Every detail of Bukeye (bu-KAY-yay) washing station was designed with microlots in mind. Fermentation tanks are small, drying beds are multi-level with varying degrees of shade, and there are salaried processing managers on site. If you wanted to deconstruct a microregion’s coffee for maximum quality discovery, this is the kind of DIY place you would build.
Now, after more than 10 years of iterative processing, Bukeye is a kind of grandfather model to many other washing stations in the highlands, having proved that the world is genuinely interested in what farmers here can accomplish with their cherry.
And Bukeye is still producing enviable naturals. This lot, from Munyinya “hill” growers nearby, is full of flavors of ripe stone fruit and white grape, with a butterscotch sweetness and the crisp, cool herbaceousness of lemongrass tea. The cup is lush, full, and completely clean at the same time. There is hardly any of the typical heavy, brandy-like flavors common to Burundi naturals. Instead the emphasis is on the brightness and flavor clarity intrinsic to the genetics of the area.
Welcome to Bukeye
Bukeye Coffee Washing Station is the first processing site built by Long Miles Coffee Project (LMCP) in 2013. Originally starting with only 182 nearby families, the station’s small concrete tanks were sculpted, drying beds were thatched together, and a bore hole was made deep into the ground as a source of fresh water. 12 years later the station is still modest in size and appearance, but it accommodates coffee from over 1,700 families across 15 local “hills” in the surrounding area. Instead of 10 seasonal employees, it now has 200, and an additional permanent staff of 31. It produces hundreds of small, individual, lots of coffee every harvest.
It is common for processors in Burundi to use the consistently dense and steep, hilly landscape as a natural organizational tool for their supplying farmers. They buy cherry from one single geographical peak at a time, or using the term “hill” to refer to a micro-geography of coffee farmers. Munyinya, a widespread community consisting of multiple actual hills and hundreds of farmers, is one of the contributing “hills” to Bukeye and one of its most prominent for quality.
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. Farms, because they are miniscule, are also numerous, requiring the successful coordination of hundreds of farmers and processing staff just to produce a single differentiated lot. Invariably, such an effort requires good prices to support, so the coffee itself needs to be as delicious as possible. LMCP pays very well and 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 Munyinya “hill” are registered partners with LMCP and receive not only highly competitive prices and post-harvest premiums for their cherry but also farm-level trainings covering canopy and fertilizer development, pruning, harvesting for quality, and integrated pest management. Training is all executed by local “Coffee Scouts”, LMCP’s team of community-based educators who spend most of their time in the field hosting workshops and visiting farmers in their homes.
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 7,000 farmers between their 3 washing stations.
Natural Processing at Bukeye
Cherry from Munyinya farmers is floated and hand-sorted for maximum ripeness upon delivery to Bukeye. 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.
Once drying is complete, cherry is moved to storage for a rest period, after which it can be assessed for quality and blended with other day lots, or marketed on its own.
Great naturals from Burundi are far less rare now compared to just 10 years ago, when "natural” was most often synonymous with “undergrades”. In Burundi’s chilly and mountainous highland climates, producing naturals is a painstaking process. It requires space, time, and constant attention to prevent overfermentation. But when it’s done with enough labor and know-how, the results are incredible.
