Ninga Washing Station, Burundi (2023)
Ninga Washing Station, Burundi (2023)
Country: Burundi
Region/Province: Kayanza
Washing Station: Ninga
Elevation: 1,900-2,000 masl
Lot: Ninga #6
Processing: Reduced-oxygen washed
Varietals: Bourbon
Exporter: Long Miles
Importer: Osito Coffee
Tasting Notes: Black cherry, fig, black tea, walnut, juicy
We have been bringing in coffee from Long Miles Coffee Project over the last number of years, and we’ve carried lots from every one of their washing stations: Bukeye Mill (pronounced like bouquet) in 2018, Heza Mill in 2022, and this year, Ninga.
Long Miles started in 2013 when they set out to meet the need for connection between Burundian farmers with roasters looking for high quality Burundian coffee. The company almost single-handedly raised the quality of the coffee in the country manifold, which has encouraged other coffee operations in the country to both pay the farmers higher prices and compete for higher quality. Long Miles propelled their project by training and employing twenty six local agronomists, residents of the hills where the coffee is grown, and tasking them with helping guide farmers in everything from agricultural practices, soil care, to seeing them through the coffee milling process.
This year’s lot from Ninga is comprised of four deliveries of fresh coffee cherry to Ninga Station over the course of two months. The coffee was pulped and fermented in a reduced-oxygen environment for 72 hours, washed, and then dried on raised beds for an average of 25 days. The resulting cup is uniform, juicy, reminiscent of black tea, cherry, figs, and balanced with a bit of fig and walnut.
Coffee. People. Potential. That’s the tag line of Long Miles Coffee, which sums up well their approach to buying and processing coffee and to how they invest in the communities in which they work. Their vision was to foster “meaningful and lasting change in the lives of Burundian coffee farmers and the coffee they produce”; it’s hard to imagine a business or organization doing it better. Since 2011, they’ve built three coffee processing mills in the remote hills of Burundi and expanded to Kenya and Uganda. Over that time they’ve started initiatives to reforest, provide agronomist training and fertilizer, and pay above Fair Trade premiums for quality. Honestly, that’s just the tip of the ice berg. Their coffees have also been recognized throughout the world for their clean, fruit forward, and consistent flavor profiles.