Roast: light / / / / / / / / / dark

Variety: Red Bourbon

A lively and energetic coffee that offers the inviting sweetness of shortbread and ripe fig with the puckering cleanse of lemonade. The complexity of this cup is pronounced; a lot is going on here and it’s all good!

This single-farmer lot from Baho Coffee in Rwanda is the work of Jean Marie Vianney (JMV) Usekanabagoyi. He started processing his coffee at the Ngoma washing station in the Nyamasheke District of Rwanda, near Lake Kivu. Ngoma was purchased by Baho in 2019, a newer addition to the Baho family. JMV takes extra steps to ensure that the coffee he delivers to the Ngoma station is consistently excellent each season; he is rewarded with deserved small bonuses for doing so. 

The first step in washed processing is to deliver fresh cherries to the station, usually within 4 hours after picking. Next, the cherries are depulped and fermented for 14 hours. Afterward, they move on to the floating tanks where all the unripe seeds float to the top of the water-filled container and are skimmed off leaving behind the ripest, densest ones to be washed a second time. The initial drying period is 12-72 hours on raised, shaded beds – a structure unique to Rwanda. This slowly and gently begins the drying period and helps to reveal some specific defects only seen while the parchment is still wet. After final sorting, the coffee is moved to raised beds in the sun. It is monitored and turned/stirred until the seeds reach an optimal internal moisture level. Ngoma coffees are dried for a total of 45 days before they are stored away in preparation for dry milling. All of this careful attention is on display in the remarkable final product. JMV’s coffee is vibrant – seemingly a mirror of his bright personality!