how northern hemisphere-centric so many of our cupping terms are. Some of the brilliant and spot on descriptors mentioned that I noted down at the time included: “very ripe Japanese Plum”, “freshly picked mango leaves rubbed between your fingers”, “the sweetness you get from a fresh cane of sugar”, “the flavour of an overripe pineapple” and “acidity like a lemon that has had the juice squeezed out of it that has then been placed in a glass of water”.
The Rwamatamu Youth Group is a project that provides young adults in the Mbare community aged 18 - 35 with opportunities in coffee farming. In 2024 Rwamatamu purchased three hectares of land for the group and began supporting its members with training, seedlings, and equipment. Late one afternoon Classia and Francine took me for a walk around the youth group farm where I felt like a botany student that had landed in Eden. Tiny Rwanda may account for less than 1 percent of Africa’s landmass but the country is home to an impressive 15 percent of the continent’s plant species. We passed verdant, fertile kitchen gardens richly packed with beds of leggy, frilly sorghum, low bushy cassava plants (whose roots are an important carbohydrate source in this part of the world while their leaves are made into a bitter tasting stew that even after two weeks I couldn’t get used to). Neatly planted rows of beans, sat alongside sweet potato, tomatoes and “Irish” potatoes. Fruit too is abundant here. Every so often rising above the coffee plants was the magnificent spreading canopy of a mango tree, and of course the land was dotted with ubiquitous banana heavy with their fat fingered fruit.
The morning’s rain had left the earth soft and spongey, the stones slick with water and the gentle stream at the bottom of the washing station whose stepping stones we needed to cross was now an angry torrent. Clarissa and Francine deftly navigated the muddy paths in their fluorescent flip flops. I followed behind, clumsy in my blundstones (the coffee buyers universal footwear of choice for good reason, protecting as they do against African mud, South American snakes, ankle biting mosquitoes and an ability to be easily kicked off at airport security) but they were no match for the Mbare mud this afternoon and I found myself skidding and sliding to a chorus of sorrys and apologies hailing from both me and my Rwandan friends.
After days of frustrating rain, we woke to sunshine the next morning and a flurry of activity kicked in at the station. Sacks of coffee cherries and parchment were carried out to the tables to be spread out to dry in the sun, being regularly turned and churned so they could dry evenly. As fresh cherries continued to arrive at the station, often on the back of a bicycle, they were weighed and depulped before being laid out under shade to be hand sorted. This was hot, thirsty work and after an hour or so I had to beg some time out to have a drink of water which amused my companions who jokingly called it “cow beer” preferring as they do to drink tea, milk and fanta and of course real beer.
By 4pm the coffee starts getting covered again to protect it from the rain and damp of the coming night and the workers at the washing station start to make their way home back to their houses and gardens. By 4.30pm this part of Africa seems at its best. The heat abates, long cool shadows streak across the slopes of Colline Musumba and the golden light makes everything heartstoppingly beautiful. The mosquitoes that I am convinced seem to like biting me more than anyone else in the world haven’t yet emerged and as dozens of cooking fires are lit the late afternoon air fills sweet smell of woodsmoke.
The work that Rwamatamu are doing here is incredible and the coffees we cupped during my time there have now landed in the UK and we are beginning to roast them. We are excited to have bought an especially delicious lot from the Rwamatamu Women’s Cooperative and really look forward to sharing it with you.
My heartfelt thanks to Gaston, Laetitia and Bernice in Rwanda and for Dave at Omwani for making this skills exchange happen.
