We enjoy this coffee very much every year. Officially the coffee is washed, but thanks to a little extended fermentation it is very full-bodied, sweet and fruity. Thanks to coffees like Gahahe, Burundi’s reputation as a coffee-growing country continues to improve.
The farm / washing station:
The Gahahe washing station is located in the town of Gahahe in Kayanza province. It can be found at an altitude of 1 805 metres. The station is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 4 coffee cherry sorting tables, 2 soaking tanks and a drying field with 180 drying tables and 18 pre-drying tables. In total it can process up to 750 tonnes of cherries per season. Gahahe is involved in a number of projects aimed at assisting and supporting farmers including a livestock project and a number of Farmer Hub projects aimed at strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.
Many of the trees in Burundi are red bourbon variety. Due to the increasingly smaller size of coffee plantations the ageing of the rootstock is a major problem in Burundi. Many farmers have trees that are over 50 years old but the small size of the land they farm makes it difficult to justify taking trees completely out of production for 3-4 years before new plantings start to produce yields. To encourage farmers to renew their plantations, Bugestal buys seeds from the Burundian Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ISABU), establishes nurseries and sells seedlings to farmers at below cost. At the Gahahe station, farmers can also obtain organic fertilizer derived from composted coffee pulp.
Despite the ubiquity of coffee cultivation in Burundi each smallholder has a relatively small crop. The average smallholder farmer has about 250 trees, usually in their backyards. Each tree produces an average of 1.5 kg of cherries so the average producer sells about 200-300 kg of cherries per year.
During the harvest season all the coffee is selectively hand-picked. Most families have only 200-250 trees and the harvest is carried out almost exclusively by the family. Quality assurance begins as soon as the farmers deliver their cherries. The cherries are wet-processed under constant supervision. The pulping, fermentation time, washing, canal sorting and final soaking are carefully monitored. All the cherries are first floated in small buckets to check their quality. Greenco still buys floating cherries (damaged, under-ripe, etc.) but immediately separates the two qualities and sells the floating cherries only as B-quality cherries. After floating the higher quality cherries are re-sorted by hand to remove all damaged, under-ripe and over-ripe cherries.
Variety:
Bourbon is the most famous of the varieties from the Bourbon family. It is a tall variety characterised by its relatively low production, susceptibility to the most common diseases and excellent cup quality. French missionaries brought this variety from Yemen to the island of Bourbon (now Réunion) in the early 17th century, giving it its present name. Bourbon did not leave the island until the mid-19th century. From the mid-19th century, however, the variety spread to new parts of the world as missionaries sought to establish themselves in Africa and America. Around 1860, Bourbon was imported to Brazil, from where it quickly spread north to other parts of South and Central America, where it is still grown today. Here it has mixed with other related varieties imported from India and with Ethiopian native varieties. Today, there are many Bourbon-like varieties in East Africa, but none of them exactly resembles the Bourbon variety found in Latin America. In Latin America, it has now largely been replaced by varieties derived from it (notably Caturra, Catuai and Mundo Novo).
Red Bourbon is then the most widely produced Bourbon variant. In Rwanda and Burundi it is even legislated that Red Bourbon is the only imported variety that can be grown. This is mainly due to the fear of importing coffee diseases, as the Bourbon variety is quite sensitive.
Processing:
After sorting, the cherries are crushed within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then soaked in clean mountain water for 12 to 24 hours. The parchment is then soaked for a further 12 to 18 hours and then moved to drying beds. The parchment is often raked to ensure even drying and to remove any damaged grains. The parchment takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks to dry.
Our baristas notes:
We are glad to coming back to Burundi from Gahahe processing station and I believe most of you remember it pretty well from last year. You can look forward to a nice fruity filter with a tea-like character. The coffee has medium citric acidity and medium sweetness. The body is dominated by a fruity taste similar to yellow mirabelle and a pleasant sweetness similar to honey or sugar cane. There comes a very pleasant taste of black tea and bergamot in the finish.
Recipe for V60:
95 °C water
300ml water
20g coffee
750 micron grind (25 clicks per comandante)
0:00 40ml water
0:35 100 ml water
1:15 80ml water
1:55 80 ml water
Total time brew around 3 minutes and 10 seconds.
