Burundi Buhorwa Buckeye

Burundi coffee has only been back on the market for about 10 years since their civil war ended. Each year the quality has been improving. Buhorwa is the name of the washing mill that was one of the first to be privatized. They separate lots by quality and this lot is one their good ones. The coffee is imported through Crop to Cup who are hands on with helping the farmers produce good coffee year after year. The Buhorwa Mill coffees tend to be as good as anything you'll find in the country. This lot is from a region known as Buckeye and consists of just a few family farms and is the second year we have bought their coffee. It is all a single varietal known as Jackson Bourbon varietal.

This is a washed process coffee and works at a variety of roast levels. If you roast it light -- 30 seconds past the end of the 1st cracks -- you have a clean, bright, tart coffee with lime, vanilla, cascara, and chocolate undertones and hints of roasted carrots. If you take it a little farther -- maybe 20 seconds shy of 2nd cracks beginning -- it really smooths out, has much more sweetness, and you get distinct brown sugar and orange tasting notes, some caramel/butterscotch undertones. However, to further complicate things, the 2nd cracks are later than you might expect. About 5 degrees later than I was expecting. But if you take it to 2nd cracks, it's not BAD, but it's too smoky and flattened out a little bit. So push the edge and try to get it close without getting into them. Of course, if you want a dark roast, well into the 2nd cracks, this bean will give you a big bodied, sweet, almost buttery, smoky French Roast.

As espresso, just into 2nd cracks, it has a lot of crema and a carrot cake flavor (in a good way).

December 2018 arrival in USA.