Flavor Profile and Characteristics of Burundi Premium Coffee Beans - The Burundi Bourbon Variety

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When it comes to African coffee, how can we overlook Burundi's Heart of Africa coffee beans? African coffee regions have always been known for their citrus and lemon acidity, and FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans from Burundi are no exception. However, its acidity doesn't have the fresh and clean quality of Ethiopian coffee, nor the rich juiciness of Kenyan coffee, but rather falls somewhere between these two regional flavor profiles. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss Burundi's Heart of Africa coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Burundi Heart of Africa Coffee Beans

• Country: Burundi
• Region: Ruterana Town
• Altitude: 1400-1700m
• Variety: Bourbon
• Processing Method: Washed
• Flavor: Plum, kumquat, lemon, dried fruit, caramel, tea aroma, light acidity

FrontStreet Coffee has always emphasized in previous articles that the flavor of quality coffee beans depends on the growing region, coffee variety, and processing method. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will elaborate on these key points.

Burundi Coffee Region

Burundi is a typical landlocked country, and according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Burundi has always been underdeveloped, even rated by international organizations as one of the poorest countries in the world. However, due to its compact size and rolling hilly landscapes, its position as the crossroads between Central and East Africa, and as the watershed between the Nile and Congo rivers, its outline resembles a heart, earning it the nickname "Heart of Africa." Burundi's unique geographical location and limited national resources mean that the country's economic sources primarily come from agriculture and animal husbandry, with coffee cultivation being one of their main economic contributors.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Burundi has rolling hills, resulting in significant altitude variations, with the lowest point at 700m and the highest at approximately 2670m. Coffee beans grown at higher altitudes develop brighter acidity and lemon notes. Additionally, Burundi's climate is predominantly tropical highland, with significant day-night temperature differences and rich volcanic soil—all conditions favorable to coffee tree growth, establishing a solid foundation for the quality of Burundi coffee beans.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, due to poverty, there are no coffee estates in Burundi. Its coffee cultivation is entirely based on small-scale family farming, resulting in significant quality variations among Burundi coffee beans. Years of conflict and social unrest have also made Burundi's coffee cultivation industry highly unstable.

Fortunately, starting in 2008, the Burundian government began transitioning toward the specialty coffee industry to promote economic development, encouraging various trading methods such as traceable direct trade procurement. This is similar to the regional information on the labels of FrontStreet Coffee packaging. These traceable coffee beans also provide consumers with greater quality assurance for Burundi coffee.

Furthermore, Burundi hosted the Prestige Cup coffee quality competition in 2011, which served as a preliminary event before the more large-scale Cup of Excellence competition. It was precisely this competition that prompted Burundi's major coffee washing stations to strictly enforce their technical standards and coffee bean quality, ranking them by quality to fetch better prices at subsequent auctions. Consequently, these coffee beans have complete production and sales records, meaning high-quality single-origin coffee beans from Burundi will gradually become active in the coffee market for coffee enthusiasts worldwide to enjoy.

It is due to these opportunities that FrontStreet Coffee introduced Burundi coffee beans for coffee enthusiasts to enjoy. After all, these beans have passed FrontStreet Coffee's barista's rigorous screening process and are recognized as high-quality single-origin coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee believes their flavor performance is remarkable enough to rank among African coffees.

Burundi Coffee Variety

When discussing Burundi coffee varieties, we must trace back to Burundi's coffee history. Coffee trees were introduced to Burundi in 1930 during the Belgian colonial period. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Burundi's climate and geographical conditions are highly suitable for coffee tree cultivation. These colonizers found that Bourbon variety coffee trees were most suitable for planting in Burundi. However, after various countries signed peace agreements, Belgium's coffee research in Burundi ceased, making Bourbon the only coffee variety currently cultivated in Burundi. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce what Bourbon coffee variety is.

Bourbon

Bourbon coffee trees were initially cultivated on Réunion Island, which was known as Bourbon Island before 1789. This is the origin of the Bourbon name. According to botanical research, it is a sub-variety that mutated from Typica coffee and is one of the oldest existing Arabica coffee varieties, alongside Typica. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has superior aroma, brighter acidity, and even exhibits wine-like flavors when tasted.

Burundi Coffee Processing Method

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, all coffee farmers in Burundi process their coffee beans using the washed method. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Burundi's coffee cultivation model is primarily based on family farming, so farmers must deliver coffee cherries to specialized coffee washing stations for processing. However, some farmers who distrust the processing stations perform initial manual washing before delivering to the washing stations, resulting in beans marked as "washed," while coffee cherries delivered directly to washing stations are marked as "fully washed."

The reason farmers distrust processing stations stems from Burundi's unstable political situation. At that time, washing stations could only be state-owned, leading to distrust between producers and buyers, with farmers believing that the stations' purchase prices were unfair and that their labor was being exploited. Therefore, they preferred to process the coffee themselves to negotiate better prices with the processing stations.

