[sold out] Gakenke – Burundi Natural
Espresso & Filter Roast | 250g or 1kg
Varietal: Red Bourbon
Processing: Natural
Altitude: 1,500-1,800 masl
Cupping Score: 85.5
Tasting Notes: Caramel, Citrus Fruits, Chocolate, Raspberry, Cherry
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Description
Almost all coffee trees in Burundi are Red Bourbon for quality reasons. In this case, they make for a sweet, syrupy coffee that works great as both espresso or filter brews.
Gakenke station was built in 1991. The station can process up to 750 metric tons per season The drying field has 150 raised beds.
Gakenke station has 2,685 registered farmer members, spread over 22 hills in Gatare commune, Kayanza province. These are organized in groups of 30 people, headed by a producer leader to facilitate communication and organization with the washing station. The farmers typically have an average of 250 trees.
The washing station participates in a number of farmer outreach and support projects including a livestock rearing project and a range of Farmer Hub projects centred on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.

About this coffee
Despite the ubiquity of coffee growing in Burundi, each smallholder produces a relatively small harvest.
The average smallholder has approximately 250 trees, normally in their backyards. Each tree yields an average of 1.5 kilos of cherry, so the average producer sells about 200 to 300 kilos of cherry annually.
Harvesting is done almost entirely by the family.
All cherries are floated in small buckets as a first step to check quality.
After floating, the higher quality cherry is sorted again by hand to remove all damaged, underripe and overripe cherries.
After sorting, the cherry is transported directly to the drying tables where they will dry slowly for 3 to 4 weeks.
Pickers go over the drying cherry for damaged or defective cherries that may have been missed in previous quality checks.
The washing station is very strict about allowing only the highest quality cherry to complete the drying process.
This particular lot is delicate and sweet with notes of citrus, dark chocolate, raspberry, and caramel.

