Understanding Burundian Coffee as a Home Brewer

Burundi is an East African country that produces quality coffee with exciting flavors. Many like to compare it to its neighbor origin, Rwanda. However, from our experience, they are quite different and have distinct profiles from one another.

In this guide, we talk about Burundi as a coffee origin and everything you need to know as a home brewer when buying and brewing these coffees.

Flavor Notes of Burundian Coffee

There are many factors behind how a coffee tastes. One of these factors is the origin of the coffee. Almost every origin can be associated with a distinct set of flavor notes.

When trying to pick out the general flavor notes of a coffee, taste that coffee side-by-side with another coffee that is very different. The easiest way to do that is to compare it with a coffee from a different continent.

Try tasting a Burundian coffee next to a coffee from Guatemala or Brazil. It will be much easier to pick out the flavor profiles of both coffees this way. The Burundian coffee would be tart and fruity, while the one from Brazil will be more heavy and nutty.

In contrast, flavors are harder to describe if you were to compare similar coffees. This would be the case if you would compare a Burundian coffee to another African coffees. At that point, you would be tasting more for nuances in each coffee rather than the general profile.

Describing Flavor Through Color

If we were to describe the flavor of Burundian coffees with a color, it would be orange. We often taste notes of citrus (usually of different kinds of oranges), currants, and a tea-like texture.

Being an African origin, Burundian coffees share many flavor characteristics with other coffees of the same continent. This is why we place them in the light side of the color wheel.

Burundian Coffee Flavor Profile

Flavor-wise, what makes Burundian coffee unique to us is that it’s a midway between Kenyan and Ethiopian coffees. Many like to compare Burundi and Rwanda as origins. But we actually think the closest origin to Burundi, in terms of taste, is Kenya.

With Burundi, we often taste a distinct acidity. Their coffees are tart and often have a currant-like acidity that is very similar to Kenyan coffees. We’d say that among the African coffees, Burundi is next to Kenya for having the most pronounced acidity.

We’ve also noticed that Burundian coffees share a citrusy sweetness and tea-like mouthfeel common in Ethiopian coffees. This pairing of a very pronounced acidity and fruity sweetness is what gives Burundi a unique coffee profile.

What to Know When Buying These Coffees

Seasonality: When Are These Coffees Most Available?

We have to remember that coffee comes from a fruit. Like most fruits, coffees are also seasonal / most available at specific times of the year.

Harvest time in Burundi usually starts around March and goes on until August. Give or take, the green beans will normally arrive at roasteries by October. While the final roasted coffee is normally available from November to May.

Common Varietals

Varietals go hand-in-hand with origin. To us, they highlight certain aspects to an origin’s overall profile. Burundi and Rwanda make a good example here. Both origins mainly grow the Bourbon varietal and apply almost identical methods of washed processing. But both origins have their own distinct profiles.

Almost all coffee grown in Burundi are Arabica coffees. While some farms are now growing Robusta, the majority are still growing Arabica varietals, particularly:

• Bourbon
• Jackson

Bourbon is a strain of Arabica that many know for its sweetness. Outside of Burundi, it is a common varietal across Latin America. However, producers in Latin America tend to mix it with other varietals since they are not able to get as much yield from the Bourbon varietal alone.

On the flip side, Burundi almost entirely grows Bourbon varietals (with the Jackson cultivar being a Bourbon relative). The high elevations at Burundi help prevent leaf rust and other coffee plant diseases so farmers can grow substantial yields of this varietal alone.

Regions

• Kayanza
• Gitega
• Ngozi
• Kirundo
• Karuzi
• Muyinga

Burundi is a mountainous country. Among the coffee growing regions, elevations range from 772 meters (2,533 feet) to 2,670 meters (8,760 feet) above sea level.

Of these regions, Kayanza and Ngozi have been producing the highest quality coffees. However, coffees from Muyinga and Gitega have also made it to the Cup of Excellence – a yearly award held to identify the highest quality coffee produced across the globe.

Coffee Processing

Producers in Burundi commonly process their coffees in one of two ways:

• Washed / Wet Process
• Natural / Sun-dried Process

Between the two processing methods, washed-processing is more common in Burundi. This means using water to remove everything from the coffee cherry until only the seed (in our case the actual coffee bean) is left. Afterwards, the coffee is left to ferment for a certain amount of time before drying. Processing this way not only allows the coffee beans to be uniform but also results in clean tasting coffees that are enjoyable to drink.

