Muzo - Nemba Hill

CO-OP: Muzo

LOCATION: Nemba Hill, Gakenke, Rwanda

ALTITUDE: 1800-2100 MASL

VARIETY: Red Bourbon

PROCESSES: Washed

Tasting Notes: Red Apple, Melon, Orange Zest, Salted Caramel

Muzo is nestled in the rolling hills near the heart of Rwanda, about a 2 hour drive North West of the capital city. There are drastically fewer stations in this remote area of the country in comparison to famously populated districts like those immediately surrounding Lake Kivu. Nonetheless, competition remains fierce, as the Gakenke District has garnered the attention of more strictly specialty-focused stations.

Muzo is the smallest in the Baho collection, and it is very near and dear to Emmanuel as the source of some of his most prized coffees. It’s also been a major focus of investment the past few seasons. Baho established a massive seedling distribution program here, gifting millions of Red Bourbon (BM139) seedlings to farmers. In tandem with farms slowly starting to increase their output, Muzo has been expanding their land and adding a substantial amount of drying beds. When we first began working with this station in 2019, it was collecting from around 400 farmers and producing only half of a container of coffee. These numbers have now grown to 650 producers delivering, with the annual production of exportable coffee over 2 full containers - around 700 x 60kg bags to be exact.

The Nemba 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 initially chosen simply based on altitude; coffees within the Nemba Hill lot are all harvested from farms above 1900 masl and pack a distinct vibrancy and saturation of flavor.

As is standard practice for Baho-owned stations - training, inputs , and substantial contributions towards health insurance premiums are provided for all farmers delivering. Furthermore, each station has an agronomist on site that organizes training sessions focused on topics such as coffee plant care (planting, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, etc), environmental protection, and importance of our traceability efforts. 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.

This lot is the product of 10 smallholder farmer’s hard work. Their names are:

MISAGO CAMILE
NIZEYIMANA CASSIEN
BIRINGIYIKI ISAAC
DUKUZUMUREMYI INNOCENT
HABARUREMA OBED
MUNYARUGERO JUVENAL
NABERAHO CASSIEN
NIRWORUSHAKO ISSA
UBAYIMFURA JOEL
TUYAMBAZE ISMAEL