KIGALI, Rwanda — If you're looking for a place to grab a quick drink in Rwanda, you might find yourself sitting at a bar with a tall cold glass … of milk.
Milk bars are a popular part of daily life in Kigali, the country's capital. The idea was born out of a need for fresh milk as many Rwandans moved to the city from rural areas in the past decade and lost their easy access to dairy cows.
The beverage carries cultural significance — cows are revered — but has become a challenge for health officials in the country. They'd like to see more moderate levels of milk drinking.
In the bustling Nyamirambo sector of Kigali, customers at Moses Sansiman's milk bar are spilling out into the street holding large glass mugs full of the creamy white drink.
The 52-year-old is dressed in a lab coat and serves cold whole milk from a large storage tank with a faucet on one end. It is pasteurized.
"I like to keep it simple," he says.
He says some milk bars offer options like hot milk with a dollop of honey, fermented milk or milk flavored with chocolate or strawberry or vanilla as well as low fat and skim.
Most of his customers are picky about their milk. They'll either drink it at the bar or fresh from a cow — never from a container at the grocery store.
"I can't drink milk in a box. No way," says JP Sagahutu, who consumes about four 8-ounce glasses of milk a day.
He tries to think of the best adjective to describe the beverage. "I don't know the wording in English, but it's something sacré," he says — using the French word for sacred. Many Rwandans speak the language because the country was a Belgian colony until 1962.
Other customers nod in agreement: Milk is holy. In fact, as a sign of respect you must only drink it while sitting down.
Bovines are a blessing
The sentiment comes from the respect people here have for cows, seen for many generations as providers of sustenance and prosperity.
"A very long time ago, there was no currency. To see if someone is rich, they were counting cows. If you have 10 cows, it means you are rich," Sagahutu says.
So precious is the cow, that in Rwandan culture, when you want to wish someone well, you say "may you have a cow" — kajirinka in the local language of Kinyarwandan.
Taste test
When I visit Sansiman's shop, he brings over a glass the size of an Oktoberfest stein.
After I take a sip, my first thought is that this milk would make fantastic vanilla ice cream. It's creamy, well-rounded with a subtle floral aroma and very fresh.
Some of the customers say they prefer milk over tea or coffee or even water because they believe it's much more nutritious.
"I don't think I ever saw my grandfather drink anything other than milk," says Giles Bertrand Niyomwungeri.
Just say no to more moo juice
One important person in the country's government is trying to modify this cultural habit.
"In [Rwandan] society they think milk is everything," says Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana, Rwanda's health minister.
Nsanzimana says excessive consumption of milk has become part of a variety of new health challenges that come with urban lifestyle changes.
"Now we're seeing more people going to hospital for chronic diseases that could have [been] prevented by less milk drinking, less alcohol drinking, [by] exercising," he says.
He acknowledges that milk has important nutrients, like protein and calcium, but stresses that more is not better. Studies have shown that too much milk can lead to obesity and even cardiovascular disease and can have adverse effects on overall mortality.
Nsanzimana wants people to drink less milk and more water.
I ask him how many cups of milk he recommends to people a day and he picks up a 16- ounce water bottle.
"I mean, I would say maybe half of this," he says. That's about a cup.
But "it's been a difficult shift in communication," he observes.
"If I go to my own family and start to talk about [how] too much milk is not good or how water is important, they will start to think that I probably went into the wrong medicine," he says with a laugh.
Copyright 2026 NPR
