There are 1640 smallholder farmers living around Tangara, Burundi who deliver their cherry to Gihere Central Washing Station.
Burundi
Like many of its neighbors in Africa, Burundi produces microlots almost by default. Each farmer owns an average of less than even a single hectare and delivers cherries to centralized depulping and washing stations, SOGESTALs (Sociéte de Gestion des Stations de Dépulpage Lavage), and it may take more than one producers’ delivery in order to create a lot. There are 1640 smallholder farmers living around Tangara, Burundi who deliver their cherry to Gihere Central Washing Station.
This purchasing style makes it nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, to arrive at single-producer, single-farm, or single-variety lots. Instead, coffees are typically sold under the appellation of the washing station. (In Kayanza, there are 21 washing stations, including the moew familiar names such as: Gackowe, Butezi, Gatare, and Kiryama.)
Depending on the leadership and management at the stations, both private- and state-run, the attention to detail in the processing makes a big difference. Meticulous sorting, fermenting and washing are necessary to create quality and uniformity among the coffee. The typical processing method in Burundi is somewhat similar to Kenya, with a “dry fermentation” of roughly 12 hours after de-pulping, followed by a soak of 12–14 hours in mountain water. Coffees are floated to sort for density, then soaked again for 12–18 hours before being dried in parchment on raised beds.
Burundi Sourcing
Burundi is a relatively tiny country (barely the size of Maryland) with more than 50 different washing stations, and the coffee really is very special and different - even from nearby Rwanda, the country with which it’s most often paired and compared. Logistically, sourcing microlots here (and getting them out of the country) is difficult: It’s a landlocked country, one of the poorest in the world, and still burdened by a history of political unrest thanks to a brutal colonial history and the aftershocks that will, like any colonial history, be felt for generations to come.
The coffee, though, is worth it.
Every year, we await Burundi coffees with giddy anticipation: The best of them are often stunning, pushing into the highest reach of cupping scores. These are sugar-fruit coffee: fig jam, floral, sparkling with citrus. Before anyone thought to seek out (and pay for) specialty coffees from here, however, these lots were lost in bulk, commercial exports. Thankfully there have been many stalwarts of our industry out there championing Burundi as a specialty-coffee origin to watch, and that remain dedicated to discovering and bringing to market the microlots with the most character, structured acidity, and "sparkle".
Country: Burundi
Region: Ngozi
Farm: Gihere Washing Station
Elevation: 1650-1950 MASL
Variety: Bourbon
Processing: Natural
Tasting notes: Balanced, juicy sweet, and tart with lots of berry, grapefruit, caramel, and toffee.