Tag: Burundi coffee farms

Long Miles Coffee’s Post-Harvest Update: news from the farm, field, and cupping lab
From the Farm

collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story team

There was much rejoicing at the Long Miles Coffee Washing Stations recently as farmer payday took place. Payday is always one heavy with anticipation, excitement, and chaos of the happiest kind. It’s the one day of the year when all of the coffee farming families that we work with receive payment for the coffee cherries that they delivered during harvest season.

“ Payment day is a special day. It’s a day of building trust between a farmer and a buyer.”

– Honorate Dugunya, a coffee farmer from Ninga hill.

In the days leading up to it, our team works hard behind the scenes filling every person’s envelope with the season’s earnings and preparing for one big reunion with the coffee farming communities that we work with. This year, payday may have looked different from how it usually does but our team is unwaveringly grateful that it took place. We also celebrated a milestone; making our first set of payments at the newly built Ninga Washing Station site.

“To have a washing station on Ninga hill is like a country that fought for independence and got it. I will always celebrate this victory. No one will take it from us.”

– Paul Ntahondi, a coffee farmer from Ninga hill

There is an endless list of things that we are thankful for this harvest season. Paying every single coffee farmer that we work with is one of them.

From the Farm

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee

Frequently, I have referred to rain as a big challenge. We could lack it when it was expected and vice versa. For three months, from July to September, there was no rain as it was a dry season. Now we are at the end of September. October is knocking from the horizon. We have experienced some rain yet at Bujumbura and sometimes at Gitega, Budeca, where we took our coffee for dry milling. As coffee is not out on drying beds you may wonder why the blessing (rain) is evoked again as a challenge. In fact, the rain comes with cold weather, and humidity increases in warehouses. Thus, when the relative humidity is higher than that of coffee in storage, the latter start regaining moisture. As you can hear this, the end of one battle opens a door to the next. So, today we fight for having all the remaining lots milled, hand-picked, and sealed in Grain-pro as soon as possible. When all coffee is in Grain-pro, then we don’t have to worry about rainfall the same as before. This is the battle we will be fighting over the next couple of weeks.

From the Lab

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee

This week we began our final dry-milling program for the Burundi season. Milling, which involves removing the parchment layer, or, in the case of naturally processed coffee, removing the fruit that has dried around the coffee seed, is, by itself, a speedy process. After the seeds are stripped of their botanical accouterment, they pass through various grading apparatuses. These include devices that separate the seeds by size, density, and color. Many metric tons of coffee can pass through the mill in a single day. The process that follows, however, is low tech and time-consuming. That process is, of course, the handpicking of the coffee. Absolutely critical to the production of top quality specialty coffee, our lots get handpicked upwards to five times! In a few short days, all of our Burundi lots for the year will have been milled. The next two to three weeks will be filled with handpicking the coffee.

It is a race to the finish from here. As Seth mentioned in his section above, we want to get the lots handpicked as soon as possible because that allows us to get them into Grain-pro and thus hermetically sealed and safe from the impending rainy season. Too frequently, as a green coffee buyer, I have seen the onset of a rainy season in any given country of production, as a strike against the quality of the green coffee. This is especially true for coffees that are on the margins of not being fully dried. Coffees for which taking on a small amount of moisture pushes them into territory that encourages the quick degradation of what we perceive as freshness. I am so pleased to know firstly, that all of our lots were dried exceptionally well this year and, secondly, that our timeline concerning getting these final lots into Grain-pro is looking very good.

Once this process is complete we will continue loading containers and sending them around the world. A record year for us, we have already loaded and dispatched two containers from this harvest. In a few short weeks that number will be seven. The past two years have been important ones in strengthening relationships with importing partners in various markets. While we work directly with as many of our roasting partners as possible, we have found it essential to have key relationships in various markets around the world. Not only are these partners service providers, moving the coffees from Burundi to their destination market, but they are also critical in helping facilitate relationships with smaller roasting partners. This year, our coffees can be found with the following importers:
- Osito Coffee, North America – East Coast
- Royal Coffee, North America – West Coast
- List & Beisler – Europe
- Upstream – Australia*
- Seven Oaks – South Africa
If you are in one of these markets and interested in coffee this year, please reach out to me. I will be only too happy to work on a plan with you to either send you samples directly or connect you with one of the above-mentioned importers. Whether we are sending you samples and handling contracts directly or having an importing partner help facilitate the process, it is so important to us that we connect with you personally and work together on and through the process!

