Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees
  • What We Do
  • Que Hacemos
  • Origins
    • Ethiopia >
      • Ethiopia Oba Toli Natural
      • Ethiopia Kolla Bolcha
      • Ethiopia Nano Challa
      • Ethiopia Kenisa
      • Ethiopia Genji Challa
    • Kenya >
      • Kenya Mchana Natural
      • Kenya Mugaya AB
      • Kenya Kaganda PB
      • Kenya Getuya AA
      • Kenya Gachami AB
      • Kenya Kiagundu AA
      • Kenya Karimikui AA
    • Rwanda >
      • Rwanda Muhororo FW
      • Rwanda Gasharu Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Anaerobic Natural
      • Rwanda Gasharu Anaerobic Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Orígenes
    • Etiopía >
      • Etiopía Oba Toli Natural
      • Etiopía Kolla Bolcha
      • Etiopía Nano Challa
      • Etiopía Kenisa
      • Etiopía Genji Challa
    • Kenia >
      • Kenia Mchana Natural
      • Kenia Mugaya AB
      • Kenia Kaganda PB
      • Kenia Getuya AA
      • Kenia Gachami AB
      • Kenia Kiagundu AA
      • Kenia Karimikui AA
    • Ruanda >
      • Ruanda Muhororo FW
      • Ruanda Gasharu Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Anaeróbico Natural
      • Ruanda Gasharu Anaeróbico Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Education
  • Educación
  • Contact
  • Contacto
  • Home Roaster Store
    • Green Coffee
    • Brewing Tools
    • Cupping Tools
    • Roasting Tools
  • Tienda del Home Roaster
    • Café Verde
    • Artículos de Brew
    • Artículos de Cata
    • Artículos de tueste
spanish

Burundi & Ruanda, regional report.

9/5/2024

0 Comments

 
Our  Kenyan coffees have arrived in Barcelona in perfect conditions and we have already delivered most of the pre-booked orders to our European roasters. The exceptional quality of the different lots makes us very satisfied and now is the time to focus on the next origin.
Picture
​The recent coffee harvest in Burundi and Rwanda concluded at the end of July, directing in the yearly challenge of selecting our next partner and origin. While the cup quality is paramount, we recognize that other critical factors influence this decision. To minimize any external biases, we rely on a meticulous process of blind analysis and cupping.

Read More
0 Comments

Burundi: Corruption at the top, hits hard at the low.

6/5/2024

0 Comments

 
Before privatizing the coffee industry in Burundi in 2008, all coffee production was under the control of the state-owned company Sogestal, which is now virtually bankrupt. As a result of this privatization, the situation of small coffee producers has deteriorated. The government, under pressure from the World Bank, transferred most of the washing stations it used to control to foreign or multinational companies, leaving small coffee producers with very little to support themselves.
Picture
Coffee is very important to Burundi, accounting for 80% of the country's export earnings and supporting the livelihoods of 55% of the population, approximately 750,000 families, the majority of whom are smallholder farmers. In 2007, the president of Burundi at the time declared that coffee belonged to the producers until it was exported. This agreement allowed them to oversee the supply chain and gave them the right to receive 72% of the revenue from international coffee sales. But in reality, little or none of that has happened.

Read More
0 Comments

BURUNDI: INTERVIEW WITH A COFFEE FARMER

8/10/2023

0 Comments

 
Burundi is an ideal country for the production of high-quality Arabica coffee, which could generate a solid and recurring income for thousands of farming families. An average altitude of between 1,500 and 2,000 metres, abundant rainfall and a tropical savannah biome combine to create exceptional growing conditions, with coffee accounting for 80 per cent of the country's exports.
​Despite this, the Burundian coffee sector faces many challenges. Poor soil health and inadequate maintenance of coffee trees result in low and irregular yields. Production is also threatened by climate change, which increases the frequency of both droughts and heavy rains, resulting in increased soil erosion. Meanwhile, poor processing practices reduce the quality and price of much of Burundi's coffee, and the country's cumbersome business and political environment makes it less attractive to global exporters.

Read More
0 Comments

BURUNDI OR RWANDA? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

9/9/2022

0 Comments

 
Why would you prefer one over the other, if they are only separated by an imaginary border? A coffee grown in northern Burundi has exactly the same microclimate, varietal, process and terroir as one from southern Rwanda. There is no difference other than the name of the origin until this point of the production process, although there are many differences in various aspects.
Picture
​Both economies are overwhelmingly agricultural, and widely diversified farming is practiced throughout their territories. Arabica coffee is the main commercial crop and constitutes the main export of both countries. Being much more important in terms of total foreign exchange earnings for Burundi than for Rwanda, because the latter economy is more developed and diversified.

Read More
0 Comments

A TASTE FROM BURUNDI

7/29/2022

0 Comments

 
We often think that Burundi is not talked about enough in the specialty coffee industry, and at Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees we want to change that idea and give this wonderful country and origin, which produces some of the best coffees in the world, the place that it deserves, on the African podium alongside Kenya and Ethiopia.
Picture
​One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi is landlocked and has an equatorial climate. Burundi is part of the Albertine Rift, the western extension of the East African Rift. This is important because the soils of the Rift Valley are volcanic and very fertile. Its cultivation areas are characterized by producing a cup with intense phosphoric acidity, full body with some fruity notes and complex flavour.

