Burundi Muyinga Gashoho Natural
Royal Crown Jewel! We've been SO excited for Burundi coffee to return and this offering is a great example of why! If you're a fan of natural processed Ethiopian coffee, you'll love this one too. It's a little less berry heavy, but exceptionally clean, very sweet and simply delightful.
It’s hard to over-exaggerate how much we’ve been looking forward to Burundi coffees returning to the states. Let’s just say it’s been a VERY long wait for the most recent harvest to finally arrive. To be honest, it got to the point we were a little worried it wouldn’t live up to our expectations. But this coffee absolutely met and even exceeded them!
If you are a big fan of natural processed Ethiopian coffees, you’re going to love this one. While it’s a little less berry heavy, it’s exceptionally clean. Is it as clean as a washed coffee? Well, not really, but it’s incredibly clean for a natural! It’s also a pleasure to roast and was very responsive and predictable in our sample roasts. It’s medium bodied, silky smooth and very sweet with notes of strawberry jam, fig, milk chocolate and hibiscus with just a touch of something gently spicy, like coriander.
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: June 12th, 2022 . US Arrival: June 2022. Packed in GrainPro
Acidity & Brightness: Moderately bright and very sweet
Balance & Finish: Fairly complex with a surprisingly clean floral finish
Body & Texture: Medium to full bodied, smooth and silky
Flavors: Strawberry jam, fig, milk chocolate and a hint of hibiscus
Grade: Grown at 1715 masl
Processing: Full natural and sun-dried on raised beds
Grower: Smallholder farmers organized around Bavyeyi III processing station
Region: Gashoho, Muyinga Province
Varieties: Local bourbon cultivars
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to medium)
Start at City (light) or just in to a rolling first crack and go a bit darker as desired. Natural processed coffees almost always present their best on the lighter end of the roasting spectrum. We find it best not to go any darker than Full City (Medium, after the end of first crack) and most folks will prefer a City + or at the tail end of first crack. Light roasts will have a touch more acidity and florality while medium roasts will accentuate more chocolatey sweetness and body.
Royal Coffee - "Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, the founder of JNP Coffee, is without a doubt one of the most influential individuals in Burundi coffee today. Raised in the capital city of Bujumbura, Jeanine would go on to earn an MBA from Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School, cycle through corporate America, and eventually reconnect with her birth country by founding Burundi Friends International, a not-for-profit funding educational and economic empowerment programs for rural Burundians, which is now in its 13th year. After a few years marketing Burundi coffees stateside for friends and family, Jeanine realized she had every reason to lead the business, and JNP Coffee was born. Muyinga province is lesser known for coffee than Kayanza or Ngozi provinces to the west, but that is precisely why Jeanine and her quality team were interested in investing here. Burundi, like Rwanda to its north, is a gifted territory for coffee: elevations are consistently high, soils are generously fertile, and its arabica cultivars are unique to the rest of the coffee-producing world. Muyinga province is no exception, but has not seen the same level of investment as the more developed producing regions closer to Bujumbura. JNP has for years managed a processing station in Ngozi, whose popularity has grown over time. This past harvest they began receiving cherry from yet another group of farmers, from the Gashoho municipality just over the border in Muyinga. Bavyeyi in Kirundi translates to “parents,’’ a name given to honor the generations of hardworking parents, like Jeanine’s own, whose labor in coffee (something many farming families either do not consume or cannot afford to consume) provides shelter, nourishment, and educational opportunities to their children. While this lot is uniquely coffee harvested by Gashoho farmers, the total number of farmers contributing to Bavyeyi is now over 2,000. All participating farmers qualify for JNP’s Dushime program, a second-payment incentive for delivering the highest quality, which is paid at the end of each harvest, and which varies from 20-40 cents per pound. Drying naturals in the high and cool Ngozi climate is a painstakingly slow process, often taking 20-30 days to complete, during which the coffee is continuously circulated for even air exposure.