*If you are in the Australian market and interested in coffees from this season, please reach out to our Burundi Lab Manager, Jordan, who was not able to make it to Burundi this year due to the pandemic, and is native to and currently located in Australia!
October 5, 2020
Long Miles Coffee’s Post-Harvest Update: news from the coffee farm, field and cupping lab
From the Farm

collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story Team

The first of September usually means the end of the dry season in Burundi, and the start of the country’s second rainy season. During this time of the year, many communities of farmers usually shift their focus from coffee to other subsistence crops (such as maize, potatoes and cassava) that need to be planted by the time rain starts to fall.

“We have to hurry and finish everything before September because once the rain starts, there will be many things to do. You can’t work on activities meant for the dry season during the rainy season. My husband is supposed to be mulching and fertilizing the soil of our coffee plantations while I plant other crops, but he’s still busy pruning our coffee trees. I’ve had to stop what I was doing to help him look for mulch.”
Jeannette Ngendakumana is a coffee farmer from Gaharo hill

Meanwhile, some farmers are still focused on picking coffee cherries. Due to the irregular weather patterns that Burundi experienced this year, the country’s coffee harvest came to an end while many farmers still had unripened cherries on their coffee trees.

“Harvest might be over at the washing stations, but it’s still going on at home. There are many cherries that need to be picked. We are still in the dry season, and the coffee trees aren’t getting much water. The small amount of water they do get is being fed straight to the cherries that are still ripening and haven’t been picked. These leftover cherries also cause the number of antestia bugs found in the coffee farmers to multiply. The only way to prevent this is by picking them. Many farmers can’t accept losing so many cherries after harvest, so they continue to process coffee at home: picking, sorting cherries, hand-pulping and then drying. Coffee traders have permission from the government to buy parchment coffee at a fixed price from coffee farmers. I still have one hundred kilograms of coffee to sell.”
Joseph Haragasika is a coffee farmer from Gaharo hill.

From the Field

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee

Previously I talked about how our Lab in Bujumbura was pushing hard to have a lot of samples processed and dispatched at that time to David (in the States where the main Lab is based, because of the threat by COVID-19). Because of the hard work of the Buja Lab Team, our process chain was always active. And today, I am grateful for the step where we are at and I can congratulate Mr. Zebron (Long Miles Coffee Lab Assistant) for having delivered most of our expectations. This week, intensive Lab work was done. All the urgent samples were processed and dispatched to the Lab in the States. This is a good thing as lot construction becomes quicker and milling plans become definite. We can expect to see the activities moving in a faster way, from the beginning of September.

Liar or dreamer, I ignore what you will think of me. Having a container ready in August was done, as promised. But shipping should take place early September, which is good as the earliest, so far, we have been able to make is early October. The reason is that export paperwork is not a quick-do-it-yourself kit. In fact, when we had everything ready, an official in charge of issuing the grades confirmation certificate (taxation report) was out for three consecutive days. When he was supposed to come back, coincidentally it was a day off as it was an election day (for hill leaders). Even for other signatories, we observe similar delays and we never stop learning!

From the Lab

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee

Image taken by Julianna Elizabeth Herr

Echoing Seth’s message, the busy days in the lab continue. It has been a pleasure to see much of the work from the last two months come to a point of fruition in the form of final, milled lot samples. The milling quality has been excellent and the coffees are so balanced and clean. If you have not received samples yet and are expecting them, do not fret. Our focus at this time is on moving lots through the process as quickly as possible, in order to allow milling and export to happen as quickly as possible. In the end, this will serve everyone in the supply chain.

I so greatly appreciate the tone of optimism and enthusiasm in Seth’s section of this week’s newsletter. The entire team has been pushing hard to move coffee as quickly as possible. Hours after Seth emailed me the copy for his section, however, we did run into what is currently a concerning situation. The dry mill which is contracted to mill and clean our coffees this year has been on strike. The strike concerns the mill owner and specifics surrounding former-employee pensions. In ever humbling Burundi coffee sector fashion, we are monitoring the situation patiently. A report I received just minutes ago relayed that the situation will hopefully be resolved early next week. That said, there is no way to know at this time. I will continue to use this space in these emails to update all of you concerning the situation.

