Burundi
Gahahe

Gahahe washing station participates in farmer outreach and support projects like a livestock rearing project and Farmer Hub projects to strengthen cooperatives and improve yields. We taste blood orange, raspberry, and marmalade.

Washed process Red Bourbon

Flavour: raspberry, blood orange, marmalade

Body: Acidity:

Roast: omni (filter + espresso)

Our second and (potentially) last Burundian this year, it’s super bright and juicy.

Gahahe washing station in Kayanza province, Burundi is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 4 cherry selection tables, 2 soaking tanks, and 180 drying tables. It has a capacity to process up to 750 metric tons of cherry per season. The station participates in farmer outreach and support projects like a livestock rearing project, and Farmer Hub projects to strengthen cooperatives and improve yields. The average smallholder producer in Burundi has around 250 trees, yielding about 200-300 kilos of cherry per year. Bugestal, which owns the washing station, encourages farmers to renovate their plantings by purchasing seeds from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), establishing nurseries and selling the seedlings to farmers at or below cost. At the station, farmers can also get organic fertilizer derived from composted coffee pulp.

Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherry to the washing station. Cherry is wet-processed under close supervision, with pulping, fermentation, washing, grading, and final soaking all monitored closely. All cherry is floated in small buckets to check quality, with the higher quality cherry sorted by hand to remove all damaged, underripe, and overripe cherries. Once sorted, cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then soaked in clean mountain water for 12 to 24 hours. Parchment is soaked for an additional 12-18 hours before being moved to drying beds, where it takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks to dry. The parchment is then bagged, taken to the warehouse, and assessed by Greenco’s team of expert cuppers. The coffee is then sent to Budeca, Burundi’s largest dry mill, to be milled and hand-sorted by a team of hand-pickers who look closely at every single bean to ensure zero defects.

Greenco is a company that oversees and structures washing stations in Kayanza province, Burundi. It provides support to washing stations and producers all along the production chain. The company started its work in 2015 and currently has 13 washing stations, all located in Kayanza. The producers receive support from Greenco’s CWS managers, who are all agronomic engineers. The company’s impact extends to over 15,210 coffee producing households. Greenco works with young agronomy graduates to provide farmer training and manage washing stations. The agronomists receive additional training from the NGO Kahawatu Foundation on best agricultural practices. Greenco’s work has had a significant impact on the Burundian economy, as it is the first employer in the region during the coffee harvest season, providing employment for thousands of people.

All the images and information about this coffee and its producers have been kindly shared by the importer, Sucafina, and edited by us, Sample Coffee (unless linked to or credited otherwise).

Resting your beans inside the sealed bag helps develop peak flavours and acidity.

Learn how long and why you should wait on our brewing window recommendations guide.

Try our step-by-step recipes and videos.

Our recipes are easy to follow and designed to bring the best out of our coffee. Find your favourite method on our brew guides collection or test a new one—and if you have any questions, ask us anytime at [email protected].

Learn everything about this coffee:

Ethical, traceable sourcing

This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.

The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more:
Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach

Fresh harvest coffee

We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.

Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)

Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.

Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.

Learn more:
Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach

Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast

The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.

But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.

Learn more:
Our recommended brewing window

Try our custom brewing recipes

Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.

For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:

Dose: 20g ground coffee
Yield: 60g espresso
Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds

This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.

Learn more:
Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator

Packaging and sustainability

Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
Labels: recyclable
Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
Box and tape (online orders): recyclable

Learn more:
Our packaging

Producer: 1,740 Smallholders
Country: Burundi
Region: Kayanza
Altitude: 1800m above sea level
Variety: Red Bourbon
Process: washed
Harvested: July 2022
Importer: Sucafina
Body
Acidity
Tasting notes: Raspberry, blood orange, marmalade
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Variety

Red Bourbon variety

The location

Coffee from Burundi

Coffee first arrived in Burundi in the 1920s while the country was still under Belgian colonial rule. Since the civil war in 1993 Burundi has placed a great importance on growing the coffee industry and the flow on effects that will have on the country’s economy.

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.