
As a coffee roaster, it’s not everyday that you get the opportunity to buy the whole lot of a particular coffee that is earkmarked for the most prestigious coffee roasters in the United States. When we had the chance to purchase this Burundi coffee, we couldn’t pass it up. Last fall, it was through a friend of a friend that we were introduced to Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian of JNP coffee. She is a native of Burundi who embarked on a dream of helping the coffee farmers of her birthplace. And she happened to have made her home right near Airis Coffee Roasters.
It was last fall that Jeanine came to Airis Coffee Roasters in Worcester MA to see what we were up to. We were so impressed with Jeanine and the work that she was doing in Burundi. Thankfully, she was impressed with our roasting facility and coffees. We knew we had to bring great Burundi Coffee to our Airis customers and our Worcester community. We are grateful that Jeanine offered us an incredible micro-lot coffee that was farmed from and IWCA chapter of women coffee farmers. The International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) leads women’s empowerment in the international coffee industry by supporting and growing a network of self-organized, self-governing, women-led chapters across the globe.
PURCHASE A BAG
This Burundi coffee is made up of many small women owned coffee farms.
Many times a farmer may only have 25-50 coffee trees per farm. The coffee cherries are handpicked every morning, sorted and delivered to the washing stations (wet mills) in the afternoon and throughout the early evening. Each farmer’s delivery is processed daily, thus producing micro-lots that can be traced to a specific hill. Cherries are de-pulped daily through water-process machinery and single- or double-fermented for 18 to 24 hours, bringing out more brightness and clarity in these coffees. Pre-dried under shade, and then using a pyramid process for a constant and even drying, the coffee cherries are sun-dried on African raised beds for an average of 28 to 30 days. De-parchment, or hulling, removal of the final silver skin or chaff by machine, occurs at the dry mill. The green coffee is then packed in GrainPro bags prior to export.
As soon as the fresh crop of Burundi Kinyovu arrived, we couldn’t wait to test it out on our Air Roaster. We like to sample roast each new arrival about 8 different ways in order to find the very best recipe for each coffee. This particular coffee really shined with a light roast at an extended roast time. It is incredibly bright and fruity. We tasted pineapple, hibiscus, and toffee.
The social impact of your purchase really makes a difference!
This purchase helps the women farmers to promote quality and assure sustainability for some 1,950 families in the communities where these beautiful coffees are sourced. The women who own the coffee farms take extensive measures, from tending the coffee trees to harvesting only red ripened cherries, to ensure the highest-quality results.