As always, if you feel that you have not been heard regarding your needs for this season, please reach out to me!

Links worth checking out
- Long Miles Coffee featured in Imbibe’s article “How COVID-19 Is Rippling Through the Coffee World”.
- Ben Carlson’s two-part conversation with Coffee Radio Japan on founding Long Miles Coffee and the complexities of creating meaningful change in a system that wasn’t built for it.
- This New York times article: “ ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Hero, Paul Rusesabagira, Is Held on Terrorism Charge.”
September 7, 2020
Long Miles Coffee Harvest update: news from the coffee farm, field and cupping lab.

From the Farm

collected and translated by Joy Mavugo, in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story Team

Every year, when our coffee harvest comes to an end, the Long Miles Coffee Scouts open up the “Pruning Campaign”. During this campaign, the Scouts move between the hills where coffee is grown, guiding the communities of coffee growers that we work with through the practice of pruning and stumping their coffee trees. The Scouts help these farmers to identify older or unhealthy coffee trees that should be pruned, stumped or uprooted from their farms. They also encourage farmers to weed and mulch the land where their coffee is grown to prepare the soil for the next year’s coffee harvest.

“In 2017, I pruned all of the coffee trees in one of my coffee plantations. In 2020, three years later, I picked double the amount of coffee cherry than what I used to harvest before pruning. The Scouts have helped me and the other coffee farmers in my community to understand the different ways of taking care of our coffee plantations. I remember the first time the Scouts told me about pruning and stumping older coffee trees. In my heart, I was thinking: “These young people don’t know what they’re talking about. Cutting coffee trees? No way.” Now, I am encouraging other farmers to prune and stump their coffee trees.

Firmin Niyibizi is a coffee farmer from Gaharo hill. He has two plantations and 300 coffee trees.

From the Field

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee

Our washing station that remained opened to farmers the latest closed the harvest on July 31^st. Two of our stations have taken all coffee off of the drying tables this week. The station that still has some coffee on drying tables is Heza and with the end of August, at most, every coffee should be taken off the tables. We are proud of what the teams have been able to achieve. There were a lot of challenges but they have shown that they can transform them into opportunities. Briefly, in November 2019, the Government announced that they wanted to come back to operating in the coffee sector (what was interpreted as re-nationalizing the coffee industry). No one knew what had to happen next. The regulations have been made unfavorable. For example, we were obliged to have on our accounts an amount that can pay 75% of expected cherry, in advance. That money couldn’t serve in other operations except for farmers’ payment. Consequently, getting the production license was so difficult. But today we endured and have even the exportation license. I can sit and sigh, whispering to myself and say: “God fought at our side. The harvest was difficult but we made it through. Though we are not sure of the future, we hope to always stand”.

As for the dry milling activities, we are progressing well. Here, also, we have challenges (which is normal). I previously talked about delays in milling program execution, lack of space for hand picking, power outage, forklift breaking down, bag marking that is slower…each of those challenges has happened to us. However, today we are happy that we have close to a full container of hand-picked coffee and 165 bags are already taxed (grade confirmation by the national coffee board: ODECA). If everything goes smoothly, we expect to ship our first container before the end of August, which will be the first year we are able to do so.

Image taken by Julianna Elizabeth Herr

From the Lab

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee

These are very busy days in the lab. But, they have also been very encouraging days. The coffees are tasting absolutely wonderful. This week, for the first time this season, I received not only table samples in my weekly package, but also some finished, milled pre-shipment samples. Efficiency has been a huge focus this year. Specifically, efficiency surrounding the time it takes to get coffee ready for export. Between the incredible work of our team in Burundi, the execution of new (and ever-evolving) quality control systems, and the strong logistics partners we have lined up in North America, Europe, and Australia, I am very confident that this will be our best year yet from the perspective of shipment timeliness.

It has been such a pleasure to be engaged in ongoing/regular communication with so many of you about your needs for this year. If you feel that you have not been heard regarding your needs for this season, by all means, please reach out to me!

August 17, 2020
Building Ninga, our third Long Miles Washing Station

In 2013, we built our first washing station, Bukeye, and produced our first bag of Burundi coffee. During that harvest season, the volume of coffee cherries getting delivered to Bukeye far outstripped our small washing station’s capacity to produce coffee. It turned out that coffee farming families were coming from far and wide, travelling more than three hours by foot over slippery and broken roads to reach Bukeye; a washing station with balanced scales that paid a fair price for coffee cherries.

