Our Story
Africa to the world
Rafiki is Swahili for ‘friend’.
Born in Rwanda and based in Edinburgh, we have been sourcing coffee beans from East Africa since 2019. Rafiki is a brand that was built with the help of friends. It tells an African story; a story of the coffee and the people who produce it.
It all started in Edinburgh
Ben (our founder) first moved to Edinburgh in 2015 to study. As a student he struggled to find good African coffee in cafes and on UK shelves.
After growing up on Rwanda’s green and luscious coffee fields his childhood memories provided the inspiration for Rafiki Coffee; a brand dedicated towards bringing the highest quality African coffee to a global audience.
With the support from our Friends in Africa
Coffee is our way of promoting and celebrating the best of Africa.
Our friends in Rwanda hand-pick coffee cherries when they are ripe and red. They are then spread out on drying beds where imperfect beans are removed, so only the best end up in your coffee.
Our carefully selected beans are roasted in small batches following a precise roast profile that we have developed to bring out the best flavour and aroma of the beans. With this micro-roasting procedure, we can ensure consistency and freshness of our coffee and deliver the greatest amount of flavour.
Looking into the future
We also work towards investing in education by funding education for Rwandan youth as we know that supporting the youth of today will define the Africa of tomorrow.
Ecole du Bon Berger is a nursery and primary school offering multilingual education in French, English and Kinyarwanda.
Rafiki coffee started a partnership with the school which includes the sponsoring of primary school students as well as implementing sustainability initiatives alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).