Tag: Burundi
Stumptown Coffee Roasters Burundi Kinyovu
Here in Portland we’re very gastronomically blessed. Within a couple miles of where we’re living now, there are several breweries, three distilleries, a couple of restaurants specializing in house-made charcuterie, one specializing in selling and serving incredible local cheeses, and a chocolate maker. Not to mention the slew of good restaurants and food carts. Phew! Oh, and a couple of coffee roasters.
Actually, a plethora of coffee roasters is more like it. The number of coffee roasters is right up there with the number of breweries in town, and their range in terms of size can be just as dramatic. There are small micro-roasters who are roasting a pound at a time, just as there are small nano-breweries brewing 1-barrel (31-gallons) at a time. And the quality can be just as variable as well. Let’s face it, not all of the breweries brew good beer, and not all of the coffee roasters are roasting great coffee. But on the whole, the quality is quite good, and often outstanding.
So it’s really a wealth of riches here in this regards. Which makes it tough each Saturday morning, when I make coffee and realize, “Oh crap! That’s the last of the coffee!!” (and for some reason, this seems to happen only on weekend mornings), to decide where to go to pick up a pound of coffee or two for the week. Literally, within walking distance are 5 good roasters.
In this landscape, a roaster such as Stumptown gets shunted to the side on many occasions. With roasters such as Coava, Water Avenue, and Cellar Door so close by, it’s easy to dismiss Stumptown as the corporate behemoth of the lot. Whether or not that’s true, I have to admit that the reality is that they do appear to go to great lengths to source their coffee and to work directly with farmers as much as possible. Their current offerings include fourteen “direct trade” coffees, of the total of eighteen that they have on offer. This includes three of their four blends, the components of which are all directly sourced.
And the coffees are typically quite good, and they range the spectrum of the world’s coffee-growing region. Stop by the Stumptown Annex, and you can get a single cup or a pound of any coffee they’re offering, including Central American, African, and Indonesian coffees. The coffees are all light-to-medium roasted, and do a good job of letting the flavor of the bean come through.
I don’t mean to write a post glorifying Stumptown. But, as I brewed a cup of coffee this morning and mulled over where to go pick up a pound later today, I found myself reflexively dismissing Stumptown. For no other good reason than they have 9 locations, sell Panama Esmerelda coffee at crazy prices, and are a verifiable hipster scene.
Tasting Notes
During a recent coffee-resupplying trip to the Annex, we had picked up two 1/2 pounds of the Burundi coffees they were offering, Bwayi and Kinyovu. I didn’t get around to writing up anything about the Bwayi, but really enjoyed the Kinyovu and so jotted down some notes.
The Kinyovu washing station is located in the Kayanza Province of Burundi. It’s a group of farmers that Stumptown has worked with for a couple of years, and their notes indicate that new and changed practices at the station have gradually improved the quality of the coffee. The coffee is grown at an elevation of 1700-1900 meters, and includes the Bourbon, Jackson, and SL varietals.
I tasted this after brewing the coffee using Coava’s Kone drip filter.
The coffee’s aroma is earthy, with spices and cocoa. The palate is supple with a gentle mouthfeel and very balanced acidity. The flavors are subtle, with a subdued presence harboring flavors of cocoa dust, oak, plums, and peppery spices. The finish is reminiscent of the aroma with notes of carob and nuts.
This was an enjoyable coffee. Not one that really spoke to me, and likely not one I’d get again. Both this and the Bwayi were very understated coffees with an earthy, somewhat spicy palate. Good, clean coffees, but not a flavor spectrum that calls out to me.
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Stumptown Coffee Roasters Burundi Bwayi
Of the African coffee producing countries Burundi is the one that I believe you are least likely to encounter in your local coffee shop. Kenyan and Ethiopian coffees are commonplace, and in the hands of the right roaster coffees from these countries can be powerful and sublime. Coffees from Rwanda are becoming more common, but whether you come across them depends on what roasters you buy from. Their availability tends to be driven by the harvest season, and it’s less common to find them out-of-season.
But coffees from Burundi remain a rarity. This appears to be the result of two factors. On the one hand, the country’s overall economy is in much worse shape than Rwanda to the north. This in part has led to the second factor, which is the much less developed Burundian coffee industry, relative to other African countries. The combination of these two factors has severely hampered the progress of Burundi’s entry into the specialty coffee market. But, this particular coffee is one of Stumptown’s Direct Trade offerings, and I’ve seen Burundian coffee from Counter Culture as well, which may be an indication that the country’s (coffee) fortune’s may be on the rise.
This particular coffee is from the Kayanza province in Burundi, and was grown at an elevation between 1750-1900 meters. The coffee was produced at the Bwayi washing station, which itself is located close to the Rwandan border. As part of a pilot program in 2007, this washing station was one of four that were given permission by the government to work directly with coffee buyers. The other three were Ngogomo, Teka, and Murambi. Since then, eight more washing stations have been included in this program.
One of the interesting results of Stumptown’s efforts in Rwanda and Burundi was the Bikes To Rwanda program, that has provided hundreds of bicycles to Rwandan coffee farmers. The bikes are specially designed to carry heavy loads, and have helped the farmers ensure that their freshly picked coffee gets to the washing station shortly after picking.
And now, this is the first coffee that Stumptown has sourced as part of their Direct Trade program. The varietals include Bourbon, Jackson, and SL. The coffee is produced similarly to Kenyan coffee, with multiple fermentations. The coffee is also soaked after washing, helping to raise the protein levels and acidity. This has resulted in a very nice cup of coffee, one with substantial body coupled with supple acidity.
The coffee’s nose has wood and earth tones, mingled with spicy roasted red peppers. The palate starts off sweet with lichee nuts and milk chocolate, slowly giving over to flavors of fresh grapes. The body is heavy and velvety, with soft but strong acidity prickling around the edges. The finish is ripe with caramel flavors and a creamy acidity that slowly fades.
This was a nice coffee, but not quite as dynamic as some of the Kenyan or Rwandan coffees I’ve been fortunate enough to try. I look forward to trying other Burundi coffees though, now that more and more specialty roasters are able to get their hands on them. And if the arc of progress is anything like coffee production in Rwanda, we can expect the level of quality to continue to rise.
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