The problem, however, is that farmers mostly rely on manual processing with limited tools, often working on dusty roadsides, which inevitably affects coffee quality. Since the government allowed the privatization of washing stations, the Burundian government has encouraged professional processing of coffee after harvesting.

Because the government encourages people to establish private washing stations, Burundi's washing stations have become more professional, as only professionalism can bring greater returns to coffee beans. They have developed a washing processing method similar to Kenya's—double fermentation washing. This gives Burundi coffee beans a more distinctive flavor profile.

Double Fermentation Washing Process:

Harvested cherries are first placed in large water tanks, where buoyancy screening selects dense cherries. Next, machines remove the pulp, and the beans enter fermentation tanks for about 18 hours. On the second day, the fermented beans are poured into clean water for another 18 hours of fermentation, totaling approximately 36-48 hours. Afterward, the beans are thoroughly rinsed to remove the softened mucilage layer before entering the drying process. The first drying stage involves shade drying to avoid direct exposure to intense sunlight, reducing moisture content below 40%. The beans are then moved to raised beds for natural sun-drying until moisture content reaches 11%.

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's compiled introduction to Burundi coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas and roasters have conducted extensive cupping and brewing tastings to identify the optimal brewing parameters to share with coffee enthusiasts. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share brewing recommendations for this Burundi Heart of Africa coffee bean.

Washing Processing Method:

1. Harvesting: After harvesting ripe coffee cherries, initial impurities, defective beans, and floaters are removed—this part is the same as the natural processing method.
2. Pulping: Fresh cherries are sent to a pulping machine to remove the skin and pulp. Unripe cherries, whose pulp doesn't separate easily, are screened out at this stage. After the pulping machine, what remains is mucilage, parchment, and seeds.
3. Fermentation to Remove Mucilage: The depulped seeds with mucilage are transferred to fermentation tanks. Although called "washed," this method doesn't actually wash away the mucilage but removes it through biological decomposition during fermentation. The fermentation process takes about 16-36 hours, with regular stirring to accelerate mucilage separation from the seeds. Washed fermentation produces acidic substances like citric acid, malic acid, and acetic acid, which penetrate the raw beans, making washed coffee more acidic than naturally processed coffee. After fermentation completes, the actual washing begins—thoroughly cleaning the beans again.
4. Drying: After washing, the beans still need to be sun-dried or machine-dried to reduce moisture content to 12%. Since the pulp has been removed, there's no need to worry about mold issues during drying, unlike with natural processing. The dried parchment beans aren't as hard as natural-processed beans containing pulp and skin, and can be hulled using a hulling machine to obtain the raw beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Burundi Coffee Bean Roasting Recommendations

When FrontStreet Coffee received Burundi green coffee beans, they found virtually no defective beans, with remarkably uniform size and moisture content. The high-altitude growing environment gives Burundi coffee beans brighter acidity and lemon notes, along with passion fruit, pineapple, floral, and honey flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster uses a Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame roaster with 480g batch size: Preheat the roaster to 200°C, set the air damper to 3. After one minute of turning (sweating), reduce heat to 160°C while keeping the air damper unchanged. At 160°C, reduce heat again to 130°C. At 5'35", when the temperature reaches 152°C, the beans turn yellow, and grassy aromas completely disappear, indicating dehydration is complete—adjust the air damper to 4. At the 9-minute mark, unsightly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and toast aromas distinctly transition to coffee aromas—this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 9'10", maintain small heat without changes, fully open the air damper to 5 (adjust heat very carefully to avoid stopping the crack sound). At 196.5°C, drop the beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Burundi Coffee Bean Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas typically use 200ml ceramic cups for cupping. Water temperature is maintained at 94°C. Grind size is controlled to achieve 70%-75% pass-through rate on a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11 grams of coffee grounds to 200ml of hot water (1:18.18), which extracts coffee concentration precisely within the Golden Cup range of 1.15%-1.35%, with a steeping time of 4 minutes.

• Dry Aroma: Citrus
• Wet Aroma: Citrus, plum
• Flavor: Plum, kumquat, lemon, dried fruit, caramel, tea aroma, light acidity

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters

FrontStreet Coffee reminds everyone that when you receive freshly roasted coffee beans, avoid brewing immediately. Let them rest for three to four days before brewing, as this allows the coffee's flavors to fully develop.

• Water Temperature: 90-91°C
• Grind Size: BG#6m (fine sugar size / 80% passing through #20 sieve)
• Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
• Coffee Amount: 15 grams

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, specifically three-pour pouring method: 30ml of water for 30-second bloom, then small circular pour to 125ml, wait for the water level to drop before slowly pouring again with even speed and avoiding excessively high water levels, stopping at 225ml. Total extraction time is 2 minutes (including bloom time).

Brewing Flavor: Aromas of citrus and tea, with black plum and citrus flavors upon entry. The texture is rich, with nutty and caramel sweetness in the middle to finish. The flavor profile is wild, leaving intense flavors and aromas in the mouth, with a rich and persistent aftertaste.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473