Burundi is a small, land-locked East African country, bounded by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, Lake Tanganyika to the southwest, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Moving from its western border, away from the eastern flank of the Western Rift Valley, elevations climb steadily, reaching 2675 meters in the Kayanza province, where this coffee was grown and processed.

Matongo is the name of the commune, or district, around which 500 women farmers grew and harvested the coffee cherries, and is also the name for the processing station where the cherries were brought to be washed, dried and prepared for shipping to roasters around the world.

Coffee farms in Burundi are typically small, often less than one hectare (2.5 acres) each, with just a hundred trees or so. As a result, a daily lot of 25 60kg bags of coffee beans can come from hundreds of different growers. The main harvest usually begins slowly in March, peaks around May (depending on altitude and weather conditions), and finishes in July.

We purchased this coffee from Jeanine Niyonzima, founder of importing company JNP Coffee - we've also roasted JNP's Turihamwe for the past two years, a major component in our She Roars blend! JNP offers training to all farmers at every wet mill they are partnered with, supported by their own team members. They work hand in hand at the wet mill and extend all the way to the dry mills and export stages, with their primary focus being enhancing the quality of production overall. This coffee in particular won first place in the 2013 Cup of Excellence competition.

One of JNP Coffee's renowned initiatives is the Dushime® program, their Second Payment Day. The JNP Coffee team visits the farmers before each harvest, providing cash incentives based on the previous harvest's quality and the global market response. The second payment serves as a significant motivator, encouraging farmers to prioritize quality control. They have recently achieved a milestone of collectively paying half a million dollars in second payments since inception. In fact, farmers from Matongo were among the first to benefit from the Dushime® program for farmers.