Vincent Nyandwi is just one of many coffee farmers that we met last coffee harvest who had walked for hours to deliver his cherries. He had to choose between walking fifteen kilometers from his home to reach Bukeye Washing Station, or five kilometers to our small cherry collection point…all while carrying a forty kilogram bag of coffee cherries on his back.

Vincent Nyandwi, a Burundian coffee farmer

The dedication of coffee farmers like Vincent to producing quality coffee stood out to our team, both in the field and on the cupping table. Every year since then, we have been trying to bring a washing station closer to these rural farming communities.

“Ninga was one of the first hills that we visited before founding Long Miles and deciding to build our own washing station[s]. After visiting the region, we fell in love with the coffee’s flavor profile on the cupping table. Building a washing station on Ninga hill would open up the possibility of working with over 2,000 neighboring coffee growing families who, up until now, have had to walk for kilometers to reach the nearest washing station. Ninga’s proximity to the Kibira Forest also opened up the opportunity to plant green belts of trees extending from the forest to the hill, helping to improve soil health and encouraging the practice of shade-grown coffee.” – Ben Carlson, co-founder of Long Miles Coffee.

Having a washing station closer to Ninga hill means that coffee farmers will be able to spend less time travelling to deliver their cherries after the many hours spent harvesting them. The time between cherry picking and then cherry processing will also be shortened; a helpful step towards improving the coffee’s quality. Ninga Washing Station will help us to build long-term relationships with coffee farming families in the region, provide neighboring communities with job opportunities and the access to farmer education.

In 2017, we bought a piece of land seated at 1900 masl, a fifteen kilometer drive from our Bukeye Washing Station. The land is flanked by the Nkokoma River, which means that fresh water will run through the McKinnon to pulp and wash the coffee parchment. Little did we know that significant changes in the country’s coffee regulatory board that year would cause a delay in the build out of the washing station.

It took us close to three years to check off all the necessary paperwork and cross the bureaucratic red tape in order to start producing coffee at our Ninga Washing Station site. With the opening of coffee harvest in April and forty-five newly built drying tables, we started producing the first natural processed micro-lots of the season.

During the natural process, coffee cherries are floated and hand-sorted after being delivered by coffee farmers to the washing station site, then taken straight to the drying tables. The whole coffee cherry spends between twenty-five to thirty days drying in its skin (depending on the weather), slowly turning from deep red to a prune-like purple-black color until fully dry; reaching the ideal 10.5% moisture level.

This coffee harvest, some farming families from Ninga hill continued to deliver their cherries to Bukeye Washing Station. These cherries were processed as both fully washed and natural micro-lots at Bukeye. Other families who grow their coffee in the same region decided to deliver their harvest to our new Ninga Washing Station site. These cherries were processed as sundried naturals. Come next year’s coffee harvest, all of the cherries grown and harvested on Ninga hill will be processed at Ninga Washing Station.

You might notice that two new coffees have been added to our fold this year: Bumba and Giku hill. These coffees were processed as sundried naturals at our Ninga Washing Station site along with the coffee cherries from Ninga hill that were delivered there.

It takes a lot of time, resources and people to build a washing station in Burundi. It’s our hope to see Ninga Washing Station built to completion in time for next year’s coffee harvest season.

The next time that you find a bag of roasted Ninga, Bumba or Giku coffee, drink a cup at your favorite local café or brew one of these coffees at home, please let us know! We would love to hear what you think.

August 7, 2020
The Long Miles Coffee Scouts: community changers and coffee innovators

The Long Miles Coffee Scouts are grassroots community changers who take coffee quality very seriously. They are a team of twenty-six Burundians who live and work on the hills where coffee is grown. Under the leadership of Epaphras Ndikumana (Long Miles Social and Environmental Impact Leader), The Coffee Scouts come up with innovative and home-grown solutions to fight the threat of the potato taste defect, mitigate the effects of climate change on soil health and empower farmers with the tools they need to produce quality coffee.

The Coffee Scouts got their name the day they left on their first mission, armed with spray bottles of organic pesticide to scout for antestia bugs, the colorful bugs linked to the potato taste defect, in neighboring coffee farms.

