Outpost Coffee Roasters - Shembati, Washed, Kayanza, Burundi

Juicy, sweet and blackberry-like awesomeness!

Shembati Washing Station is one of two washing stations built in 2016 by the producer Salum Ramadhan. Although he has been working with smallholders in the Shambati area for some years now, the government changed the laws to limit the area washing stations can recieve or accept cherry from, hence he built this washing station to be able to continue to work with the smallholders in this area.

Our history with Salum dates back to 2011, and the relationship has been excellent. He’s extremely detail oriented, spends a lot of time to train local staff and has a great loyal work force. He also has a transport business and through that manages the domestic coffee logistics. This means that we are always getting our coffees quickly, while they are still fresh.

Shembati is a communal station in the high altitudes in Kayanza. It mainly produces fully washed coffees, however is also experimenting with naturals and shade dried. The coffees are all selected daily lots, named by the local area or Collin (hill) where the cherries are purchased. Farms in Burundi are small, often below one hectar each with a few hundred trees. This means that a daily lot - e.g. 25 bags of greens - can consist of coffee from some hundred growers.