Forget tea, drink more coffee: can a national culture be changed?

Smayah Unageneza’s first espresso was memorably unpleasant. The 19-year-old barista and latte artist wrinkled her nose as she recalled the bitter sip. “I hated coffee then.” Now, she says, she “can’t live without it”.

Unageneza is by all accounts an exception in Rwanda, which produces some of the world’s finest coffee yet hardly consumes a drop. The country’s government hopes to change this with a campaign urging Rwandans to drink what they sow.

“Rwandans, as producers of quality coffee that wins best prizes worldwide, have to celebrate its quality through its consumption,” says Pie Ntwari, a spokesman for the National Agricultural Export Development Board (Naeb), a government agency dedicated to increasing agricultural exports. Full Story

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