Shembati Washing Station
We find flavours of apricot jam and orange blossom
Shembati Coffee Washing Station was established in 2017 and serves around 4,000 smallholder producers in the area around Butaganzwa commune in the Kayanza region.
These producers deliver their harvests to the washing station, where it’s processed using a method that the station calls “double fermentation.” The pulp flesh of the fruit is removed, then the cherry is fermented dry for 12 hours, and fermented again for 6-18 hours underwater, before being fully washed. It’s is then soaked for 10-12 hours.
After this, the coffee is placed on tables under shade for 1-3 days, then moved to tables under full sun for a further 12-14 days.
The typical farmer in this area owns less than half a hectare of land. As well as growing coffee, they’ll also grow crops for sale and to feed their household – usually bananas, beans, yams, taro, and cassava.
Due to the small crops, you’ll notice that it’s more common to see washing stations and cooperatives shown as the producer for coffee in Burundi and other African countries.
Unlike Central and South America where landholdings are larger, in Africa most producers do not have the space or financial means to do their own milling and post-harvest production.
Instead, they’ll deliver cherry to a facility that does sorting, blending, and post-harvest processing of day lots to create different offerings, such as the one you’re enjoying.
 
All the images and information about this coffee and its producers have been kindly shared by the importer, Cafe Imports, and edited by us, Sample Coffee (unless linked to or credited otherwise).
Learn how long and why you should wait in our brewing window recommendations.
Our brewguide recipes are easy to follow and designed to bring the best out of our coffee.
1:3
dose:yield
ratio
To brew on espresso, we recommend using 20g of beans (dose) to get 60g of espresso out (yield), during 24-28 seconds.
1:16.7
beans:water
ratio
To brew in infusion/fed brewers (V60, Chemex) use a ratio of 1:16.7 ratio of beans:water.
1:14.3
beans:water
ratio
To brew in immersion brewers (plunger, AeroPress, Kalita, batch brewer) we recommend using a 1:14.3 ratio of beans:water
1:12
beans:water
ratio
To brew as cold brew we recommend using a 1:12 ratio of beans:water
A natural mutation of the Typica varietal, Bourbon is named after Reunion Island (then known as Il Bourbon) where the French cultivated the Typica plants which naturally mutated.
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.
Northern region near the Rwandan border
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.
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