SCORCHED EARTH EXORCISM, Burundi
Dried Orange, Toffee, Elderflower
| Producer | Smallholders of Rubirizi Hill and Gaharo X Long Miles Coffee Project |
| Washing Station | Bukeye Washing Station |
| Region | Kayanza |
| Varietal | Bourbon |
| Processing | Washed |
| Altitude | 1,750 MASL |
Bukeye Washing Station stands on the border of Kayanza in northern Burundi, high in the hills at around 1,750 metres. Cherry is carried in from the surrounding collines, Rubirizi and Gaharo among them, hand picked by smallholders who each tend only a few hundred trees.
Bukeye was the first station built by the Long Miles Coffee Project, founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson. The farmers of Gaharo cleared the land and made the bricks from valley clay, and they still deliver their cherry to it. Coffee scouts live among the growers, walking the hills, tending soil and shade, and waging a slow war on the antestia bug that scars the cup.
Bourbon is the varietal of record. One of the two archetypal arabica lineages, a natural mutation of Typica first cultivated on Île Bourbon, it is held for its sweetness and a structured, layered acidity that Burundi's altitude sharpens.
Washed. Cherry floated and sorted on delivery, depulped, fermented, then washed clean and dried slowly on raised beds, turned by hand through the day. Clarity held from parchment to export. Nothing is surrendered.
