We’re experiencing: bright & sweet with notes of cola, vanilla & dried fruit.

Producer: Emmanuel Rusatira, Baho Coffee

Location: Gakenke District, Northern Province, 1900-2100masl

Genetic Varieties: Red Bourbon

Process: Washed

Importing Partner: Sundog Trading

Muzo is nestled in the rolling hills near the heart of Rwanda, about a 2 hour drive North West of the capital city. This station is the smallest in the Baho collection, and it is very near and dear to Emmanuel as the source of some of his most beautiful coffees.

For a smaller and more remote area, the Gakenke district boasts a handful of established specialty grade washing stations. Emmanuel pays prices in cherry that can be up to 80% over the farmgate price set by the National Agricultural Export Board (NAEB) in order to incentivize producers to choose Muzo.

As one of the more intensely mountainous regions of Rwanda, many farmers are located in areas that make the journey to deliver cherry particularly strenuous.  To assist people living in these highest altitude /  hardest-to-travel places, Baho has established a collection service for Muzo.  In this case, a station leader at Muzo will drive to these particular producers’ homes to collect their coffee - the most important thing to note in these situations is that Emmanuel still pays full price and simply takes on the extra costs associated with this service himself. 

As is standard practice for Baho-owned stations - training, inputs, and substantial contributions towards health insurance premiums are provided for all farmers delivering. Each station has an agronomist on site that organizes training sessions focused on topics such as coffee plant care (fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, etc), importance of our traceability efforts, and environmental protection. Various inputs like fertilizers and new coffee seedlings are provided free of cost to all farmers. Baho is involved a step further here as well - helping farmers with transportation to gather materials and lending tools/equipment when necessary.

The Janja Hill lot is a part of Baho’s ongoing appellation project surrounding the Muzo Station. They’re focusing on smaller lot separations by processing groups of farmers’ coffee together based on the highest quality growing areas. The hills are often chosen based on altitude; coffees within the Janja Hill lot are all harvested from farms above 1900 masl and pack a distinct vibrancy and saturation of flavor. This is the very first year that Baho isolated coffees from the 13 smallholders that live nearest Janja Hill.

-from Sundog Trading