While not as common as washed-processed coffees, more farms are starting to produce natural-processed coffees. After the producers harvest, they leave the cherries to dry under the sun for a number of days. This causes the coffee bean to ferment (while it is still inside the cherry) and absorb more of the sugars from the fruit itself.

Natural-processed coffees can taste more heavy and fruity then their washed counterparts. But this processing can be inconsistent since both bean quality and taste won’t be as uniform. This is result of some of the cherries over-fermenting at the drying process.

From Farm to Cup

Burundi has a rocky history of civil unrest and economic instability. This created infrastructure problems that make it sourcing from this origin a challenge. To counter this, investors and exporters have been trying to help Burundi in recent times to become an emerging origin in Africa.

But what does this mean to us, as consumers? Sourcing difficulties mean that roasted coffee from this origin won’t be as common or easy to find. Like other African origins, traceability and consistency of quality can also be issues because of the cooperative structure.

Most farmers in Africa join cooperatives because they do not have enough land to produce (and sell) high volumes of coffee themselves. Through cooperatives, farmers can still earn from their harvest. However, this means that their harvest gets consolidated with another farmer’s harvest. Many cooperatives also tend to pay farmers based on quantity of yield rather than quality of yield. Thus, making it more difficult to determine which farmers are producing quality coffees.

These challenges with cooperative structures could mean that your favorite Burundian coffee now might not be of the same quality the next time.

However, this does not mean that Burundian coffee is doomed. Cooperatives and producers that regularly want to participate in the Cup of Excellence have incentive to keep the quality of their coffee as high as possible. And as long as there are producers participating in Burundi’s Cup of Excellence, there will always be a guarantee of high-quality coffee.

Brewing Tips

Since most Burundian coffees are high in acidity, you’d want to balance that acidity out with the brewer, water temperature, and brew ratio.

When brewing, you’ll want to focus on extracting as much sweetness as possible. One way to do this is to increase your brew ratio. Longer ratios help balance out tart coffees by introducing more sweetness. This is because sweetness extracts towards the end of a brew, while acidity extracts during the early stages.

Higher water temperatures also help bring more sweetness. Temperatures between 94°C (202°F) to 98°C (208°F) would work well for these coffees.

Pour Over

Try using a flat bottom dripper to create more balance. The Kalita Wave, Origami (using a wave filter), and the Blue Bottle Dripper for pour overs would be good. A 1 : 16 ratio would and a medium-coarse grind setting would work well with these drippers.

Our parameters:

• Dose (g): 13
• Total brew time: Between 2:45 and 3:00 minutes
• Pouring intervals: every 40 seconds
• Pouring pattern (ml): 50 – 80 – 80

Pour 50ml in and let the coffee bloom for 40 seconds. From our experience, longer blooms help bring out more sweetness. Stirring or swirling the brew is optional as long as all the grounds get hit.

After 40 seconds, pour 60ml (target at 110ml) in 4 circles going outward and then the remaining 20ml (target at 130ml) down the center in a steady stream. Do the same pour again at the 1:20 mark. That’s 60ml (target at 190ml) in 4 outward circles and the rest (target at 210ml) down the center. Let everything drain afterwards.

Like other African origins, these coffees are quite dense and will take a little more time to drip through. Instead of grinding very coarse to compensate for the brew time, keep your original grind setting and just give a bit more time for the coffee to drain. Only go coarser if the final cup tastes astringent or bitter.

Immersion

You can use a 1 : 15 ratio for immersion brewers like the Aeropress or French Press. When dialing in your Burundian coffee for these methods, take the opposite approach compared to pour overs.

Since these brew methods work by steeping the coffee, you’ll want to keep your brew time and agitation fixed but adjust your grind size as necessary. These are our parameters:

Aeropress

• Medium-fine grind setting (2-3 notches finer than a pour over grind size)
• Standard method
• No bloom
• Stir 3 times at the start of the brew
• Steep for 1 minute
• Stir another 3 times before pressing

French Press

• Medium grind setting (similar to a pour over grind size)
• Stir 3 times at the start of brew
• Steep for 5 minutes
• Skim / remove the crust that forms at the top
• Steep for another 5 minutes (10 minutes total brew time) and press

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