Burundi Colline Ninga and Long Miles Coffee Project

by Kevin Nealon April 01, 2016

New coffee announcement: Burundi Colline Ninga is availabe! We had this coffee last year, and it was lovely. Thrilled to have it back, and even happier to report that it's even sweeter, cleaner and more complex than last year. Quick review: it's like a coffee from Kenya, but with some twists thrown in. Delicious twists.

We'd like to introduce the Long Miles Coffee Project- our partners for this delicious Burundi coffee. This is our third year working with them, and their story is unique. Ben and Kristi Carlson are Americans who, together with their little kiddo, moved to Burundi as coffee dreamers. They wanted to establish relationships with Burundian coffee growers, tell their stories, and then create direct, meaningful and sustainable trade relationships for them with coffee roasters.

They recognized, like most of the coffee industry has for a while, that Burundi has all the potential to be one of the most beautiful coffee growing countries in the world. Ben, Kristi and their growing team began to build processing mills in the growing regions and communities of Bukeye and Kayanza, where they purchase coffee from the producers of neighboring hills, including Ninga. Just as we did last year, we tasted samples from all the hills and from different periods of the harvest- Ninga stood out again this year, and this mid-harvest lot was our absolutely favorite!

Ninga has loads of bright red berries and citrus, with nice dried apricot and spiced cookie to balance it all out. Similar to Kenya coffee, there is some pleasant savoriness to this coffee that you'll fall in love with!

We like when the coffee that we source has a direct, immediate, clear and traceable developmental impact on the people communities we buy from. There isn't a better representation of that than this Burundi - Colline Ninga!

We're thrilled to offer this wonderful coffee, and super happy to continue to harvest this great relationship with the lovely people behind the Long Miles Coffee Project!