UNION SQUARE — A new cafe with a strong political message has opened on West 14th Street. Bourbon Coffee is based on a direct trade model, and sells only Rwandan coffee bought straight from the farmers who grow the beans.
The cafe opened just over a month ago, on Jan. 6. Its main competition comes from a Starbucks half a block down the street.
In the windows hang posters inviting potential customers to come in and “Experience the taste of Rwanda.”
Bourbon Coffee is the first commercial coffee brand to spread internationally after beginning in Africa. The company’s name is taken from Rwanda’s indigenous Bourbon arabica coffee bean. Bourbon grows and serves five different types of coffee from the five coffee-growing regions of Rwanda, all of which have very different soils and climates.
The facade and interior of the cafe feature a rustic, bare brick design, complemented by wooden panels and decorated with Rwandan handicrafts and paintings, many of which feature coffee husks and raw coffee beans in the design. The cafe, which is furnished with wood-veneered tables and brown and red leather armchairs, seats upwards of 50.
The company’s CEO, Bosco Munga, is a Rwandan native, but the American stores are overseen by operations manager Stacey Manley. Munga also runs three coffee shops in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, and opened the first U.S. site, in Washington D.C., in 2009.

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