Crown Jewel Burundi Mutana Heza Natural – 6 – 32797-1 – SPOT RCWHSE

Taste

Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano  

Final approval for this coffee happened in a crunch and fell onto our production table (which includes all Crown Jewels) to speed things along here at The Crown. Even with heavy competition, it stood out from the crowd. The team got an assortment of candy-like flavors and spring fruits galore.  

Cloud like in its texture – an attribute that is often overlooked in my opinion – its cumulus formations are supported by undertones of soft plum, raspberry, watermelon rind, and light lavender florals. The acidity is clean, not overpowering, and leans towards white wine, candied pineapple, and pear-like complexity.  

On certain brews, Katie was able to pull out some more botanical notes, praline, sesame, and chamomile flavors from the coffee. The base is exceptional with a range to go in varied directions, as you desire. MJ found effervescent notes consistently throughout all espresso shots with notes like champagne, pink lemonade, and orange blossom.   

I often find myself steering away from naturals in the early mornings, a fruit bomb isn’t exactly the preferred flavor profile for my palette. This coffee seems to be the exception, very obviously a natural process with full fruit flavors but not overpowering in any way. It has a lot to say without saying it is the loudest in the room.  

Source

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger 

Exemplary naturals from Burundi are far less rare now compared to just 10 years ago. Producing naturals is a painstaking process of very slow cherry drying in Burundi’s chilly mountainous processing elevations. It requires space, time, and constant attention. Fortunately, Heza Coffee Washing Station is designed entirely for microlot management. Small volumes of coffees like this one, with black tea complexity, fruit candy sweetness, and a honey-like tactile, are thankfully now the norm at Heza.    

Welcome to Heza  

Heza Coffee Washing Station, the second processing site built by the Long Miles Coffee Project (LMCP), is stadium-like in its height and steepness. Heza pumps water from a nearby natural spring to the very top of the station and washed processing cascades from there down to the bottom, where cleaned and graded parchment is then tagged and couriered to various plots on the hillside for organized drying.   

It is common for processors in Burundi to use the consistently steep and hilly landscape as a tool for organization, often buying cherry from one single hill at a time, or using the term “hill” to refer to a micro-geography. Mutana, a widespread community consisting of multiple actual hills and hundreds of farmers, is one of the contributing “hills” to Heza.  

Long Miles – Microlot Burundi  

LMCP is a microlot business. All of their infrastructure, systems, employees, and marketing are designed to support large numbers of specific, unique, and fully traceable coffees. Doing so in Burundi is especially difficult because farms produce very little cherry and are scattered across broad landscapes. They are also numerous, requiring the successful coordination of hundreds of farmers and processing staff just to produce a single differentiated lot. Importantly, such an effort requires sustainable prices to support, so the coffee itself needs to be as delicious as possible. Fortunately, LMCP excels at identifying landscapes and communities with potential and investing heavily in farmer livelihood. With this formula, they are easily producing many of the country’s best coffees each year.   

Unlike most processors, LMCP separates every hill and delivery day until processing is complete and a quality assessment has been made, at which point certain day lots may be combined.  Farmers across Mutana “hill” are registered partners with LMCP and receive not only highly competitive prices and post-harvest premiums for their cherry but also farm-level training covering canopy and fertilizer development, pruning, harvesting for quality and integrated pest management. These training are all provided by local “Coffee Scouts”, LMCP’s team of community-based trainers who serve as local instructors. The education and high prices combined have helped many of LMCP’s farmers renew their faith in coffee as a long-term livelihood. Long Miles works with a total of 5,500 farmers between their 3 washing stations, servicing 11 different “hills”.  

Cherry from Mutana farmers is floated and hand-sorted for maximum ripeness upon delivery to Heza. The best overall cherry is accepted for natural processing and is moved to shaded drying beds to allow residual surface water to evaporate, during which it is hand-sorted for any insect damage and visual imperfections. Skin-dry cherry is then moved again to the larger beds with no shade to dry completely in the sun, a process that typically takes 4 or more weeks to complete. Occasionally cherry is piled into small pyramids to keep the total temperature lower than the surrounding air, and maintain a slow and even dehydration process. 

