Untold story: Bourbon’s role in Rwanda’s growing coffee culture

Jean-Berchimas Mbaraga, a resident of Ngororero District, in Western Province, who has been growing coffee for more than three decades, says it was not until 2001 or so, under the current government – when he realised that as a farmer, he can earn well from his produce and also be able to enjoy a post-harvest cup of the beverage. Mbaraga said they lacked information regarding value addition and fair trade of coffee, settling for whatever intermediaries gave them, not until the current government put in place policies that restored value and dignity to the crop, starting with the farmer. Beyond policies and sectorial reforms, one of the stories that has gone untold is how Bourbon Coffee, Rwanda’s first modern coffee shop, revolutionised the coffee industry and introduced a culture of coffee consumption which has taken root today. A subsidiary of Crystal Ventures, Bourbon Coffee is one of the strategic investments RPF-Inkotanyi made to stimulate investment in key sectors of the economy, which were initially not attracting investors. Bourbon Coffee opened its first shop in Kigali, in 2007, and has expanded to eight different locations across Rwanda and the United States. Seventeen years down the road, a flurry of many other coffee shops emerged and Bourbon Coffee is now an international brand. Rwandans and tourists alike indulge in coffee drinking, while coffee has become a common beverage on the menu in every restaurant. Year in, year out, Rwanda’s revenues from coffee exports increases as much as the demand on the global market does. To understand the impact of Bourbon Coffee, one has to look at how Rwandan coffee has gained prominence on the international market, attracting good prices, thanks to the value addition championed by the likes of Bourbon. According to available records, in 2023, Rwanda exported over 20,000 tonnes of coffee, which brought in almost $116 million while in 2022 it generated $105 million (about Rwf114 billion), a huge jump for $78.3 million (about Rwf85 billion) in 2021, according to the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB). NAEB says that the growth in revenue comes from good prices Rwandan Coffee attracts on the international market, averaging at least $6 per kilogram over the last couple of years. If it had not been for Bourbon Coffee, which produced the first international brand of specialty coffee out of Rwanda, and the first retail brand to originate from Africa, today Rwandan farmers would still be exporting raw beans. Kagame, the marketer According to Jack Kayonga, the Group CEO of Crystal Ventures Limited (CVL), it took strategic leadership to position Rwanda coffee where it is today. It is a mission that President Paul Kagame has been leading from the front and it has since paid off, Kayonga says. Today, what they set out to stimulate the sector took off and local farmers and Rwandan youth are enjoying the benefits across the coffee chain. “Like most other things in this country, we have got the leadership leading us even in the vision of many of the ventures we have today. Specifically, to the Bourbon Coffee story, it all started from the President, who would encourage many people to drink the Rwandan coffee. “He would tell them the story of how good the Rwandan coffee is and in several incidents his guests would challenge him and say 'you talk about Rwanda coffee but where can we have the experience of the Rwandan coffee?” “Where can we have a cup of Rwandan coffee? That's how it started,” Kayonga says, giving a background of Bourbon Coffee, with the first two coffee shops opening in 2007, with a mission of creating an experience. He noted that by far, opening Bourbon Coffee was a very good decision. With the Rwandan society evolving fast, the coffee culture was picked up, with Rwandans, including those in diaspora, quickly enjoying the Rwandan coffee experience. It is a combination of things that have contributed to this mindset change, including the government efforts to encourage people to drink coffee and enjoy it – but most importantly these efforts have played a pivotal role in positioning Rwandan coffee on the international market. Achieving the mission, creating jobs While he does not attribute all these gains to Bourbon Coffee, Kayonga says the coffee shop has played a key role in influencing the coffee consumption culture and has birthed a multitude of baristas, many of whom have gone on to set up their own coffee shops across the country. “If you look at most of the coffee stores that have opened up in Kigali and beyond, you find that many the baristas are former employees of Bourbon, who have become entrepreneurs and have also gone on to set up other businesses,” says Kayonga, adding that Bourbon has been a success story in many ways. In relation to adding value, Kayonga says they have worked with institutions like NAEB not only to train baristas but also to put in place the necessary quality controls that feed into the “naturally crop to cup” philosophy, which they go by. He stated that there is a lot of quality control that goes into having a good cup of coffee, starting with how the bean is grown, roasted up to the barista, who has to be well-trained. Today, Rwandans are able to tell between a bad and a good coffee, not just in a coffee shop, but even at home. “We are seeing the culture of coffee stores even in office buildings. Gone are the days that we used to drink the likes of Nescafe,” Kayonga says. He maintained that Rwandans now fully enjoy the coffee experience, adding that even himself, it was not until 2007 that he started enjoying a cup of Rwandan coffee. “Today I cannot miss my daily dose of coffee.” Kayonga attributes this to the vision of the leadership which put Rwandans first, pointing out that before anything else, Rwandans have to enjoy the fruits of their labour. “If you look at countries like Ethiopia, they consume more than 50 per cent of their coffee. It is good to produce coffee for export but why should people enjoy more of the fruits of the hard work of our farmers?” Kayonga says. He further says that today, Bourbon has become a sustainable business model, and they are looking to scale it even further but as far as he is concerned, the objective has been achieved, much as there