Sourcing

Umunyana is made for those who take coffee seriously.
It is grown in the volcanic highlands of Rwanda, on farms worked by women, in a craft passed down by women. We buy directly from them, and we pay them well for it.

The coffee that was never ours

For most of its history, Rwandan coffee was not grown for Rwandans. Under Belgian colonial rule in the early twentieth century, coffee was forced on farmers as a cash crop for export. The land, the labor, and the harvest were controlled from elsewhere. The best coffee left the country, and the people who grew it were paid barely enough to survive. Even after independence, the global trade kept favoring corporations and middlemen, and the small farmers, most of them women, were left out of the value of what they grew.
Umunyana exists to change that. We work directly with women farmers in Rwanda, on fair terms, so the people who grow this coffee share in what it is worth.

The name

Umunyana was given to me by my grandmother, who did not survive the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, but whose strength I carry. In Rwanda, umunyana means something you see only once in a lifetime. A lucky charm. It is a name about love, legacy, and the belief that coffee, like people, can change a life.

Grown in Rwanda. Roasted in Los Angeles.

The beans grow at altitude in Rwanda’s highlands, then travel to Los Angeles, where they are roasted in small batches by our roaster, Jon. Each roast is named for a goddess, for the strength the coffee carries. Certified organic. Single origin. Specialty grade.

— Dydine