The Long Miles Coffee Project
The Long Miles Project, founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, began work in 2013, aiming to raise the bar of specialty coffees coming out of Burundi. The project works with more than 5,000 individual coffee farmers living near three central washing stations, Bukeye, opened in 2013, Heza, from 2014 and Ninga, which had its first harvest in 2020. There are several reasons why producing speciality coffee in Burundi is an incredibly difficult task.
There’s the incredibly unstable political situation, where government can change rules on coffee prices and value chain seemingly overnight, the practical challenge of being a small landlocked country attempting to export coffee by sea freight, the constant threat of unrest. But through it all the Carlson family have managed to establish themselves as producers and exporters of consistently delicious coffees, all the while providing some semblance of stability to the lives of smallholder farmers that surround their washing stations in the northern Kayanza Province, near the border with Rwanda.
This year has seen another slump in production in Burundi, volumes are significantly lower than the bumper harvest of 2022, but quality has remained at an excellent level, thanks to the Long Miles team’s tireless work at each of the stations.
Munyinya
This lot was produced by farmers on the Munyinya hill, and processed at Long Miles’ Bukeye station. Munyinya was the hill that initially convinced Long Miles of Burundi’s potential, when small lots of cherry were processed, roasted and cupped in the early days of the project.
The team at Bukeye have been processing naturals for some time, slowly honing their process to create clean and ripe expressions. Coffee is dried slowly on raised beds over 20-30 days, sorting carefully and turning often. This softens the typical fresh and bright berry notes into a rich and sweet berry jam, and rounds out the often slightly herbal finish into black tea.
Burundi coffees are in season just now, and this year we are proud to share coffee from Munyinya but also from Mikuba, Umutumba and Ninga.
