Original Story Published by: Azad Essa for Al Jazeera
(Above) Patrick Ruhumuriza, who taught himself to become a barista over YouTube, hopes to open up a cafe of his own one day.
Despite its important role in the economy, coffee isn't part of daily life for most Rwandans but things are changing.
Kigali, Rwanda - Inside Abdul Sibomana's farm, on the outskirts of Nyanza town in southern Rwanda, dry coffee cherries hang from small stems.
The 30-year-old's farm sits between a line of small land holdings just off the main highway that snakes its way through sprawling hills dotted with coffee, banana and cassava plantations.
The coffee that's produced here is known for its vibrant acidic taste - a hint of sandalwood, peach and pecan. But Sibomana is unlikely to tell you that.
Like most others Rwandan farmers, Sibomana almost never drinks coffee. As for his produce? He has never tried it.
"I had a cup of coffee two weeks ago," he says, with a smile. "It was a Nescafe I got from a restaurant after my graduation."
Sibomana, who recently received his degree in civil engineering, farms coffee, cassava and potatoes on the small land holding he inherited from his parents who were killed during the 1994 genocide. More than 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsi, were slaughtered over the course of 100 days by Rwanda's Hutu majority.
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