Rwanda Coffee Tours | Visit Lake Kivu Farms & Stations

Coffee grown in Rwanda is of high quality, mainly the Arabica Bourbon variety. It has a smooth, creamy body with hints of lemon, orange blossom, and caramel aftertaste.

Coffee is one of the country’s main cash crops and is exported to many countries. It is highly valued for its natural taste, which helps earn income for the country and improves people’s living standards.

Coffee is mostly grown in communities in the northwest, around the shores of Lake Kivu. This area, near the hills of Gisenyi, is not only full of green landscapes that turn deep red during harvest but also offers educational tours.

These tours are run by Rwanda’s cooperatives, which manage coffee farms and washing stations. Lake Kivu is home to the Kinunu washing station, which can be reached by boat or bicycle. It offers great views and is close to the Ingoboka cooperative near Kayove.

For tourists wanting to learn more about coffee, the KZ Noir washing station provides detailed information about coffee. It collects coffee from many cooperatives and farms around the country and has several washing bays nearby, including Cyebumba, Nkora, Rugamba on the northern lake shores, as well as Shangi and Cyivugiza stations.

Rwanda’s coffee grows well because of the rich volcanic soil, which has the right conditions for coffee plants. The steady production of good coffee has attracted many tourists from around the world to enjoy coffee tours in Rwanda.

Visitors are warmly welcomed and shown every step of coffee production, from planting to processing. Coffee farming began in Rwanda in 1904 when missionaries introduced coffee trees. This caught the interest of locals, many of whom began growing coffee. Today, coffee is a valuable resource in Rwanda, with over 450,000 small-scale farmers across the country.

The best time to visit is during the harvest season. Visitors can join farmers in hand-picking coffee cherries and learn how to select the best beans, making the experience memorable. You can also visit during the budding season when the seeds are still green. Although you won’t see harvesting then, you can learn about other parts of coffee processing.

Coffee tours in Rwanda are both interesting and educational, and they are an experience you should not miss.