Kibingo Yeast Inoculated Washed Red Bourbon (Burundi)

This coffee is part of our Classic Series coffee subscription. Subscribe and enjoy savings on this, and other great coffees!

Filter Subscription

Kibingo was the 2017 Cup of Excellence winner in Burundi. The coffee is produced by GreenCo who's been a long time pillar in the specialty coffee scene of Burundi. With its super sweet, clean and often floral coffees, Burundi has been putting itself on the specialty coffee map. They also have a multitude of projects that are providing humanitarian aid to the people who are contributing their coffee to this washing station. 

The Kibingo washing station is located in the Kayanza province of Burundi, bordering Rwanda. This station was built in 1986 and is located at 1893masl. Working with nearly 3000 local small holder coffee farmers in the local area, Kibingo has become a well respected and well regarded coffee station in the area. There's a wooden bridge leading to the station that goes over a small river/stream. This bridge is where the name Kibingo came from, meaning 'reeds' in Kirundi, the local language. Reeds were planted on the edges of the river to ensure no erosion would occur. This river flows through to the Nile River. 

The washing station is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 2 soaking tanks and a drying field with 165 drying tables and 4 pre-drying tables. Kibingo can process 750,000 kg of cherry per day.

At the washing station, farmers can obtain organic fertilizer from composted coffee pulp. To promote farm renovation, producers can get low-cost, subsidized coffee seedlings at the washing station. Each station has its own nursery for this purpose.

The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centered on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.

Despite the ubiquity of coffee growing in Burundi, each smallholder producers a relatively small harvest. The average smallholder has approximately 250 trees, normally in their backyards. Each tree yields an average of 1.5 kilos of cherry so the average producer sells about 200-300 kilos of cherry annually.

Processing

During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively handpicked. Most families only have 200 to 250 trees, and harvesting is done almost entirely by the family.

After sorting, cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. During pulping, cherry is separated into high- and low-grade by density on a Mackinon 3-disc pulper outfitted with an additional separation disk. Once pulped, coffee is placed in Epoxy- coated, concrete fermentation tanks. Oro yeast purchased from the French company Lalcafe is added to the tanks. The tanks are left to ferment in this environment for approximately 36 hours.

LALCAFÉ ORO yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was specially developed for coffee production over a four-year period of research and trials. Trials in various regions and environments showed that Oro is well suited to better control the wet process’ efficiency and to upgrade the cup quality.

The longer fermentation time for yeast processed coffees also allows for more developed flavors. The extra time enables the beans to absorb metabolites, which can enhance flavors. Complexity, acidity, brightness, floral notes and more are all boosted by the lengthened fermentation time.

After fermentation is completed, coffee is washed and sorted into seven different grades according to density. They were then left to dry on raised beds for 2-3 weeks, with repeated sorting and sifting to ensure even drying until ideal moisture level is attained. 

PRODUCT INFO 

200g

Region: Kayanza, Burundi

Variety: Red Bourbon

Processing: Oro Yeast Fully Washed

Altitude: 1,700 - 1,900 M.A.S.L

ROAST PROFILE

Filter

This coffee is roasted for filter; and is recommended for brewing using the V60, Kalita, Mugen or other drip / immersion coffee makers.