Burundi Kayanza Province Champion Processing Station Washed Bourbon Single Origin Specialty Coffee

Producer: Dazhen Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: House-roasted
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Raw / Not applicable
Sweetness: Unsweetened
Origin: Other
Roast Degree: Medium roast

Coffee Origin Information

Country: Burundi

Altitude: 1750 meters

Region: Kayanza Kabuye

Roast Level: Medium roast

Processing Method: Traditional washed processing

Variety: Bourbon

Processing Station: Panga Processing Station

Flavor Notes: Citric acidity, lemon, orange, almond aroma

About Burundi Coffee

Burundi sits in southeastern Africa, south of the equator. Rwanda lies to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, with the southwestern edge meeting Lake Tanganyika. The country is mostly plateau and mountain, largely formed by the eastern plateau of the East African Rift Valley, and its national average elevation of 1,600 meters has earned it the name "Mountain Country." More than half the country drains toward Lake Tanganyika, and the capital is Bujumbura. The western lakeshore and valleys, together with the eastern regions, have a tropical savanna climate, while the central and western areas are tropical mountain climate. The average annual temperature is 20-24 degrees Celsius, with highs of up to 33 degrees Celsius. March to May is the heavy rainy season, October to December the light rainy season, and the remaining months are dry.

Burundi has one of the world's most diverse and successful coffee industries, with a character entirely its own. Coffee was introduced by Belgian colonists in 1930 and is now grown only on small farms. Unfortunately, many of those farms sit in areas bordering war-torn Rwanda, which puts pressure on production. Almost all Burundian coffee is Arabica, and the coffee trees around Ngozi are planted above 1,200 meters. Burundian coffee is rich and aromatic with excellent acidity, and most of the crop is exported to the United States, Germany, Finland, and Japan.

Burundi coffee shares striking similarities with that of its neighbor Rwanda, and the two are frequently confused. Burundian cultivation is dominated by Bourbon, with cherries processed by traditional wet methods. The signature of its specialty coffee is an elegant sweetness and bright citrus aromatics. This lot is a Bourbon micro-lot.

Panga Championship Processing Station

The Panga Processing Station sits in Kabuye District, Kayanza Province, on Malda Peak, at an extremely high altitude, with the surrounding mountains rising above 2,000 meters. The fertile soil and its gravelly loam texture suit coffee exceptionally well, and the site is recognized as the best coffee processing station in Burundi.

Flavor Profile

Flavor and Mouthfeel: Citric acidity, lemon, orange, almond aroma, notes of aged citrus peel, clean, round, and balanced with a long aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Burundi's Bourbon micro-lots live or die by the quality of the wash, so it is worth pairing this coffee with the washed lots FrontStreet is proudest of.

FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato is one of the best-known examples of the style. Kenya is unusually skilled with double washed processing, running the cherries through flotation, a wash to remove residual mucilage, a further soak, sun-drying, and hulling. All that rinsing and soaking pushes the juice-like character to its limit, giving a cup full of cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar aromas, juicy and bright on the palate. For anyone who loves the citric acidity and clean structure of a well-made washed African coffee, this is the reference point.

FrontStreet Guodingding Cooperative comes from the Woka area at the southeastern end of Yirgacheffe. Smallholder yields are tiny, so cherries are delivered to a central washing station, and the cooperative's practiced hand with the traditional washed process is precisely what earned it attention: jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity at their clearest, and after a medium-light roast, green tea and honey notes on top. It suits pour-over, cold brew, and espresso alike.

FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 shows what washed processing can do in a completely different climate. Jamaica's island weather brings shorter sunshine hours than most origins, so washing off the skin, pulp, and mucilage before drying cuts the water the beans carry and shortens drying time, yielding translucent green beans with a low defect rate. The result is the pure hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel character of Blue Mountain, with an equilibrium in which no single taste stands out or falls short.