Green

Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our first East African release of the year, brought to you by our friends at Long Miles Coffee. Their streamlined organization and communication with upwards of 5,000 producers is evident in the green specs and in the cup quality as well. This lot is a Bourbon blend, a typical variant of the region due to legacy plants handed down generationally since the 1930s and 40s.  

As far as the green specs go, it’s clean on all ends of the spectrum. With an above-average density and average moisture content, you can push the heat a little bit and make the complex flavors pop a bit more. A solid spread in the 15-18 range will give you even roasting, making for a delicious cup.  

Diedrich IR-5

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Doris Garrido 

This is the first Burundi Coffee I got to roast this year, a bourbon variety on a Natural processed coffee. This successful first roast presents an exceptionally clean cup brimming with apricot notes from the start, complemented by hints of dry cranberry and pineapple. It is enhanced by the sweetness of golden raisins, candy, and a smooth red apple flavor. This naturally processed coffee is well-executed, highlighting fruitiness without any harshness or overly fermented notes, and concludes with a subtle chocolate taste. 

The roasting process I took was slightly fast, starting with a temperature of 442.6°F and maintaining full gas. This approach was intended to manage the bean’s density, accentuate the acidity, and later in the roast regulate caramelization to achieve a harmonious sweetness. To achieve this, before the color change, I reduced the gas to 60% after 3 minutes and then to 30% right after. This adjustment allowed the roast to ride slowly but steadily through Maillard and reach the first crack. After cracking I turned off the burner as there was ample energy to complete the development simply fine. 

For the air applications, I initiated airflow at the midpoint during color change, 50%, and increased it to 100% post the first crack. This controlled the rate of change and cleared any smoke during the development phase. 

The roast lasted a total of 8 minutes and 7 seconds, with 4 minutes and 1 second dedicated to drying, 2 minutes and 37 seconds to the yellowing phase, and the final 1 minute and 29 seconds to development, ending at a drop temperature of 394.2°F. 

The tasting yielded excellent results: a remarkably clean cup with a complex array of fruity flavors, all beautifully balanced with a refined sweetness. It is a delightfully delicate natural from Burundi that is sure to be enjoyed. 

Aillio Bullet R1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Chris Kornman 

 I’m making another guest appearance here on the Bullet, and I’ll be using my “500g Quick Roast” as a starting point, which employs a high charge temperature (482F IBTS), a constant D4 drum speed (about 60RPM), and a general trend throughout the roast of decreasing power and increasing fan speed gradually with a target of about an 8 minute roast and roughly 90 seconds of post crack development. You can check out this profile on roast.world here.   

This dense little natural Burundi really surprised me, sling-shotting out of the turning point and reaching color change in under 4 minutes. I’m not confident I pumped the brakes hard enough and the short duration between color change and first crack feels more like a washed style roast than a natural, but the roast slowed surprisingly well at first crack, to the effect that I ended up raising the power a little at the end to avoid a complete crash. 

The coffee colored very quickly at this point, so if you’re used to taking your time with post-crack development, be advised that you’ll need to keep a watchful eye on this one. At 1:24 after first crack this was my shortest development time of the roasts I did during this session, but the darkest in ColorTrack at 64.19 WB / 57.02 Ground, still a relatively light color. 

Isabella and I cupped it the day after roasting and it was enjoyable, fruit-forward and juicy-sweet but compared with Doris’ steady hand on the Diedrich, mine felt a little unhinged… but only a little. We tasted plenty of delicious notes like cranberry, ripe mango, and pineapple, with a brown sugar-like sweetness emerging as it cooled.  

Ikawa Pro V3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color changes in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here.

All the variations of this coffee have delighted us in its ability to hold true to character while metamorphizing into something new and still being absolutely delicious.

The light-density roast of this coffee was surprisingly less sweet for having a bit more development time. It had darker cacao flavors like 90% chocolate and chocolate-covered acai. The cup had those darker flavors but still had some lime acidity accompanied by plum and darkened caramel notes.

