Burundi Tangara – Butanyerera – Washed Processed *Non-Specialty*

Burman Coffee Traders

Details

Origin

Burundi

Process

Washed

Roast Suitability

Description

* Warning – small beans, bean fragments, and a higher defect level. We were super excited for our new Burundi arrivals, unfortunately this one did not come in the best. The pre-ship was a wonderful screen, the arrival did not match. The good news, the taste is decent. We were a little surprised it tasted as good as it did when looking at the green. Medium to dark roasts, a classic example of African coffee, bold and spicey, nutty/chocolaty with some herbal overlays. Lighter roasting did work, but when the cup cools it turns a bit earthy/vegetal. This lot comes from the 394 smallholder farmers organized around the Nyamahiti Coffee Washing Station, in the Tangara commune of Ngozi Province (Butanyerera), in northern Burundi. This is smallholder country, where most families work just one or two hectares and deliver their ripe cherry to the station for centralized processing. The station organizes intake by delivery day and by origin, a common practice in Burundi where the hills themselves are used as units of organization and traceability. We are at roughly 1,570 masl, on volcanic loam soil, a classic northern Burundi combination that yields clean, bright, well-bodied cups. The variety is local bourbon cultivars, the historic backbone of the region’s coffee, harvested between March and June. It is the same band of altitude and the same genetics that put Ngozi coffees right up there with the better high-grown East Africans. The process is fully washed, done in the traditional Burundi style. After depulping, the parchment goes through a double fermentation (a dry fermentation of around 12 hours followed by a wet fermentation), gets washed in clean spring water, and is graded by density. From there it moves to raised African beds, where it dries in the sun for roughly two to three weeks while being hand-sorted to remove any insect-damaged beans or visual defects. That slow, hands-on work is what gives this coffee its cup cleanliness and crisp acidity. Tasting Notes: An Afr