Muzo Ikizere – Natural

Muzo Washing Station

In Sundog Trading’s words:
Muzo is the smallest [station] in the Baho collection, and it is very near and dear to Emmanuel as the source of some of his most prized coffees. With only 496 producers delivering, Muzo’s annual production of exportable grade coffee usually numbers just under a full container load at around 300 60kg bags.  With altitudes topping out at 2000+ masl, it’s no surprise why coffees that come through this station are some of the most dynamic that we taste each season.

About Ikizere Women’s Group:

Now in it’s fourth consecutive year, Ikizere is a project that has grown from 20 producers at Fugi station (another on of Baho’s processing stations) to encompass multiple groups of 100+ women over several processing stations.

The group is composed of widowed women and single mothers who share the unique challenges of navigating traditionally patriarchal systems – both the Rwandese society as a whole and more specifically coffee production. It is not common to see this level of traceability with smaller lot separations from smallholder producers within Rwanda. It is exciting see, and as buyers want to acknowledge the work and detail put in by Emmanuel through detailed recordkeeping at the station level.

In Sundog’s words:
Our interest in smaller lot separations began in 2019 when Emmanuel presented to us a handful of coffees that were traced back to communities surrounding specific hills. This initiative immediately sparked our interest and kickstarted our discussions on how we could expand and deepen this type of traceability. As buyers, it’s always exciting to find more information about where coffee is coming from; but furthermore, Emmanuel made it very clear that it was helpful to Baho and their producer network as well. It created the opportunity to more directly support coffee growers and hopefully motivate them to continue in specialty.

Processing:

The initial steps for each process are the same:  First, a day of intensive sorting at the cherry stage, under complete shade, to ensure only the ripest are chosen and any visible defects are removed.  Step two is multiple rounds of floating – filling a large container with cherries and water, discarding the less dense cherries that float to the top of the tank.  The densest coffees (sinkers) are reserved to be processed as the higher grade lots, and the less dense coffees (floaters) are mixed in with the rejected cherries from the initial sorting to be processed as lower grade lots. 

The highest quality cherries are collected into a sealed fermentation tank, where they’re left under complete shade for 12 hours. The idea behind this step is to rapidly start the fermentation process and increase complexity via a short period in a low oxygen environment.  The cherries are spread out onto raised beds to begin the drying process.  The goal is for cherries to be a single, shallow layer on the beds.

Cherries are turned frequently, and weather conditions are closely monitored throughout the day. If certain temperature thresholds are exceeded, workers will focus on turning coffee more frequently or cover the beds with mesh netting to cool down the environment. This focus on thin layers, coupled with frequent turning and temperature monitoring, is to ensure that the flavors remain clean and free from over-fermentation or mold defects. When the moisture content reaches the target of 10.5 – 11.0%, the drying phase is considered complete.  Total drying time for this lot was 45 days.