BRN | Burundi Ruvumu Natural
Fruity Profile | Light roast
Tasting Notes: Floral, Red Grape, Orange
IT ALL STARTS AT THE COFFEE FARM
This coffee was produced by members of the Burundi Seeds Specialty cooperative in the Kayanza region of Burundi. BSS also runs their own processing station, where this coffee was processed naturally. The cooperative owns and manages the UMOCO processing facility, whereby the 847 producers bring their cherries to be processed. UMOCO means light, which essentially reveals the importance of transparency for the cooperative. The three founders, Juste Picasso, Jeremiah Nakimuhana, Zephyrin Banzubaze collectively work with coffee producing families to develop relationships and spread knowledge about coffee production. Producing coffee is not a business for the BSS members, it is a lifestyle. In some cases, these producers need to diversify income by delivering goods via bicycle such as coal or hosting a taxi service.
Specifically, this lot comes from the Muruta Commune which comes from the word ‘Murutua,’ translating to mean superior. This is deemed so because the old King of Burundi, Mwezi II found everything he needed in the surrounding land to survive including sweet honey, cattle, and sorghum. Additionally, the King declared that his Queens would be buried in this rich land. To this day, there are four burial sites of these ancient Queens.
The lots are defined and separated based on where they are from. Specifically, this lot is from the Ruvumu area of the Murata Commune. Nearby, there is the Karbira Rainforest, and the BSS works hard to preserve the natural environment surrounding the farms. Additionally, the World Bank has also provided grants to organizations dispersing trees to producers. This has allowed for the successful donation of 304,000 trees to the smallholders associated with BSS. Some of the challenges faced by the producers include a lack of education on tree health and maintenance in addition to poor understanding of soil health. BSS are working to improve this knowledge and ameliorate the discrepancies in agricultural knowledge.
TRACEABILITY
COUNTRY
Burundi
PRODUCER
847 smallholder producers
REGION
Kayanza
VARIETAL
Bourbon
PROCESSING
Natural
ALTITUDE
1800 - 2200 meters
IMPORTER
Mercanta
DID YOU KNOW
Burundi is home to roughly 600,000 - 800,000 coffee producing families.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
$4.75
Price paid by Driftaway
$2.42
Fair Trade price per pound
$2.22
Coffee C-Market price per pound
$0.05
Driftaway's World Coffee Research contribution per pound
This coffee travelled 7,057 miles to the Driftaway Coffee roastery in Queens.
Love the coffee? You can share your compliments & tasting observations with the farmers.
WHY DID WE SELECT THIS COFFEE?
This is our first time roasting this coffee Burundi Seeds Specialty cooperative, and the first time roasting a natural process coffee from Burundi in the Fruity profile!
Processing is the term for turning coffee fruit (also known as coffee cherries) into the dried seed that we roast, and it is a huge determinant of a coffee's flavor. In natural processing, the coffee seeds dry inside the fruit over several weeks. This extra contact allows more fruit sugar to enter the seeds, creating a coffee with extremely fruit-forward flavors. Traditionally, this processing method could really be hit or miss: if the fruit wasn't given enough air as it dried, it could begin to turn, and impart funky flavors to the coffee, also muting its brightness, or juiciness. Some die hard natural fans love this funkiness, and the blueberry or berry compote flavors it produces, but for this Fruity profile, it's our aim to choose coffees that land on the juicier, brighter end of the fruit spectrum, like tropical, citrus or stone fruit.
Burundi Seeds Specialty is able to achieve this character by keeping a careful eye on the coffee after harvest. Once the cherries are picked, they are submerged in a tank of water to remove any that float to the top - that is an indication of underripe fruit, and including these in the main harvest would severely lower the quality. The remaining cherries then undergo the first stage of drying on raised beds in the open sun for 5 -10 days. After this, they are then into clean bags to initiate the yeast development (the cooling and transformation of the sugars) for about for 3 - 5 days. Once complete, the coffee is then placed on raised drying tables for another 20 days and moved regularly to prevent mold growth.
These meticulous steps yield a natural process coffee that checks all the boxes for what we want in a Fruity profile: vibrant acidity and a fruit flavor explosion.
AVERAGE CUPPING SCORE
87.75
/100
87.75
SCAA Cupping Score
8 x 60 kg
Bags purchased
1 year
Length of producer relationship
100% (in 2022)
Transparent coffees purchased
HOW DID WE ROAST THIS COFFEE?
This coffee is being roasted by Ian T. from 27th February to 23rd March in Brooklyn. We use the Loring Kestrel roaster for this profile. We have strict guidelines for each of the coffee profiles, and this roast has to pass the development time ratio test as measured in real-time by the roasting software, Cropster. Once it does, it is approved for production.
QUALITY CONTROL
We perform Quality Control via a process of coffee tasting called cupping on all of our production roasts once a week from home as per our Covid-19 shelter in place guidelines. Each cupping is conducted by our roasting staff Kieran D. and Ian T. using standard equipment, and is logged by our Q-certified cupper Ian T. All coffees are evaluated on a scoring scale of 0 to 3.
- 3.0 = exceptional roast - exceeds expectations
- 2.5 = on par with profile - matches expectations
- 2.0 = good roast, but 1 or 2 elements could be improved - needs improvement
- 1.5 or lower = failed - do not ship
PRODUCTION AND SHIPPING
Less than 24 hours after roasting, we bag your coffee in our production facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Our production team is led by Dave and Trae, and supported by a rotating cast of local artists, musicians and independent professionals.
AT YOUR HOME
Brew this coffee with your favorite home brewer and enjoy the taste of incredible coffee! Here are a few tips on how to make the best coffee on each brewer.
View other posts about how to make better coffee at home on our blog Coffeecademy.
