About this Coffee
BURUNDI KIRYAMA WASHED
ROAST: Filter Roast
PROCESS: Washed
REGION: Muyinga
ELEVATION: 1500-1700
VARIETAL: Bourbon
CUP: Poached orange, Sugarcane, Apricot
If you ask many coffee roasters about coffee from Burundi and Rwanda one of the first topics that comes to mind is the notorious taste defect called, ‘The Potato Defect’. It is harmless to health but can cause some hesitation to buy coffee from certain regions. Should a coffee have the potato defect, once the coffee is ground the smell of raw potatoes or ‘french fries’ will fill the room. Although this is harmless to some it is unpleasant to many and ultimately not a good way to represent the unique and beautiful flavours that you can find in a coffee from Burundi.
This coffee is a TIB Coffee. That is; it is a coffee produced by the company ‘This Is Burundi’, and sourced by us through our friends at First Crop Coffee. TIB was established in June 2020 with a mission to produce the highest standard of washed, natural and honey coffee in Burundi, and to do so in a way that is truly sustainable so that they can positively impact the local farmers and community around them. After tasting this coffee on the cupping table and given what we know about how dedicated TIB is to quality, we decided that it was well worth the risk to buy this coffee and share it with you.
When thinking about coffee from Burundi we like to think about three key variables. Altitude, rainfall and soil composition. This coffee we bring you is of a washed process and Bourbon varietal. It comes from the Karambo Hill washing station in the Muyinga district of north-eastern Burundi that borders on Tanzania and is known for its relatively high altitude (avg. 1500-1700 masl), high rainfall and rich, volcanic soil.
Burundi is a kind of coffee producing country that relies heavily on exporting coffee for its economy. This means that the county exports the full range of coffee from low-grade commodity beans to high-end, specialty lots. This coffee is TIB’s second ever harvest and a small portion of a total of 4 containers worth of specialty coffee that they have been able to produce this year. Essentially, this is a small portion of what we think is great tasting coffee from a special source. In the cup we find notes of poached orange, sugarcane, apricot.