Burundi Kayanza Kibingo Oro Yeast Natural
A fresh fruit bomb from Burundi! This lot was hand picked by Greenco, the experts at Kibingo washing station, for an extended fermentation with Oro Yeast. This yeast was cultivated by a French laboratory specifically for processing with coffee to intensify flavor and enhance sweetness. The result is a cup that's intensely sweet and downright juicy! We got big notes of pineapple, cranberry, orange juice, wine and passionflower.
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Yeast fermentation doesn’t sound like it’s got anything to do with coffee. Sure that makes sense for bread and wine, but coffee? Well if you’re new to coffee processing, prepare yourself for a shocker: ALL coffee is fermented with yeast . WHAT?! I know! So here’s the scoop – all coffee goes through a fermentation stage. Traditionally, this is a short period, maybe 6 to 12 hours, intended to break down the fruit covering those tasty beans so that it can be easily removed. But where does the yeast come from? Are you sitting down? Everywhere. Yup, wild yeast from the environment just jumps in with the assist and never gets any credit. For shame.
But unlike beer and wine, coffee fermentation is often an uncontrolled process. That’s been changing the last decade or so as techniques like yeast cultivation and anaerobic fermentation (methods largely learned from the wine industry) have gained in popularity. In fact, there are laboratories like Lalcafe in France, cultivating yeast specifically designed for coffee fermentation! The variety the processing experts at Kibingo washing station chose for this lot is even trademarked: “Oro.” Oro is tailor made to intensify and enhance cup quality with longer fermentations, in this case, 36 hours.
The result is one of the juiciest cups of coffee I’ve ever had. My fruit flavor calls were pineapple, cranberry, and orange juice, but I could have easily tripled the number of fruits and added “juice” to the end of all of them. Maybe I should have just gone with “fruit cocktail”. On top of that, I got tasty notes of sweet red wine and a burst of passionflower. The cup is intensely sweet with a slightly funky finish. Fresh off the roaster it was a little funky, but the cup mellowed significantly with more rest, so don’t hesitate to let this one chill for a week or two before enjoying. If you enjoy the adventure of experimental processing and fruity coffee, or just want to take a walk on the wild side, grab some of this before it’s gone!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: June 7th, 2024 Harvest: 2023-2024 crop. Packed in Ecotact
Acidity & Brightness: Tangy acidity and intense sweetness
Balance & Finish: Fairly complex with a lingering finish
Body & Texture: Full bodied and silky
Flavors: Pineapple, cranberry, red wine, orange juice and passionflower
Grade: Grade 1, Screen 15+, Grown at 1,700 – 1,900 masl
Processing: Floated then transferred to containers to ferment with Oro yeast for 36 hours. Then dried in cherry (natural process) on raised beds for 2 to 3 weeks.
Grower: 1,739 smallholder farmers working with Greenco Coffee | Kibingo Washing Station
Region: Kibingo, Kayanza Province, Burundi
Varieties: Red Bourbon
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to medium)
We like this coffee best at a city + (light-medium) roast, or as first crack is beginning to trail off. If you want to bring even more intensity and tangy acidity out of the cup, keep the roast light and end it less than a minute after 1st crack begins. To dial back the acidity and balance it with more sweetness, push the roast to Full Medium or after 1st crack has fully ended. Usually about 1.5 to 2 minutes after 1st crack begins. We noted very clear outlier cracks up to a minute prior to the beginning of 1st crack, so be sure not to mark 1st crack too early. This coffee will also mellow significantly with rest. If you want to minimize the intense acidity and showcase juicy sweetness, allow as much as 2 weeks of rest.
Sucafina - "Kibingo washing station is in the province of Kayanza in northern Burundi. The station itself sits 1,893 meters above sea level. The altitude of the farms in the neighboring hills that supply the washing station varies from 1,700 to 1,900 meters above sea level. Kibingo serves 1,739 registered coffee growers, spread over 18 hills in the area. All producers registered at a Greenco washing station are organized in groups of 30 people, headed by a farm leader. This leader acts as a spokesman to facilitate communication and organization with the washing station. At the washing station, farmers can obtain organic fertilizer from composted coffee pulp. To promote farm renovation, producers can get low-cost, subsidized coffee seedlings at the washing station. Each station has its own nursery for this purpose. The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centered on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.
During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families only have 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the family. Cherry is placed in containers and Oro yeast purchased from the French company Lalcafe is added. The cherry is left to ferment in this environment for approximately 36 hours. After fermentation, cherry is carried to the drying tables, where they will dry slowly for 2-3 weeks, during which time the cherry is repeatedly sorted and sifted to ensure even drying. Cherry is left to dry from sunrise to sunset and is covered with a sheet during the evening or when it rains. The moisture level is carefully monitored and any cherry with visual defects is removed. Once dry, coffee is then bagged and taken to the warehouse. Greenco’s team of expert cuppers assess every lot (which are separated by station, day and quality) at the lab. The traceability of the station, day and quality is maintained throughout the entire process.
Before shipment, coffee is sent to Budeca, Burundi’s largest dry mill. The coffee is milled and hand sorted by a team of hand-pickers who look closely at every single bean to ensure zero defects. It takes a team of two hand-pickers a full day to look over a single bag. UV lighting is also used on the beans and any bean that glows (which is usually an indication of a defect) is removed. The mill produces an average of 300 containers of 320 bags per year.
Greenco, a company that oversees and structures washing stations in Kayanza province of Burundi, gives washing stations and producers support all along the production chain. They started their work in 2015, and have dominated all Cup of Excellence competitions in Burundi ever since. Currently, Greenco has 13 washing stations all located in Kayanza in the north of Burundi. The producers receive support from the Greenco CWS managers, who are all agronomic engineers. Greenco works with young agronomy graduates to provide farmer training and manage washing stations. Young graduates are particularly well suited for the work with Greenco because they can all work with computer systems, greatly simplifying the flow of information between the washing stations and Greenco. Also, they have a fresh and systematic approach to coffee production and processing, with up-to-date knowledge about farming practices. The agronomists received additional training from the NGO Kahawatu Foundation on best agricultural practices (BAP). Off season, they provide agronomy assistance to the roughly 15,210 farmers who deliver cherries to Greenco washing stations to prepare for the next harvest.
Next to improving quality and productivity, Greenco strives to improve socio-economic and environmental conditions around the washing stations. All of their washing stations have UTZ and 4C certification. Greenco is buying 93% of its cherries directly from farmers via collection centers. This way, they improve farm-gate price to the producers. Washing stations make the first payment to farmers between 15 and 30 June. The second payment comes later in the summer. If the coffee wins a competition or sells for extremely high specialty prices, Greenco gives another payment approximately a year after the harvest season.“
