Giku

Variety: Red Bourbon

Region: Kayanza, Burundi

Elevation: 1,700+ Meters Above Sea Level

Harvest: June 2024

Process: Honey

Notes: Nectarine, Rainier Cherry & Carob.

Our last offering from Burundi this year is a really fun and clean Honey Process of Giku Hill's out turn. This is a lively and well structured cup, with notes of baking spices and a likeness of red tea, peaches, waffle cone & cherry pie.

Giku Hill is about as far out there as you can get, many kilometers away from any town or washing station for the longest time. The coffee farmers had to cross over two rivers and pass by two province borders to get their coffees into processing/purchase points. Although there are many small rivers running through this region, the communities that live here have little access to clean drinking water and are far beyond the reach of electricity. Coffee is the most important crop grown on the hill, closely competing with corn and beans. The fringes of the Kibira Forest, Burundi’s only indigenous rainforest, looms fifty-four kilometers in the distance.

Coffee farming families from this region have delivered their cherries to Bukeye Washing Station or the nearest collection point for years, often travelling more than three hours by foot to reach these sites. This year, we’re hoping to see that change. Our importing partners LMCP bought a piece of land a stone’s throw away from Giku, cleared it and have started building a washing station there. Coffee farmers will walk or bicycle the day’s harvest of cherry to the new Washing Station site.

Coffee that is honey processed are fermented with a partial amount of cherry mucilage left on the seed before being washed again. This imparts a lot more fruit into the coffee with less risk of ferment that is more probable with a naturally processed coffee.  The result in this community lot is properly done. Hand-picked at peak ripeness. Floated and hand sorted to further remove defects; partially-depulped on the day of harvest. Fermented in water for up to 36 hours, Rinsed & then density graded, flushed with fresh water thereafter. This lot was then dried on traditional African raised beds for 16-20 days until moisture content reaches around 10.5%.

This is a super fun lot that was purchased specifically for our subscribers.