Burundi
Sehe

Honey process Red Bourbon, Jackson

Flavour: lollypop, strawberry, orange

Body: Acidity:

Cherries are grown and gathered in the high hills of the Sehe. There are around 1,500 coffee farmers collecting ripe cherry from the Sehe region to be processed at various collection points.

Salum Ramadhan founded Coffee Processing Company in 2010 with the goal of improving the quality of life for the very smallholder producers in the Kayanza and Cibitoke provinces. CPC operates four washing stations, including Sehe and Shembati (which we’re shared previously).

He offers a premium price for farmers in exchange for high quality coffee and for delivering only ripe cherries to his washing stations. He’s also investing in social and environmental projects such as education in the local areas, ponds for waste water etc.

Competition in the area can be fierce but by keeping his prices consistently high, farmers are financially encouraged to select only premium and ripe cherry. Cherries are sorted by hand and through floatation, and only ripe cherries are transported down the mountains to the washing station.

Salum Ramadhan’s washing stations have a solid reputation for producing exceptionally clean and top quality coffee.

Salum sees a lot of value in supporting the local communities. He also has an environmental focus with a recycled water program and operates a small local transport business to assist with various collection points across the country. He’s creating employment, has built infrastructure for the locals, giving out seedlings, has donated land for a school as well as supported it financially.

This, together with the premiums and second payments for the coffees, is to encourage the farmers to increase the quality in their farms and pick better cherries during harvest. And that will again be beneficial to all of us.

Honey process at Sehe

At Sehe they select the highest quality cherries for their honey process as it’s a relatively complicated process in their climate, particularly early in the harvest season when there’s a lot of rain.

The cherries are separated by soaking and are hand sorted before going to production – after this they’re de-pulped before being graded to three grades by density where only the first grades from the denser beans goes to Honey production. After pulping and grading they still have all the mucilage left, which would be referred to as black honey in other regions such as Costa Rica.

They are then dried under shade in a medium thick layer for the first 1-2 days. They’re then moved out in the sun, and covered again at night.

After the first few days they start to lose the ‘sticky’ parchment layer and the cherries are raked so they don’t stick to each other. After around 20 days drying in the sun on raised beds, they’re ready for sorting for defects and transport.

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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.

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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

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Our packaging

Producer: Sehe Washing Station
Country: Burundi
Region: Cibitoke
Altitude: 1700m above sea level
Varieties: Red Bourbon, Jackson
Process: honey
Harvested: July 2018
Importer: Langdon Coffee Merchants
Body: Light
Acidity: Medium
Tasting notes: Lollypop, strawberry, orange
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Varieties

Jackson variety

The varieties known as Jackson, Kent, Coorg, and Mysore—all originating from the same region in India—are most likely late descendant of the first coffee seeds out of Yemen brought to India by Baba Budan in 1670. Recent genetic tests have confirmed that Jackson is related to the Bourbon genetic group.

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

Honey process

This technique leaves some flesh on the coffee cherry as it is washed and dried. This tends to give a slightly sweeter flavour, but can also reduce the quality and longevity of the coffee due to the fermentation of the sugars in the flesh.