We are incredibly excited about the trio of new Burundian coffees from our friends at Cedar to kick off the new year. They offer much to celebrate. For starters, we're fans of specialty coffee from Burundi. Political and infrastructure challenges have historically made it hard for high-quality Burundian lots to be grown, processed and distributed across the world, but in recent years we've seen a small renaissance that has allowed us to taste some exceptional coffee from Burundi. The country offers fantastic growing conditions for coffee, quite similar to neighbouring Rwanda, and this becomes obvious to coffee drinkers who have the opportunity to try Burundi's best lots.

What adds to our excitement about this particular coffee, and the two other accompanying releases, is that they come from washing stations set up by the Long Miles Coffee Project (LMCP). LMCP is a venture set up by an American family, The Carlsons, who fell in love with Burundi on their travels and decided to build a washing station to help reward local farmers for their labours while also improving quality. That organisation has grown significantly now to comprise several washing stations serving thousands of farmers.

Before the pandemic, we were lucky enough to taste many coffees from LMCP washing stations, and they were of an exceptional quality. We're very excited to see more of these lots in the hands of our roasting partners, as they are great coffees that also serve a great cause in the communities they uplift.

This particular lot is a natural process, so it should offer plenty of body, sweetness and fruit flavour to appreciate. Historically, LMCP's natural-processed coffees were often stand-outs.

Phaedon's tasting notes

What a lovely coffee. It really reminds me of everything I love about Burundian specialty lots, especially those from LMCP. It's all sweetness and fruitiness in the cup, with a medley of flavours to discern, and even discuss. For me, this coffee faired well in both filter-style and immersion-style brews. Whether it was in my V60 or my AeroPress, it always had something delicious (and slightly distinct) to offer.

There are definitely tropical fruit notes in the flavour profile; I found those in most of my brews. It's that combination of tartness and sweetness which can be so refreshing. Sometimes I found hints of berries, perhaps raspberries or blueberries. In all my brewing adventures, I enjoyed the long, lingering finish. I'm sure you will too.

Cedar's notes

This lot gave us quite a lot of different fruit elements; notes of green grape and mango on filter where the mango becomes more prevalent in espresso. This transitions nicely into English toffee ice cream when you add milk to your espresso.

• Cup Profile: Bright green grape, mango, english toffee ice cream

Coffee details from Cedar

Our last release for the year comes from the coffee project started in Burundi by Long Miles Coffee. Long Miles Coffee was born from the idea of being the link between roasters wanting consistently high-quality coffee and local farmers being looked after and paid fairly. Ben and Kirsty Carlson embarked on this journey in 2011 and from working with 50 farmers in the beginning has now risen to 5500 coffee farming families.

We have decided to showcase three lots of theirs, each lot comes from a different washing station, slightly different terroir, and different processing method. In this way you are able to experience a range of what Long Miles Burundi has to offer. It's also a fun way of tasting how processing methods alter the taste profile.

The final one of this selection is a natural processed Burundi from the Heza washing station quite a remote area where getting there is like an off road adventure.

• Farm/Producer: Heza washing station
• Region: Kayanza
  
• Country: Burundi
• Process: Natural
• Altitude: 1960 masl
• Variety: Bourbon Heirloom

You can find more coffees from Cedar here.