“The name ‘scout’ is used in Burundi to describe a group of people in the Catholic church. Most of the time, they are dynamic people who are ready to serve their neighbors, whoever they might be. I thought that we needed dynamic men and women like this, who are ready to serve the community of coffee growers; people who are ready to spend their time and energy accompanying coffee farmers in the trajectory of becoming specialty coffee producers. This is why we called the team ‘The Coffee Scouts’.” – Epaphras Ndikumana, Long Miles Social & Environmental Impact Leader

Since their inception in 2014, The Coffee Scouts have become a quintessential part of Long Miles, and have been pivotal in improving the quality of the coffee we produce at the farm level. They play a crucial role in bridging the gap between our washing stations and the neighboring coffee farming families who deliver their cherries to us.

Each Coffee Scout works with a group of farmer friends from the hill they work on, committing to help them understand and use better agricultural practices. Together with these farmers, The Coffee Scouts set up Farmer Field Schools which are small, model coffee farms. On these farms, anyone in the community can come to practice farming techniques, ask questions, and learn.

During coffee harvest, The Coffee Scouts can be found in the field, guiding farmers through selective cherry picking or at the washing stations, helping with farmer reception and coffee cherry quality control. You can’t miss them in their bright red t-shirts. Long after coffee harvest has ended, you’ll still find The Coffee Scouts in the hills teaching communities of coffee growers the importance of mulching and fertilizing the soil, seasonally pruning their coffee trees, growing green manures, planting and distributing indigenous shade trees, and preparing coffee seedling nurseries. And catching antestia bugs, of course.

While The Coffee Scout’s work is widely appreciated on the hills we collect coffee from, their job hasn’t come without challenges.

“At the beginning, it was hard for us to get farmers to follow what we were doing. People had never seen others running after insects trying to catch them. They thought that we were crazy! It was also difficult to build relationships with communities of coffee growers because we were new to the coffee sector.”

Back in 2014, the team was made up of just four junior agronomists working on two hills. Since those early days, The Coffee Scouts have expanded to a team of twenty-six (nine of which are women), working with coffee growing communities on twenty neighboring hills. Two of the founding Scouts have become the managers of Bukeye and Heza washing stations, with another two Scouts becoming washing station assistants.

“Our vision is to scale the team, not just for Long Miles Coffee in Burundi but on an East African Community level. The valuable contribution of The Coffee Scouts, both in empowering coffee growers and increasing the quality of coffee they produce, needs to be known and recognized worldwide.” – Epaphras Ndikumana

The Coffee Scouts are continuously growing as leaders and mobilizers in their communities. Their innovation and positivity is the beginning of a better future being realized for generations of coffee farmers in Burundi.

July 10, 2020
HARVEST UPDATE
FROM THE FARM, FIELD AND LAB

From the Farm

collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Long Miles Story team.

On Thursday, 18 June 2020 the newly elected president Evariste NDAYISHIMIYE was sworn into office, two months before the official inauguration ceremony was planned and a week before the burial of late president H.E Pierre NKURUNZIZA. We asked some people how they were feeling about the unprecedented and significant changes happening in the country at this time.

“I knew that the ceremony was supposed to be in August. I don’t know why it was decided to have it earlier, but what’s important is that everything happened peacefully. It seemed strange to me, because it’s the first time to see a big ceremony happen in Burundi while the body of important leader of the country is still in the morgue.” – Samuel is a coffee farmer from Gitwe hill.

“It makes sense that the ceremony happened before the scheduled time, because there was no president in the country. In Kirundi, we say “Igihugu nti gipfakara” which means “The country can’t be a widower”. It’s good that the new president has stepped in. I was happy about the ceremony, and I’m happy for the new president. I’m waiting to see the changes that he will bring.” – Tharcisse is a coffee farmer from Nkonge hill.

“I was happy that day, because Burundi without a president is like an army without a commander. What amazes me is that during a time where there was no president in the country, there was no news to say that anyone had been killed. There was full peace. I wish that the new president will bring peace to the country, and bring back the people who have fled the country in the past.” – Gaslide from Gaharo hill

From the Field

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager for Long Miles Coffee

Now we have been processing coffee for about three months. This is a crucial period where a lot of attention has to be paid to how we process coffee. In fact, all we do at this stage will determine the quality of coffee we are going to produce. In other words, this is the most sensitive period to the quality of the coffee. This is where we as Long Miles do cherry selection, pulping, fermenting, grading, soaking, pre-drying, drying, moisture tracking, parchment storage… in a very monitored way, every day and seriously. As coffee can not wait at this stage, we will understand that, during this period, laborers have to work so hard. Life, during this period, follows the same pattern. But the reality is that it is hard, complex, demanding… overall, the busiest time of the season.

