Crisp currants, apricot and rooibos by The Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi

Ships within 1 week after roast date
100% specialty arabica coffee beans only
La Cabra's coffee beans are at their peak 2 to 3 weeks after roasting

About: 

Coffee Expression  Here we find ripe currants and apricot, followed by the typically Burundi herbal rooibos notes in the finish.

Producer  From our long term partners at the Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi.

About Mutana:

The hills of Mutana are a never-ending tapestry of green, possessing breathtaking panoramic views. The edge of the Kibira Forest is only a couple of kilometers away, allowing cool mists to fall onto farmers’ fields daily, slowing cherry maturation. The fertile sandy soils of Mutana seem to grow everything; nitrogen-fixing peas and beans, passion fruit and tea are all grown alongside coffee.

Coffee farmers from the Gitwe hill deliver to Long Miles’ Heza station. Heza sits at 1960 masl, so harvest normally starts around two weeks later here than at the lower altitude Bukeye station. This altitude here leads to similar impressive views over the Kibira forest, all the way to Rwanda. These views give Heza its name; ‘beautiful place’ in Kirundi. Heza was built in January 2014, and now serves nearly 2,000 individual farmers. Heza also helps local farmers by supplying trees from a coffee tree nursery with over 15,000 seedlings.

Heza uses a double fermentation process, where the cherries are first de-pulped and fermented without water for around 12 hours, before water is added and the coffee is soaked for a further 12 hours. After this, the coffee is ‘footed’ to wash away the sticky mucilage layer attached to the outside of the coffee seed. This involves the workers stomping on the coffee in the tanks before it is moved to washing channels to be rinsed in clean water. Coffee is then dried slowly on raised beds over 20-30 days, depending on weather conditions. 

This careful processing, along with excellent conditions on the Mutana hill, has resulted in an excellent example of Burundian coffee, with a complex character of redcurrant, apricot and rooibos tea.

Brewing Advice:

Water is one of the most critical components of an excellent coffee experience. We recommend using mineral water of a soft Total Dissolved Solids count, ideally below 150 ppm. 

Rested coffee During the resting process, harsh and astringent flavors, which can even be perceived as a ‘roast’ character, soften out, allowing a clearer and brighter expression of the coffee’s character to shine.  

We recommend resting our coffees for at least 10 days after the roast date, and we often find excellent results, especially for particularly dense coffees, beyond 6 weeks.

Brewing Our straightforward approach to coffee carries over into brewing. We recommend our roasted coffee for all brew methods, regardless of whether it is immersion, percolation or espresso. We believe that there is one correct way to roast a single coffee, roasting lightly, in such a way as to release its innate qualities and showcase its quality. Learn more about different brewing techniques and specific brew guides here