Coffee Club Vol. 68 In All Rwanda's Glory
Since we started working with inspiring and passionate coffee people and companies like Baho and Semilla, Rwandan Coffee has slowly and surely been building its reputation in the specialty market. But it hasn't been without its fair share of roadblocks impacting its coffee harvests year after year. But even through all the roadblocks, the passion and perseverance of these groups have remained and continued to push forward.
This month, we're heading back to Rwanda to check in with two of our favourite coffee companies, the inspiring Baho Coffee Network and Semilla, to see what's been happening with Rwandan coffee and showcase two of our favourite Baho washing stations with two highly traceable and quality lots from the Giko Hill farm groups in Muzo and the Ikizere Women Coffee Group near Fugi.
Updates from Rwanda
Rwanda has been facing some tough times with its coffee harvests lately, mainly due to climate-related issues. But 2024 was especially tough. Usually, the National Agricultural Export Board had a rule that growers had to sell their coffee cherries to washing stations in their designated zones, and buyers couldn't just waltz in if there wasn't a washing station there.
In 2024, though, that rule was scrapped, leaving quality-focused exporters like Emmanuel Rusatira and the Baho Coffee Network really frustrated. Suddenly, they were inundated with random middlemen who weren't even usually in the specialty market but had cash to pay coffee producers on the spot. These middlemen would then go and flip the cherries to the washing stations for profit. This really shook up the quality balance. Growers didn't feel as much pressure to get higher prices for their cherries. Meaning quality exporters like Emmanuel ended up with more underripe and damaged fruit, leading to greater losses during processing. The overall changes have led to higher cherry prices, more processing costs, and, ultimately, much less coffee available for export.
But as always, Emmanuel is looking on the bright side and is happy with the quality of this year's crop! Saying that all these markets and climate changes have led to smaller volumes, Baho and its stations have really focused on maintaining consistency in their processing.
Muzo Giko Hill Group
In 2019, Emmanuel introduced several "grouped" coffee lots from smaller communities and microclimates near his washing stations, sparking interest in increased traceability, diverse coffee character, and growing benefits for Baho and its producer network by fostering collaboration and inspiring fair pay for smallholders. The Giko Hill Group was one of these lots, and this kind of traceability to these tiny garden plots is pretty remarkable. Now in its fifth harvest year, it features coffees from plots that average just 388 trees per farmer. In the words of Emmanuel, "By forming these groups around our washing stations, we aim to create mutual benefits. Farmers commit to our training and maintain a long-term relationship with Baho, which supports their development and markets their coffees."
The coffee produced on Giko Hill comes from just 15 small-scale farmers who deliver their cherries to the local Muzo washing station. Each farm is situated at an altitude between 1,550 and 1,900 meters above sea level, with an average size of only 0.3 hectares, making these some of the smallest farms that Baho and Semilla work with in Rwanda.
Once at the Muzo Station, Emmanuel has developed a unique method for drying natural coffee that maintains a very slow drying rate while ensuring flavours remain clean and free of over-fermentation or mould defects. After sorting and floating, the coffee cherries are placed directly onto raised beds to begin the drying process.
Quality control is performed upon delivery through hand sorting and floating. The selected cherries are stored in bags for 12 hours, during which the mucilage adheres to the beans. The following morning, the cherries are spread out on drying tables, with a maximum of 150 kg per table. The cherries are stacked no more than 2 to 4 cm thick, depending on weather conditions.
The coffee is spread thinly and turned frequently, every 2 to 3 hours throughout the entire drying process. When the coffee reaches a moisture content of 20%, it is wrapped and covered with mesh netting for 2 days. Once the moisture content drops to 17%, the cover is removed, and the coffee is moved to beds under a completely shaded shed for 5 days. After this, the coffee is returned to full sun until it reaches a moisture content of 14%. Finally, the coffee is moved under complete shade to slowly dry to a final moisture content of 12%. The total drying time for naturally processed coffees is 50-55 days.
Fugi Washing Station
Fugi is a coffee station in Rwanda's Southern Province, tucked between Nyungwe National Forest and the Burundi border. It's super small, ranking second-tiniest in the Baho collection. Since its founding in 2013 and its acquisition by Emmanuel in 2016, Fugi has focused on crafting high-quality coffee. They work with about 950 smallholder farmers and produce around 900 bags of specialty coffee each year. Each farmer cares for about 600 coffee trees, which yield roughly 3 kg of cherries per tree, translating to about 1.5 bags of green coffee for export. This really highlights how small-scale coffee production is in Rwanda and how much these washing stations depend on local farmers. During the busy season, Fugi brings on around 70 workers, and they even include pension contributions in their pay. In 2023, nearly half of what Fugi produced used cool processing methods like honey, natural, or experimental, which play a big part in Baho Coffee's overall operations.