However, we are in transition to another period that is similar to production at stations, though there are some nuanced differences. These days, stations are sending a lot of samples to process, analyze, and send to the main lab in the States. After getting feedback from the main lab, then we know the order of lots loading, and how and what needs to be transferred at the Dry Mill. For the moment, we have some results from the lab and next week our first truck of parchment will land at BUDECA Dry Mill, in Gitega, the political center of Burundi. Then we shall start milling, probably early July. Simply put, dry milling consists of hulling, grading (by machine), color sorting, hand-picking, packaging, classification or taxation, and then documentation preparation that precedes green coffee exportation. This can bring many challenges: many companies may be submitting their milling program at the same time, power going off, forklifts breaking down, handpicking space lacking, bags marking being so slow… however, despite these possible challenges, my teammates and I are excited and ready to start milling as it is the final stage in getting our coffee in exportable condition and switching the story back to hearing from roasters.

Image taken by Julianna Elizabeth Herr

From the Lab

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations for Long Miles Coffee

Being coffee producers, there is never a lack of interesting information to share. In fact, this was a huge reason for wanting to start these updates. In everyday conversation with the team in Burundi, I would hear things that made me feel, “This should be shared with people in specialty coffee consuming countries!” While the header for my section is titled “[Notes] From the Lab,” I have, and will continue to, take the liberty to muse beyond the lab, as it were. In a sense, I feel that my role at Long Miles is to be the touchpoint between the work we do in Burundi and the people who roast and consume our coffees. Further, having been a green coffee buyer and also someone running coffee roasteries for many years prior to my time at Long Miles, I feel well-positioned to pull out topics of interest in order to shine a light on them. Topics that I hope those reading this section will find as interesting as I do.

Before working directly for a coffee producer, I thought I understood how critical the weather, rain in particular, was to a growing season. It turns out this is a topic that literally cannot be stressed enough. If you have been following along with these emails and/or our social media presence, you probably have some idea of just how much of a rollercoaster 2020 has been as it pertains to rain in Burundi. The year started out with seemingly unending, damaging rains. These rains caused landslides, ruined buildings, damaged crops that would have been eaten or have provided a household income for families, prevented the planting of the year’s second round of food staples, and more. The rains finally stopped a few weeks into the harvest season. This was a boon to the drying of our coffees. During the 2018 harvest, we were faced with the challenges of drying coffee amidst steady and continued rain. During rain you must cover the coffee on the drying beds with sheets of plastic. While this works fine for temporary afternoon showers, it is far from ideal for multi-day stretches. If covered for too long a host of issues can present themselves, from molds to the developing of a phenolic (chemical-like, think chlorine) taste in the cup.

It only took a few weeks for the great boon of dry weather to feel burdensome. During the Burundi harvest period, one can typically expect occasional showers. These showers help ripen the coffee fruit that remains on the trees. As the climate remained stubbornly dry we watched our coffee volume projections shrink for the year, just as we watched coffee begin to shrivel up on the tree. Without the necessary ripening rains the coffee cherries would turn from green to reddish-brown, never properly ripening.

I share all of this in order to set the stage for what I thought was quite an interesting anecdote I heard Seth Nduwayo and Epaphras Ndikumana (Long Miles’ Quality Control Manager, and Social and Environmental Impact Leader, respectively) discussing one day recently. They were commenting on the fact that there was so much coffee remaining on the trees, waiting for rain in order to ripen it, because the soil health is so poor. They told me that if certain fertilizers had been applied at the appropriate time, this would not be nearly as big of an issue. As much as my mind was with the tragedy of the coffee remaining on the trees, destined to never reach maturity, I could not help but find this fascinating.

