Climpson and Sons - Fields V10: Sehe #9, Burundi

Coffee Info

Picked: May - June 2014

The coffee coming from the collection points in Sehe have been processed at Buziraguhindwa washing station. But the producer, Salume Ramadahn, is currently building a washing station in Sehe so that processing can take place there.

Production process: Pulped and dry fermented, graded in washing channels, soaked in water and, skin dried under shade with intense parchment hand-sorting before sundried on African beds.

Process: Cherries are hand sorted by the farmers for unripe and overripe cherries before they go into production. A 3 disc Mckinnon pulper removes the skin and pulp. The coffee is then dry fermented for 12- 16 hours, dependent on the weather conditions. It’s then graded in washing channels in to two grades based on density, before soaked under clean water in tanks for 18 hours. Drying: Sun dried 15 – 20 days on African drying beds on hessian cloths. Coffees are covered in plastic during midday and at night.

This coffee is from a local municipality and processed at a private coffee washing station in the Kayanza district. The main purpose of a washing station is to remove the coffee seed from the skin and fruit and dry out the seed to prepare it for hulling and export.

The producer of Buziraguhinwa washing station is Salume Ramadhan. He is investing a lot in to quality control and sustainability programs for the surrounding farmers and local workers and to improve the overall quality of the coffee. Even if it’s all processed at the same place, the producer is collecting and separating the cherries based on local hillsides and municipalities. All these cherries are collected and bought from smallholders in the micro region Sehe. Every region has its own unique flavour attributes due to the differences in soil, altitude, sun exposure and climate.

Despite a lot of deforestation, Burundi is still fertile. With altitudes up to 2000 meters, volcanic soils, and rainfall of 1300 mm per year, the growing conditions are good. Today there are thousands of smallholder coffee farmers with some hundred coffee trees each that delivers their cherries to the communal washing stations for processing.

Roasterr: Climpson and Sons

Climpson and Sons does not deliver to United Kingdom