The Ikizere Women Coffee Group
Women at the Fugi Coffee Washing Station play a vital role at every step of the coffee processing journey, starting on their farms, where they cultivate coffee cherries. The Ikizere Women Coffee Group serves as a symbol of resilience and empowerment. Established in 2019, Ikizere was created with the mission to support widowed farmers in Nyaruguru. These women face significant challenges in sustaining their livelihoods after the loss of their spouses, but they have found collective strength through Ikizere. The group not only empowers them economically but also provides a platform to promote their coffee, ensuring that their hard work is recognized and rewarded in the marketplace. This initiative has transformed their lives, turning personal loss into a powerful force for community upliftment and economic growth.
The journey begins on their farms, where women nurture their coffee plants year-round through pruning, weeding, and using organic fertilizers. Their knowledge of sustainable farming ensures high-quality cherry production. During harvest, they handpick only the ripe, red cherries, which are essential to the coffee's flavour. Transporting the cherries to Fugi Coffee Washing Station on the same day as harvest is vital to preserving quality, despite the challenging terrain.
At the Fugi washing station, the Ikizere Women Coffee Group meticulously sort their coffees under complete shade to select only the ripest cherries and remove defects. Cherries undergo multiple rounds of floating—denser cherries sink and are designated for higher-grade lots, while floaters are mixed with rejected cherries for lower-grade lots. Typically, cherries arrive 2 to 3 hours post-picking.
Once enough cherries are gathered, they are depulped, and the double fermentation process begins: a dry fermentation (8 to 12 hours) followed by a wet fermentation for the same duration. Afterward, the coffee is washed through grading channels to remove mucilage, then soaked for another 8 to 12 hours to ensure even moisture distribution.
The coffee is then placed on shaded drying beds for 48 to 72 hours, allowing for gentle drying and intensive sorting. For the first five days, it receives limited sunlight and is manually turned every 30 minutes to prevent cracks. After this, it moves to full sun, where it's turned four times daily. The drying phase ends when the moisture content reaches 11.0%, and the parchment is stored until milling. Typically, the total drying time lasts 30 to 40 days.
Beyond the Coffee
The women at Fugi Coffee Washing Station have come together to form savings groups, locally known as "tontines" or "ibimina," to take control of their finances and strengthen their community. These groups consist of local women, including many widows and heads of households, who pool their savings to provide financial support and investment opportunities. By combining their resources, these women can access emergency funds when needed, invest in their farms with seeds, fertilizers, and tools to improve crop yields and income, and start small businesses beyond coffee farming.
Additionally, these savings groups allow women to focus on long-term community improvements, such as education, home upgrades, and the acquisition of more land for increased coffee production. The collaboration doesn't stop there; the women have also begun creating "group farms" on communal land, enhancing their farming capacity and yields. They work together to prepare the land, plant and care for crops, and harvest. This collective approach not only reduces individual workloads but also strengthens community bonds through shared labour and profits.
The Coffees & Roasting
Fugi Ikizere
The Fugi washing station is located in the Nyaruguru region in southern Rwanda. Although we have previously purchased coffee from this mill, this is our first time working with the Ikizere group, having been introduced to their incredible social impact through our importing partner, Semilla Coffee.
Grown at an altitude of 1,850 meters, this is a fully washed lot made up of the Red Bourbon variety. Only the ripest cherries are meticulously picked before being processed as a washed coffee. Ikizere shows a remarkable bouquet of fragrant notes as a light roast, with notes of complex sugars, honey, lemon, brisk black tea and baking spices that add a delicate touch to a clean, sweet cup profile. Keeping the roast profile quick and short allows us to focus on preserving the lemon-like citrus notes that combine nicely with the black tea and blackberry flavours that we find are very characteristic of coffees from Rwanda.
This is our fifth year working with the incredible Giko Hill group, who are some of the tiniest smallholders in Rwanda, many with only a few hundred trees.
This lot is a naturally processed coffee, grown at an altitude of 2,100 meters above sea level in the northern province of the Gakenke district, in which Emmanuel uses a unique method that focuses on an extremely slow drying rate that offers full control over the fermentation process, ensuring the end flavours are clean and free of over-fermentation or mould defects. This creates a deeply sweet dry process coffee, with fruited accents, and brooding low tones of dark chocolate and molasses. Hoping to keep the lighter berry notes intact, we opted for a shorter development time and aimed for an end temperature somewhere between a filter and an espresso roast. We found that this highlights the red berry fruit notes, with darker fruits like pomegranate, cherry and raisins coming into view as the coffee cools, followed by a hint of burnt caramel and spice cake in the finish.
Stay in the know with more single origin coffees hitting our menu by keeping up with socials. We can't wait to see Muzo Giko Hill and Fugi Izikere hit our coffee menu soon for all to enjoy ☕️
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