5 minute read
Kigali's Coffee Culture
Rwanda has long been renowned for the quality of its coffee, but now the caffeine scene is as much about the baristas as the beans. Kigali has a host of artisan coffee shops that roast in-house and offer specialty brews to cater to the growing number of coffee connoisseurs in the capital. Check out our favourite cafes for your next caffeine hit.
One Cup Roasters - Kimihurura
This award-winning Rwandan-owned coffee shop in the lush and leafy neighborhood of Kimihurura offers the full bean-to-cup experience for visitors who don’t have time for the long and winding drive out to the country’s coffee-growing heartland around Lake Kivu. The café has a mini-farm of Arabica coffee plants on-site, allowing visitors to get involved in the coffee-making process from harvest through to hulling (removing the layers of husk and pulp from the drying beans) before roasting, grinding, and ultimately tasting their own batch of couldn’t-be-fresher Rwandan coffee. It’s a sensory experience that gives visitors a first-hand understanding of the expertise and effort that goes into making a great cup of coffee. Of course, you can bypass all that and just turn up to enjoy a freshly roasted cuppa. With its dual-level terrace offering sweeping views over the city, One Cup is a popular spot for coffee with friends or while doing remote work on your laptop. Late in the evening, the vibe changes with a cocktail bar and a fine dining food menu for romantic evening meals.
Rubia Roasters - Kimihurura
This specialty coffee roastery favors single-origin beans from smallholder farms in coffee-growing hot spots such as Huye in Rwanda’s Southern Province. Its team of master roasters – working with a machine built by global market leading German brand Probat – create the rich flavour profiles Rubia is renowned for. The quality of the coffee here, along with a tasty all-day food menu, makes this a hugely popular spot. Locals and tourists hang out here enjoying the excellent wi-fi, indoor and outdoor seating and the attractive industrial décor with open brickwork and clusters of smokedglass pendant lamps. Its convenient location at the intersection of the major arterial KN 5 Rd and Kigali Centenary Park really comes into its own on the bi-monthly Car-Free Sundays when the traffic disappears and a steady flow of runners, walkers and roller-bladers flow by for a caffeine energy boost or recovery smoothie.
Kivu Noir - Kimihurura and Kiyovu
This Rwandan-run café has two venues in the capital – one inside co-working space Norrsken in Kiyovu and a larger, self-contained venue in Kimihurura boasting a chic décor that is a lesson to all in contemporary comfort. The total commitment to quality is evident in the coffee as well. The brews here are made from Rwandan Red Bourbon Arabica beans, which are only grown in the rich volcanic soil of the Lake Kivu region. Kivu Noir has made lasting connections with smallholder farms in the area and, in return for supply of one of the world’s most exclusive coffee beans, gives farmers a significant share of the sales, funds their healthcare and provides education for their children. Kivu Noir also shares its command of coffee at regular tasting and roasting workshops. There is also the option to tour one of its partnering coffee farms.
Question Coffee Café and Roastery - Gishushu and Kiyovu
This Rwandan coffee chain and social enterprise has two outlets in the city. The hilltop Gishushu branch is the larger with a rather lovely outdoor terrace to take in the view. The coffee here tastes good and does good. The in-house roasters work with small batches of the best beans sourced from women-run co-operatives at coffee farms across the country. Buy a cup and you are helping bring economic independence to these women and their families. A cut of each sale goes directly to the cooperative and the remaining is reinvested into professional training and trading programmes for women coffee farmers. Visitors can choose from a variety of roasting profiles as well as brewing methods from espresso machine to slow coffee icons pour-over options such as Chemex and Aeropress. Question is also answering the call for more qualified baristas with certified course for young Rwandans hoping to become coffee professionals.
MJ Lab Cafe - Kabare
Rwandan-owned social private enterprise Akagera Coffee produces ethically sourced Arabica coffee through its own traceable supply chain that begins with co-operatives of smallholder farmers in the altitudinous Mukama and Kayonze regions. The harvest is processed at washing stations set up by Akagera Coffee in each region. Speciality treatments carried out here include the honey process in which the fresh coffee cherries are de-pulped, but allowed to dry without washing for a rich, sweet flavour along with anaerobic fermentation where the coffee is deprived of oxygen in sealed tanks, creating a distinct flavour profile. The resulting coffee, packaged as whole beans or ground, is available tp pick up at its Kigali base, MJ Lab Café, or its new safari stop-off Akagera Café, located on the south road into Akagera National Park. At both outlests there is a choice of just-roasted bags to take home or you can enjoy a freshly brewed cuppa in the elegant surroundings. As a social enterprise, Akagera Coffee assists the hundreds of coffee farmers it employs to build their businesses. It invests 30 per cent of its income into cooperatives to support the community with projects including a field farm school teaching farmers best practice, a women’s centre teaching tailoring skills and a pre-school for local children.
