Coffee from Lake Eduard of Virunga National Park, Congo

This coffee has been a sensation throughout the specialty coffee industry in recent harvests. The cup is amazingly clean, sweet and fruity with aromas like cherry and liqueur, with a distinguished aftertaste. Its complexity and the amazing flavors make this coffee perfect for filter use and almost as equally suitable for a sweet profile of an espresso extraction with a nice, balanced acidity at the beginning of the sip.

The coffee growing area stretches alongside Lake Edward and the Virunga National Park, which is a habitat of mountain gorillas. Coffee grows on hillsides in a bimodal rain pattern (i.e. a wet season with two rainfall peaks, separated by at least one dry month). Some say that this specific may contribute to the distinguished characteristics of the coffee coming from that area.

The Kawa Kabuya coffees have earned top scores in several African Fine Coffees Association Taste of Harvest competitions. Cooperative washing stations create full time and seasonal employment for local youth and rejuvenate the coffee sector by offering a variety of jobs.

Historical Developments

The East of the DRC is suffering from endemic insecurity for a period of over 20 years but nevertheless, the people are courageous enough to grow their coffee since it is their major source of cash income. Coffee export has collapsed from 120,000 tons at the end of the 1980s down to 8,000 tons per year, with an unknown quantity. 

It is only in recent years that the tide has been reversed and that the threshold of 10,000 tons has been passed again. Now, the quality of Congo coffee has been considerably improved and the whole coffee sector is getting the benefit of this improving reputation.