Burundi Kibingo

If you are looking for a coffee that tastes like a freshly baked pie, Burundi is a perfect choice. Most coffee production in Burundi follows traditional methods, but this lot from Kibingo station takes a more innovative path. Thanks to the unusual semi-washed processing method, the coffee has developed higher sweetness and fullness that will keep you coming back with every sip.

From cherry pie to nougat espresso

Thanks to its medium body and balanced acidity, the coffee’s profile shifts beautifully depending on the brewing method:

• As filter coffee: Flavours of ripe fruit, cherries, and redcurrants come to the fore. The overall impression is rounded off by caramel sweetness and a long nut-butter finish.

• As espresso: Deeper notes of nougat, chocolate, and hazelnuts step into the spotlight. The fruitiness appears here as a softer acidity reminiscent of plums, apples, and pears.

Kibingo: The strength of a community of 3,500 farmers

This coffee comes from the mountainous Kayanza region in the north of the country, the heart of Burundi’s specialty coffee production.

• Small farmers, great flavour: Most local growers tend an average of just 300 coffee trees on small plots of land. They therefore sell their cherries to Kibingo station, where they are combined under strict supervision into one complex lot.

• The Kayanza region: Fertile soil and high altitude along the border with Rwanda give rise to coffees with an exceptionally clean and sweet profile.

Honey Process: An unusual face of Burundi

The “Honey” processing method is relatively rare in Burundi, but the results from Kibingo station are fantastic:

1. Drying with the mucilage: After harvesting and pulping, the cherries are immediately dried on raised beds with the remaining sticky fruit mucilage still attached.

2. Regular care: As with renowned coffees from Costa Rica, the beans must be turned at regular intervals to prevent unwanted fermentation.

3. The result: This method naturally enhances sweetness and gives the coffee notes of red fruit that would be hard to find in a classically washed coffee.