Some very brief notes on inputs in Burundi: in recent years the government of Burundi has banned the importation of fertilizers, looking instead to promote a new state-built and run fertilizer company. The issue has been that the government has struggled to deliver fertilizer at the appropriate time of year, if at all. Inputs must be applied at the appropriate time, otherwise, their use is non-effective and quite literally a waste of money. While writing this weeks’ email update I visited the Wikipedia page Agriculture in Burundi, which very clearly lays out the issues in one sentence under the section Land: “Much of the land has suffered a loss of fertility because of soil erosion from poor agricultural practices, irregularity of rainfall, lack of fertilizer, and shortened fallow periods.”

There is good news, however, as there almost always is… over the past two weeks we have received periodic rains and have seen the deliveries to our washing stations hold steady in volume. Much of the cherry on the trees is properly ripening and we could not be more thrilled. While this harvest is not destined to hit the volumes we were hoping for back in February, it is certainly looking more positive than it was just a few weeks ago. We are grateful for this.

Secondly, while it may seem scary to talk about poor soil health, I firmly believe that the lack of inputs and low yields contribute to the exceptional quality we taste in the cup. This is a theme I have noticed time and again as a coffee buyer. It became most obvious for me back in 2015 while traveling in Kenya. In Kenya you see private estates growing coffee trees laden with fruit, owing in part to the plant genetics but also to the high level of chemical inputs. These private estates get 30, 35, even 45+ kilograms of coffee cherry per tree each harvest. Farms owned by smallholders delivering to cooperatives, on the other hand, would have straggly looking coffee trees producing 1.5 to 2 kilograms of coffee cherry per tree. Agronomists in Kenya are quick to point out the health of the abundantly producing, heavily fertilized trees as opposed to the relatively unhealthy smallholder trees. That said, it is my opinion that the best coffees in Kenya come from the cooperatives, whose members have relatively low yielding trees. Since this 2015 realization, I have applied this thought to various countries, varieties, and even harvests. Time and again I see it play out… lower-yielding is almost always more enjoyable in the cup.

Without question, this thinking presents a financial conundrum. There must be a balance between larger yields and quality in order to maximize income for producers. In all honesty, I only wish I could say that we, as an industry, are even close to working with producers to achieve said balance and find the optimum yield to quality ratio. In reality, this incredibly nascent specialty industry is still boot-strapping it – in a sense. Doing whatever it can to get by, while sticking to its purported goals. I merely share all these reflections as food for thought. Starts of conversations. Conversations which we hope to contribute to now and into the future.

I have certainly seen this maxim play out on my cupping lab the past couple of weeks. As I continue to taste through table samples from the harvest that is still underway, I continue to be blown away by the quality and qualities of Burundi coffee (produced from low yielding coffee trees in soil of relatively poor health). These are exceptional coffees and we cannot wait to share them with you all over the coming weeks and months!

LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
- NPR: The Masks Of Congo Are Worn To Protect, To Protest — And To Strike A Pose
- Today was a national holiday in Burundi, celebrating the late president. An Al Jazeera article on the 55 year old Pierre NKURUNZIZA can be found here.
- NPR: How Lockdown Has Changed My Life – photos!
- A sobering article in the Guardian about locust plagues that are being exacerbated by a shifting climate can be found here.
June 30, 2020
HARVEST UPDATE
From the Farm, Field and Lab

From the Farm

collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Story Team.

It’s been a hard week for Burundi. On Monday 8 June 2020, we heard the news that Burundi’s late president H.E Pierre NKURUNZIZA had very suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Flags were lowered to half-mast and the country went into a week-long mourning period to remember the person who lead and governed Burundi for close to 15 years.

“When I first heard the news, I couldn’t accept what others were telling me. Two days before, the police stopped people on the road saying that the president was passing by. The second person who told me was my friend who said that the president had died from disease. I asked him: “Who told you that news? Is that disease CORONA?” He told me that he didn’t know. After realizing that it’s true, that the president died, the first question I asked is: “Who will give the presidential chair to his successor at the big ceremony in August?” Death is not afraid. Even if people call themselves great, only God will live forever.” – Céléstin from Mikuba hill.

“It was really scary news, because it happened just after the elections. Burundians, especially from the hill where I live, have bad memories of elections. When I heard the news, I didn’t even ask the cause of his death. Immediately, my heart told me that things will happen again like they did in 1993. I went home and started listening to the radio to hear what the situation is in the country. The good thing is that after his death, no other Burundians have lost their lives. Only…it’s still too early to believe. The lesson I’ve learnt from the president’s death is that there is no great person in the world. God is powerful, and he does what he wants on earth and heaven.” – Bénoit from Mikuba hill.

