The potential of East African coffee

Kenya and Burundi are excellent examples of the potential of East African coffee. Kenya is iconic in our industry, remembered by many as their first big experience with speciality coffee. The clear and crisp ripe berry notes make these cups some of the most memorable each year. The rich volcanic soils on the southern slopes of Mount Kenya, the high quality SL varietals, and the careful processing at well-managed washing stations should lead to excellent quality. In recent years, difficulties with climate change and the rise of hybrid varietals has led to some swings in quality. The less predictable timing of rains, alongside long droughts during cherry maturation leads to significantly lower sugar concentration in the cherries, the vital fuel for fermentation and roasting to create complexity and intensity in the cup. The many smallholders delivering to stations also makes it difficult to keep track of who has pure SL28 genetics on their farm. Often farmers have been forces to graft Ruiru and Batian material onto SL roots due to rising fertiliser and fungicide costs, required to keep the fragile SL28 plants yielding. While yielding more consistently without the use of external inputs, and being more resistant to changes in climate, the difference in quality between SL and hybrid plants is clear to taste.

Burundi

The Long Miles 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.

Gitwe

Washed Bourbon

This washed lot is composed of cherry from the Gitwe hill, from which we have purchased several times in the past. Gitwe consistently produces excellent quality coffee, due in part to rich soils and high altitude. In fact, it was this hill that was chosen for Long Miles’ model farm, where they produce their own coffee as an example for agronomic techniques for surrounding farmers. Coffee farmers from the Gitwe hill deliver to Long Miles’ Heza station. Heza sits at 1960 masl, so harvest normally starts around two weeks later here than at the lower altitude Bukeye station. This high altitude also leads to impressive views over the Kibira rainforest to Rwanda, which have given Heza its name; Heza means ‘beautiful place’ in Kirundi. Heza was built in January 2014, and now serves nearly 2,000 individual farmers. Heza also helps local farmers by supplying trees from a coffee tree nursery with over 15,000 seedlings.

Heza uses a double fermentation process, where the cherries are first de-pulped and fermented without water for around 12 hours, before water is added and the coffee is soaked for a further 12 hours. After this, the coffee is ‘footed’ to wash away the sticky mucilage layer attached to the outside of the coffee seed. This involves the workers stomping on the coffee in the tanks before it is moved to washing channels to be rinsed in clean water. Coffee is then dried slowly on raised beds over 20-30 days, depending on weather conditions.

This careful processing, along with excellent conditions on the Gitwe hill, seems to result in our favourite washed coffees year after year, with crisp and ripe redcurrant jam followed by a clean and herbal rooibos finish.

Karimikui

Washed SL28

The Rungeto cooperative’s cherry selection, fermentation, sorting and separation is of incredibly high quality, leading to excellent coffee. The cherries are first depulped mechanically, as soon as they arrive at the factory. The cherries should arrive for depulping as soon as possible after picking, hence why cooperatives make a great effort to have factories located close to concentrations of smallholders. After depulping, the seeds are covered in a layer of sticky fruity pulp, or mucilage. The seeds are fermented in large tanks for between 12 and 24 hours, breaking the mucilage down to a point that it can be thoroughly ‘washed’ away, using long washing channels. Then, before drying, the seeds are taken to another set of fermentation tanks, and fermented again under water, normally for a shorter time, between 10 and 12 hours. This ‘double soak’ is popular in Kenya, and is useful not only for enhancing the cleanliness and intensity of the final cup, but also as a second opportunity to sort for lower density floating seeds, as these are often of lower quality, or from unripe cherries. Each lot that is processed is kept separate throughout the process, allowing each to be cupped separately. This allows the management of the mill to assess patterns of quality and continuously improve. There is always a degree of unpredictability however, so cupping continuously is the only way to find the finest lots of the harvest, especially in recent years as hybrid varietals have increased in use, and many mills have increased capacity in an attempt to cash in on record prices for Kenyan coffee.

This lot from Karimikui is tasting rather crisp and fresh, with ripe red berries emanating from the cup.