Rwanda — Emmanuel Rusatira Baho Coffee Fugi Ikizere Women's Group Red Bourbon (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🫐 Blueberry • 🍵 Hojicha • 🌿 Sarsaparilla

DETAILS

• Producer: 115 Women-Owned Smallholder Farms — Ikizere Group, Fugi Washing Station (Baho Coffee)

• Region: Nyaruguru, Rwanda

• Varietal: Red Bourbon

• Process: Washed

• Altitude: 1,700–2,000 MASL

• Harvest: 2026

• Source: Sundog Coffee Traders / Baho Coffee

INTRO

Ikizere — meaning "confidence" in Kinyarwanda — is the name given to a women's producer group at Fugi Washing Station, originally founded five years ago to represent single mothers and widows in the community. Now 115 members strong, the group has grown into a broader women-led cooperative, and this separation of their production is, for the second year running, Shoebox's favourite Rwandan lot. This year's harvest skews bluer and more roasted-tea forward than last year's green tea expression — a huge blueberry note up front, with hojicha and sarsaparilla running through an intensely clean finish. In the cup: blueberry, hojicha, and sarsaparilla.

THE PRODUCER

Fugi Washing Station is operated by Baho Coffee, sitting between the Nyungwe National Forest and the border of Burundi in Rwanda's Nyaruguru district. Led by Emmanuel Rusatira, Baho began exporting highly traceable microlots in 2019 through Sundog Coffee Traders — building an organised network of farmers structured around local hills, separated by quality and microclimate.

The Ikizere group began as a separation for single mothers and widows, giving specific recognition and financial benefit to the most vulnerable producers in the surrounding community. As it has grown to 115 members including wider women-led family operations, the benefits have grown with it: financial education, short-term loans, and the construction of clean water lines to farms that previously had no running water. The farms selected for this separation range from 1,700 to 2,000 MASL — a wide elevation range chosen for its very high quality potential.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Fugi involves:

🍒 Hand-picking & sorting — Cherries selectively harvested and hand-sorted before delivery 💧 Flotation — Floated to remove defects 🧪 8-hour underwater in-cherry fermentation — Whole cherries fermented submerged in water for 8 hours 💧 Moving water channel sorting — Passed through moving water channels after fermentation 🧪 12-hour underwater fermentation — A second 12-hour fermentation submerged in water after sorting 🌑 Shaded drying — Initial shaded drying period of 12–72 hours ☀️ Raised-bed drying — Dried on raised beds for an additional 28 days

The two-stage underwater fermentation is the defining step — fermenting first in the whole cherry for 8 hours and then for a further 12 hours after channel sorting builds a layered, clean aromatic complexity that is the hallmark of this separation, while the initial shaded drying preserves the delicate structure and tea-like clarity that make Ikizere so distinctive year on year.

THE CUP

An intensely clean and beautifully distinctive washed Red Bourbon from Baho Coffee's most community-purposeful separation — a huge blueberry note up front, shifting into roasted hojicha tea warmth and a cool sarsaparilla finish that lingers with remarkable clarity. Shoebox's favourite Rwandan lot for the second year running, and easy to see why.

Flavour Notes

🫐 Blueberry 🍵 Hojicha 🌿 Sarsaparilla