The short and fast version of this profile, the high-density roast, brought a little bit more pop with some raspberry notes, pineapple acidity, and light florals like lavender. There was a bit of tart sour candy, candied grapes, and the sweetened plum in the first roast transformed into a tart pluot expression.

We recommend using the light-density roast for this coffee as the expression of fruit flavors and light florals were the preferred version for the team on this round. Happy cupping!

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Brew

Brew Analysis by Katie Briggs 

An exciting first Burundi coffee of the year! This coffee coming from the Heza washing stations in the hills of Burundi is exceptional. The LMCP processing sites work with so many dedicated farmers to ensure the quality of their coffees exceeds expectations and this one is no different. A truly clean and delicious natural I was more than excited to brew up.  

I started with a standard brew on the Kalita Wave flatbed brewer, with a grind size of 9, and a 19g dose. Started the bloom with 50g of water for 40s, then a second pulse up to 200g, then the final dose of water up to 300g. The TDS was high on this brew at 1.53 but still had a delicate body. We got tangy notes of raspberry, red currant, green apple, and an almost oat like sweetness at the end. I liked this brew but wanted to see if I could bring out the sweetness a bit more by coarsening the grind on the next brew. 

I kept the next brew the same and just coarsened the grind to a 10 hoping to up the sweetness and bring down the TDS a bit. I used the same brew method as the previous brew, and it definitely moved more in the direction I was hoping for. We got a bit more of a strawberry sweetness, some creaminess, with that tart raspberry still lingering on the tongue. We liked this brew as well, but I wanted to push it even further to see what we could bring out! 

I repeated the same brew but at a grind of 11 to try and further push out some sweet fruity flavors. This was our favorite! It did in fact bring out some more strawberry and raspberry sweetness, but also a very nice floral notes of lavender and chamomile, and a hint of honey and brown sugar. 

I did one final brew on the V60 cone brewer just to see how it would perform on another brew device, with the same recipe as the last and this brew was also great! Seems like no matter how you brew it this coffee will perform well and produce a very tasty cup that is fruity and sweet without being too much. 

I would recommend a coarser grind and a flatbed brewer to bring out the sweetness of this coffee and get a perfect cup every time!  

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith

Praise the coffee gods! Burundi season is upon us once again! This coffee from the Heza washing station was truly a delight to dial in on espresso. It was one of those coffees where I had something positive to say about every single shot that I tasted. It was a perfect balance of the fruitiness you would expect from a natural process, combined with some tasty sweetness and sparkling botanicals. Effervescence was a common denominator in each shot I tried. As I mentioned, every shot from this analysis was delicious, but I managed to sort it down to two recipes to write about today. 

The first recipe had a dose of 18.5g, a yield of 38g, and a pull time of 33 seconds. I shared this one with the rest of the barista team, and we all agreed that it was truly something special! I personally tasted notes of strawberry, dark chocolate, graham crackers, orange blossom, pomegranate, and champagne. The rest of the team contributed notes of green grape, stone fruit, mint, melon, and botanicals.  

The next recipe was my favorite of the bunch! It had a dose of 19.5g, a yield of 41g, and a pull time of 30 seconds. This was one of those shots that was like, love at first sip. I instantly picked up notes of grape Kool-Aid, tootsie roll, spearmint, pink lemonade, and champagne. I shared some with Charlie Habegger, who wrote the Source Analysis for this coffee, and he also commented on the delightful effervescence, sighting notes of sparkling wine and sweet balsamic. This was one of those shots that reminded me of how delicious a natural process espresso can truly be. 

All in all, I rate this coffee as a 10/10 and highly recommended it for espresso! I selfishly hope that it will find its way to our espresso bar here at the Crown someday soon, but I also hope that you buy some for yourself so you can spread the love and enjoy it as much as I do. While it’s a very flexible coffee to dial in on espresso, I recommend a medium-to-medium-high dose and yield, and an average-medium pull time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!