Gaharo Hill
Gaharo Hill
Country: Burundi
Region/Province: Muramvya
Washing Station: Bukeye
Elevation: 1,900-2,100 masl
Processing: Natural
Varietals: Bourbon
Exporter: Long Miles
Importer: Osito Coffee
Tasting Notes: Apricot, Peach Danish, Milk Chocolate, Medium Acidity
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, Heza Mill, and Ninga Mill. This year, we’re bringing back Bukeye Mill after seven years!
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 Burundi has lovely notes of apricot, peach, milk chocolate, and milder acidity than we normally see from this region. It drinks almost like a natural Ecuador or Nicaragua, and we are here for it!
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.