Musasa Ruli – May 2026 Roasters’s Choice

Rwanda & Coffee: Rwanda is known as the ‘land of a thousand hills’. It has the elevation, rugged mountainous terrain and perfect weather conditions to grow great coffee. However there are a few sticking points with widespread soil depletion and logistical challenges posing there own issues which can add substantially to the expense of production. Other potential obstacles include ‘The Potato Defect’ which is a unusual defect found only in coffees from Burundi & Rwanda. This caused by unknown bacteria which enters the skin of the coffee cherry and produces an unpleasant toxin. Although not harmful to health it can cause an unmistakable aroma similar to a peeled raw potato only noticable when the beans are roasted. However, this only affects certain beans, so it does not mean an entire bag of coffee will be impacted. Efforts are being made at the processing stage to identify affected cherries, particularly by detecting fruit with damaged or broken skin. Beyond this point, eradication becomes extremely difficult, as the defect remains virtually undetectable after harvest until the coffee is roasted.

The bulk of coffee production in Rwanda is fully washed Arabica with a small amount of Robusta. There are no large estates with all coffee producers being smallholders. On average each farm will have 183 trees. Around 400,000 families are involved in coffee production which is a fairly large chunk of a country with a population of around 14 million people. Coffees in Rwanda tend to be traced back to washing stations, farmer groups and cooperatives just like our Ruli offering.

Taste profile: Floral notes, bright berry flavours, and fruit characteristics such as apple and grape are all commonly found in Rwandan coffees.

Rwanda may be a small country, but coffee is grown throughout much of its landscape. The country’s coffee growing regions are divided across four provinces: Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western. These regions offer a wide range of elevations, from around 1,300 metres in the Eastern Province to heights of 2,200 meters in the Southern Province. The coffee harvest typically takes place between March and August, with global shipping beginning from October through to January. Rwanda is also home to several locally grown varietals, including Mibirizi, named after the mission station that first received Bourbon trees from Guatemala and Jackson, a Bourbon variant that was initially cultivated in Rwanda. Other commonly grown varietals include Caturra, Catuai, and Bourbon

A brief History of Coffee in Rwanda: Coffee was first brought to Rwanda by German missionaries in the early 1900s with the first coffee trees being planted at the Mibirizi mission in Cyangugu Province. The country did not produce enough coffee to begin exports until 1917. Historically, much of Rwanda’s coffee has been exported to Belgium. This connection dates back to the aftermath of the First World War, when Germany lost colonial control of Rwanda and the territory was placed under Belgian administration as a colonial mandate.

Coffee production spread into the Kivu region and it wasn’t long before it became a compulsory crop for many producers across Rwanda. Rwanda was pushed into growing high volumes of low grade coffee by the Belgians who enforced high taxes on the growers and had a strict control on exports. At this time there were no washing stations and little infrastructure to allow production of quality coffee. By the 1990s, coffee had become Rwanda’s most valuable export. However, midway through the decade, a devastating genocide had a profound impact on the country and severely disrupted coffee production.

Recovering from the devastation of genocide coffee became a sign of positivity for Rwandans. Outside aid and interest from afar gave the county the tools they required to build a solid bed for the future of coffee in Rwanda. The government took an open approach to the coffee sector, washing stations were built and a drive to produce a higher-quality coffee was taken. This brought in specialty coffee buyers from all over the world.

One example is the Ruli washing station where the Musasa Dukunde Kawa cooperative built it’s very first site, established in 2003. Built at an impressive 1,999 meters above sea level, Ruli remains one of the highest washing stations in the country. Its creation was supported by a Rwandan government development loan and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – funded PEARL project, a programme that helped transform Rwanda’s coffee industry. Rather than focusing purely on volume, PEARL encouraged a shift towards quality, opening the door to the growing speciality coffee market.