Read More
0 Comments

AN INDUSTRY WITHOUT SMALL COFFEE FARMERS

7/14/2022

1 Comment

 
Our industry often forgets how important small farmers are to the work we all do every day. We can verify this every time we meet at events like the last World of Coffee in Milan, where the focus is mostly on competitions, machinery, influencers, but apparently no one realizes that without small coffee growers none of this would be possible, and they keep being ignored as they have been for 400 years.
Picture
​The current times are stormy, for no one in the world it should be a mystery that climate change is affecting our lives in a radical way. To no one either, it should be a mystery that inflation is hitting the pockets of the world's poorest people, and this particularly impacts coffee farmers who, despite record coffee prices, have not seen their income levels improve. Finally, due to the war in Ukraine, the shortage of fertilizers could cause a deficit of almost 20% in coffee production in 2022, in addition to the food crisis that it is already affecting various parts of Africa.

Read More
1 Comment

ROASTING NATURALS: ETHIOPIA

7/18/2019

0 Comments

 
As we all know, roasting high density coffees is difficult, but roasting high density dry process coffees is even more so!

What should you keep in mind to start developing your own killer roasting profile for natural coffees?
Picture
​1º THE DENSITY OF THE LOT

During the washing process, there are many more opportunities for selection and grading than in the natural process. Although, lately in origins such as Ethiopia and Burundi, where there are cooperatives focusing on quality, they have begun to introduce hand selection and flotation grading, prior to the drying of the cherries on patios or African beds.

Read More
0 Comments

Roasting and cupping Burundi Samples

9/4/2017

0 Comments

 
​Each year we are receiving more and more samples from producers and cooperatives in many origins around the world. This is very exciting, but also represents a challenge in terms of time and resources we need to dedicate to analyze and evaluate each of them fairly and effectively.
Picture
This year from Burundi only, we received 51 samples from 4 different cooperatives we had the chance to visit last June.


Picture
​Knowing that the majority of these samples are from the same micro-region, altitude, varietal and process; it is extremely important to use a sample roaster that allows us to consistently replicate the selected profile over and over again, as small differences in the roasting degree could "artificially" influence our purchasing decision in one direction or another.

​After several trial and error tests (or in this case, roasting and cupping tests), we have designed a roasting profile to evaluate coffees from Rwanda and Burundi, with enough development to allow us to appreciate the potential of each sample, but without hiding the good or bad characteristics with the flavour of the roast.
Picture

Picture
​This is key in origins such as Rwanda and Burundi, where we have the "unpopular" potato defect. Although, it is possible to minimize its probability through a strict hand sorting process when the parchment is still wet, right after finishing the washing and just before beginning the drying (watch video); although, this is not 100% effective and there is always the small chance that we can get a bean with potato that will contaminate the whole cup.

​Finally, evaluation through blind cupping allows us to judge the potential, identify the defects and select the best samples. It is the most influential tool when deciding which coffees will be travelling to our warehouse and going into your roasters very soon.

Enjoy your Burundi coffee!
Picture
0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    April 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Altitude
    Burundi
    Capitalism
    Climate Change
    Coffee Fermentation
    Coffee Industry
    Coffee Processing
    Coffee Shop
    Cultivars
    Cupping
    Density
    Ethiopia
    Fair Trade
    Flavor
    Genetic Diversity
    Giling Basah
    Hand Sorting
    Hand-sorting
    Harvest
    History Of Coffee
    Indonesia
    Kenya
    Logistic
    Microlot
    Moisture Content
    Nairobi Coffee Exchange
    Oromos
    Price
    Quality
    Recycling
    Renaissance
    Revolution
    Roasting
    Rwanda
    Samples
    Sensorial Experience
    Shipping
    Specialty Coffee
    Sumatra
    Sustainability
    Tanzania
    Traceability
    Uganda
    Washed Process
    Water Activity
    Wet Hulled
    Yeast
    Yemen

    RSS Feed

Copyright ©2025 | Kilimanjaro Specialty Coffees España S.L.U. All Rights Reserved.
  • What We Do
  • Que Hacemos
  • Origins
    • Ethiopia >
      • Ethiopia Oba Toli Natural
      • Ethiopia Kolla Bolcha
      • Ethiopia Nano Challa
      • Ethiopia Kenisa
      • Ethiopia Genji Challa
    • Kenya >
      • Kenya Mchana Natural
      • Kenya Mugaya AB
      • Kenya Kaganda PB
      • Kenya Getuya AA
      • Kenya Gachami AB
      • Kenya Kiagundu AA
      • Kenya Karimikui AA
    • Rwanda >
      • Rwanda Muhororo FW
      • Rwanda Gasharu Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Natural
      • Rwanda Muhororo Anaerobic Natural
      • Rwanda Gasharu Anaerobic Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Orígenes
    • Etiopía >
      • Etiopía Oba Toli Natural
      • Etiopía Kolla Bolcha
      • Etiopía Nano Challa
      • Etiopía Kenisa
      • Etiopía Genji Challa
    • Kenia >
      • Kenia Mchana Natural
      • Kenia Mugaya AB
      • Kenia Kaganda PB
      • Kenia Getuya AA
      • Kenia Gachami AB
      • Kenia Kiagundu AA
      • Kenia Karimikui AA
    • Ruanda >
      • Ruanda Muhororo FW
      • Ruanda Gasharu Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Natural
      • Ruanda Muhororo Anaeróbico Natural
      • Ruanda Gasharu Anaeróbico Natural
    • Sumatra >
      • Sumatra Orang Utan
      • Sumatra Bies Awan
      • Sumatra Atu Lintang
  • Education
  • Educación
  • Contact
  • Contacto
  • Home Roaster Store
    • Green Coffee
    • Brewing Tools
    • Cupping Tools
    • Roasting Tools
  • Tienda del Home Roaster
    • Café Verde
    • Artículos de Brew
    • Artículos de Cata
    • Artículos de tueste