Burundi | Long Miles Coffee Washed

Coffee has a storied past in Burundi, one of the world’s poorest countries. It was introduced to the country in the 1920s under Belgian colonial rule, and all of the farmers were given coffee seedlings and forced to cultivate them with very little resources, support, or compensation to do so. 

Burundi is currently struggling to emerge from a 12-year, ethnic-based civil war that began in 1993. But it has been experiencing conflict since its independence from Belgium in 1962, and the country's history is marked by violent tensions between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority. Against this backdrop, a new generation of coffee farmers are emerging!

Farmer // Small Holder Farmers

Region // Nkonge Hill, Kayanza

Process // Washed

Variety // Bourbon

Altitude // 2000masl

Flavor Notes // Pear, Graham Cracker, Juicy

From our Importers Osito Coffee:

Life has a different pace on Nkonge hill. There is a stillness on the hill that is hard to find anywhere else in Burundi. You can walk for stretches on this green carpeted hill without seeing anyone. Dirt roads cut into the hill’s steep slopes, revealing
panoramic views of banana trees and lush tea plantations. The high elevation of Nkonge fosters a harder, slower growing coffee cherry. Natural springs find their way out of the hill, making sure its soils are always well watered. Patches of onions, tea, wheat, cabbage, maize, cassava and peas can be found growing alongside coffee in the hill’s rich soils. Two of Long Miles’ farms can be found on Nkonge’s slopes, directly across from Heza washing station. Here, our 5,334 coffee trees are grown
alongside our neighbors’ trees.

Heza Washing Station processes its coffee by pumping spring water from a nearby natural spring. During the washed process, freshly harvested cherries are delivered by coffee farmers to the Long Miles Coffee Washing Station, then floated and hand-
sorted for ripeness upon arrival. The cherries are pulped and undergo a 36-hour fermentation. This fermentation takes place under water and is covered by a plastic tarp. After fermentation, the parchment is sometimes ‘footed.’ During footing, a team
will agitate and dance on the slippery coffee parchment, helping to loosen any remaining mucilage clinging to it. It is then rinsed in fresh water, graded by density and left to soak for another four to six hours in the final rinse tank. The parchment is carried to covered drying tables where it spends between six to forty-eight hours pre-drying. During this time, it is hand-picked for under-ripeness, over-ripeness, insect damage and visual defects. It is then moved to traditional African raised tables where it spends between sixteen to twenty days slow drying (depending on the weather) until it reaches the ideal 10.5% moisture level.

During the natural process coffee cherries are floated and hand-sorted, then taken straight to the drying tables. The whole coffee cherry spends between twenty-five to thirty days drying in its own skin, slowly turning from a deep red to a prune-like
purple-black once its fully dry and at the preferred 10.5% moisture level.

Check out Long Miles Coffee Project for more awesome info and stories on coffee in Burundi: https://www.longmilescoffeeproject.com/a-history-of-coffee-in-burundi-and-why-we-started-farmer-field-schools/