is still room for growth. “We still want to achieve the vision of the President of sharing the Rwandan coffee experience, by having coffee shops in different other capitals as well as consolidating the business in Rwanda and supporting even other young entrepreneurs that are going into the coffee space,” Kayonga pointed out. From barista to entrepreneur Stafford Rubagumya is one of the most outstanding entrepreneurs in the coffee business, who was nurtured by Bourbon Coffee, and today he owns a chain of his own coffee shops known as Stafford Coffee. Rubagumya recalls that when Bourbon opened as the first shop at the then Union Trade Centre mall in downtown Kigali, it was a new concept and many people including himself had no idea about coffee, as a beverage and as a crop. “I remember when I joined Bourbon in 2007, the first day, they gave me coffee and I remember spitting it because it was very bitter. I wondered, how can someone drink something so bitter?” “I told myself that I will never drink it again but after a week, I had become an addict,” recalls Rubagumya, who also runs several coffee kiosks. “It was a good experience and when I remember it, I laugh,” Rubagumya says. And before he knew it, he had fallen in love with coffee, particularly how it connected people, to socialise and discuss business. In 2009, Rubagumya left Bourbon and joined a leading coffee exporter, which further cemented his love for coffee, but all this time he did not know he would start his own coffee shop because he thought it required a lot of capital. However, when he set out, it was very easy for him because he had the experience and knowledge from Bourbon of how a coffee shop is set up, the way it operates and creating the right environment and atmosphere. Rubagumya says coffee was considered to be a prestigious drink for few but that mindset has changed and it was championed by Bourbon before other players like him joined to further domesticate coffee consumption. Women not left out The coffee shop nurtured many, including women, some of whom are running their own business or are managers in other establishments. Among them is Sonia Batamuriza, who was among the pioneer employees of Bourbon Coffee which she joined in 2007. Today, she is a manager of a top apartment hotel in town, having honed her skills in hospitality at Bourbon. For her, Bourbon was not just a place to grab a coffee, it was an experience. “It offered a unique and exceptional space to enjoy coffee specialties, learn about Rwandan coffee, relax, socialise, and a place for short meetings for some people,” “We had many guests, new to coffee nuances who had the opportunity to learn and appreciate coffee at Bourbon. Most of them even started promoting it internationally,” she recalls. At Bourbon Coffee, Batamuriza says she learned skills like teamwork, from top management down to the lowest employee, and dedication to providing excellent service. Liliane Kamariza, the Manager of Bourbon Coffee shop at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), says that when she joined, she did not know much about coffee as a beverage, just as Rubagumya, until she joined the coffee shop in 2014. Kamariza joined Bourbon Coffee after completing high school, as a waitress, but she was offered several trainings on the coffee process, right from the garden to the cup. “I became a coffee lover instantly, and in 2015, I became a professional female barista. I was among the few ladies in the profession,” she says. Today, Kamariza is a professional grinder who ensures every aspect of quality that comes with the responsibility. With the support of Bourbon Coffee, she enrolled into the University of Tourism and Business Studies (UTB), where she acquired a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, to hone her skills further. “I can say Bourbon Coffee is the mother of all coffee shops. Many Rwandans have warmed up to coffee as a beverage of choice, overcoming stereotypes that persisted for years that it is unhealthy,” Kamariza says. An intricate process Frank Anthony Ndayishimiye, in charge of Quality Control at Bourbon Coffee, said work starts right from the farmers, where they work with growers in different regions of the country, including Muhazi, Akagera, Kivu, Virunga and Kizi Rift. “Each region has its own natural spices in terms of roasting profile. We select one farming area from each region on condition that Bourbon Coffee sets the standards and specifications of the green coffee we need,” he says. Ndayishimiye says Bourbon also considers the members of the cooperatives it works with, 30 per cent of whom must be women, as well as farmer’s households that need to be lifted out of poverty. Bourbon supports them in all aspects, right from the nursery to the final but also gives them specifications of the product desired. He added that this approach has paid off and transformed the lives of farmers in different ways. They can now pay school fees for their children, build good houses and they can pay medical insurance for themselves. Each cooperative in each of five regions has more than 100 farmers, which goes to show how many farmers the initiative has empowered, who are now able to enjoy the fruits of their sweat. Ndayishimiye states it is about time young people went into coffee, considering that most coffee farmers in Rwanda are aging, with the majority aged between 60 or 70. He says the demand for coffee today is high and the market is assured. Coffee roaster Claude Niyigena, a roaster who has been working with Bourbon Coffee since 2015, said that when the green coffee arrives from the farmers, the first step is to check if it meets the standards. “We are talking about the quality of the beans, the selection, the content and many more. We subject the beans to lab tests to measure the quality, based on the different standards,” “We work with the farmers from the start and tell them we want a standard that cannot go below 80 percent in terms of quality. Once the tests confirm that the coffee is of good quality and well selected, we embark on the roasting process,” he adds. On a normal day, Niyigena roasts an average of 700kgs a day, depending on the type he is working on.

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Untold story: Bourbon’s role in Rwanda’s growing coffee culture