Burundi Kayanza Bourbon
My Friend's Coffee
Fig, Lemon, Black Tea, Ginger Snap
Brisk is the word for this brew. Burundi may be near Rwanda, but it ain't a fruit factory. It may be near Tanzania, but it ain't an acid trip. It's about citrus and spice and sugar and, yes, briskness. The country is well suited to coffee production, particularly the mountainous area in the north, which is peppered with micro zones. That's where Kayanza sits, and it's widely considered the finest growing area in the country.
Grabbing a lot from Kayanza can be competitive. In this case, one of Burundi's premier coffee outfits, JNP coffee, snagged gold by paying high premiums and making reinvestments in community infrastructure. A local producing group helmed the processing as part of JNP's Dushime program. What did those overachieving Kayanza folks do?
Well, first they floated pure bourbon cherries for density and visible defects. Then they depulped and fermented the harvest before putting it through concrete wash channels. Next came shade drying, then they sensed that they were setting roasters up for a boring process description, so they added a crazy new step called "Open Air Pyramid Drying." That's right, the loons in Kayanza piled the parchment, i.e., partially finished coffee, into pyramids, and as a daily matter, flattened those pyramids before re-shaping them. The step generated incremental air exposure as the coffee cruised to its final moisture target. When the workers finished, word has it they broke out Kinetic Sand and built miniature Great Walls, but maybe that's just a rumor.
In the cup, this coffee is sharp, snappy, and dense with flavor. There's a lovely fig note, which presents in two ways: fresh Black Mission, and sweet, dried Turkish. Those fig expressions toggle as the cup cools, with fresh giving way to dried. A strong hit of lemon comes next, and this is where the cup starts to get its brisk quality. The lemon is honed, but not overpowering, and it's a wonderful compliment to the figgy sweetness. Rounding things out, a note of Black Tea emerges. It's not exactly tannic, but it's not soft either, and it makes a fitting addition because Black Tea and Lemon go together like Lemon and Black Tea. The last note to mention is Ginger Snap. This one is faint—don't kick yourself if it evades you—but it's very Burundi. Which is basically the headline for this brew. It's Burundi through and through.
- Region - Kayanza Province, Burundi
- Varietal - Local Bourbon Cultivars
- Process - Washed
- Altitude - 1,900 MASL
Best for:
- Pour Over
- French Press
- Drip Machine
- Aeropress
- Bright Single Origin Espresso