Burundi Kibingo Washed Yeast Intenso Filter

Region: Kayanza, Burundi

Producer: Smallholder Farmers 300 trees on avg.

Variety: Red Bourbon

Altitude: 1 700m – 1 900m

We’re excited to be working with Kibingo washing station for the second year in a row.

Nestled 1,893 meters high in Burundi’s Kayanza commune, the washing station involves over 3500 local growers spread over 18 hills in the area. Kibingo washing station is extremely unique: it is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 2 soaking tanks and a drying field with 165 drying tables and 4 pre-drying tables, allowing it to process an impressive 750,000 kg of cherry per day.

Skilled local agronomists oversee the process, enhancing flavor complexity and acidity of the coffee. Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherries. Cherries are wet-processed under constant supervision. The pulping, fermentation time, washing, grading in the channels and a final soaking are all closely monitored. All cherries are floated in small buckets as a first step to check quality. After floating, the higher quality cherries are sorted again by hand to remove all damaged, underripe and overripe cherries. 

After sorting, the cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. The machine can process up to 3 tons of cherries per hour. During pulping, cherries are separated into high- and low-grade by density on a Mackinon 3-disc pulper outfitted with an additional separation disk. Coffee is then fermented in water from a nearby stream for 10 to 12 hours, depending on ambient temperature. A small sign on the fermentation tank keeps track of each lot. The sign mentions the washing station name, date of cherry purchase, grade of the bean, and the time when fermentation began. Trained agronomists regularly check the beans by hand to ensure fermentation is halted at the perfect time. The station workers trample the parchment for 30 minutes in the fermentation tank, this process helps to remove mucilage from the parchment. The longer fermentation time associated with the yeast washed processed coffees creates more enhanced flavors.