Malidadi is the name of the hill where this coffee has been harvested. Smallholders are producing coffee on 7ha of land in total. The coffee trees are blooming from mid-Aug to end of September and the coffee is being harvested from March to June. The soil in the area is a mixture of clay and stony components. Hay or dry grass is scattered at the end of the harvest to protect the soil from drought and weeds. The hill is located near two main forests: Ikibira and Nyungwe that both play a big role in influencing the weather conditions in the hill (wind and temperature).
The cherries are taken to the Mpanga Central Washing station located in Kayanza Province, Northern Burundi. It is managed by a 17-year coffee veteran, who oversaw the construction of the washing station back in 2008. The station processes coffee from approximately 3,400 smallholder farmers, who cultivate coffee on the hillsides that surround Kayanza, at elevations of up to 1,950 masl. To service these producers properly, the station is well-equipped to process volumes of specialty coffee and benefits from 450 drying beds and a McKinnon 6-disc pulping machine. Mpanga processes roughly 1,500 tons of coffee per season, with each producer lot separated and named according to the hillside upon which the coffee was grown. This year a lot of money has been invested in maintaining and fixing beds as well as building new ones. Mpanga has achieved incredible results at the Burundi Cup of Excellence, finishing 1st and 3rd in the 2014 competition. As a result of the hard work and diligence that has been implemented, Mpanga has become highly regarded for its consistently clean and complex coffees. It's due to these cup qualities, alongside the focus and belief in motivating farmers' meticulous harvesting and agricultural practices, that we have decided to work exclusively with Mpanga to source all of our 2019-2020 Burundi coffees this season.
The flavour profile from the Kayanza region in Burundi is similar in a lot of ways to the southern Rwandan coffees like Huye Mountain. In fact, Huye Mountain is only about 60 miles from the Kayanza village, as the crow flies. However, we tend to find Kayanza coffees are more delicate in character and present more floral notes, such as jasmine, rose and orange blossom.
ATTRIBUTES
| Country | Burundi |
| Cup Score | 85 |
| Cup Profile | Red Berries, Chocolate Orange |
| Altitude | 1820 |
| Process | Washed |
| Varietal | Bourbon |