“When I heard the news, I was very surprised. At first, I didn’t believe what people were saying. I am now wondering: what will happen next? What makes me happy is that things are quiet in the country and there is peace. Nothing is impossible. Three days in the country without a president, and life is normal. The world has surprises in store for us.” – Noël from Mikuba hill

Constructing drying tables at the new Ninga Washing Station

From the Field

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager

Weather
It would sound as if I have an endless repetition of climate stories. One can wonder, “isn’t there anything else more interesting you can be talking about?” However, this is to emphasize how severe and strange the climate is. So, when our partners hear that we have an Environmental Bottom Line among our four bottom lines, they find that it was not a mere choice of words. Rather, it is a real and serious challenge we have to face. While previously I shared with you the lack of rain that caused some berries to dry on the trees, before yesterday we got unexpectedly some rain in Bukeye and a lot of it at Heza, Kayanza. This is not bad as it will help some berries to ripen. However, for trees that didn’t have berries these will start blossoming. And as after this little rain sunny days are going to follow, then the blossoms may dry because they will have sprouted in a wrong period.

Ninga Washing Station
I also spoke about how Ninga farmers are so happy that finally Ninga project is in course of implementation and they can deliver close, without the long walks. As Long Miles Team, we share the happiness with those farmers because Ninga has started to bear fruits. In fact, the first lots that were collected in Ninga and surrounding hills have been taken off the table, this week. Though I referred to our infrastructures at Ninga as basic, I believe that the quality of coffee that was processed there is at the same level or even higher than what is produced at our old stations. My fear is that the supply might be too much lower than the demand. However, we expect the next harvest to be good enough to satisfy all Ninga lovers in both quality and quantity.

A No-Visitor Harvest
COVID-19, has changed the way humanity lives and works; the coffee industry was not spared. We used to host guests who came to visit our factories (Washing Stations). They came for various purposes but we enjoyed hosting them. Some were customers, others were interns, students who want to be at an origin, Cup of Excellence judges, etc. Personally, I really liked that they were coming. In fact, even when they may not buy our delicious coffees, at least they would tell a story about us or recommend their friends to partner with us. In this way, our reputation kept expanding, with many eyewitnesses. This year no more new visitors so far, except those following on Instagram or receiving our newsletters. I wish COVID ended so that we come back to normal.

Image taken by Julianna Elizabeth Herr

From the Lab

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations

Since the last Harvest Update email, I have received two boxes of table samples. Two more are currently en route; one has just made it to New York City the other is in Nairobi. The coffees I have tasted the past two weeks represent the first coffees delivered to our washing stations this season and, as such, are from quite small lots – some projected to be well less than one bag in size once milled.

Every single table sample produced will be coming through our East Coast lab [i.e. my basement] this year. This includes everything from our highest quality parchment, which is destined to become micro-lots, to our “Cherry-B” lots. (Cherry-B being the underripe and overripe cherries delivered by farmers. We are legally obliged to purchase these coffees from farmers but process them separately as to not lower the quality of our micro-lot coffees.)

The majority of my time over the next two months will be spent analyzing green coffee samples, roasting and cupping said samples, and constructing lots based on volumes, quality, flavor profile, hills, and demand. This is some of the most enjoyable and rewarding work I have the pleasure of doing. I could not be more thrilled to report that the table samples I have cupped thus far this season are of absolute stellar quality.

Beyond cup quality, the physical characteristics of the lots I have analyzed thus far have been quite reassuring. Every lot I have measured the water activity of has fallen between our desired 0.45-0.55 a_w, with the majority of them being in the lower half of this range. Based on the quality of our landed lots from last year, this is exactly where we want our coffees sitting for optimal longevity and freshness.

Links worth checking out
- Our friends at La Cabra recently shared a video shot by Paw Gissel during their 2018 visit to Burundi. Check it out here.
- An interesting NPR piece on COVID-19 and Africa can be found here.
- A New York Times article on the death of President Nkurunziza can be found here.
- An Al Jazeera article on what happens in Burundi following the president’s passing can be found here.
June 15, 2020
HOW IS COVID-19 AFFECTING BURUNDI COFFEE?

We can’t help but think of COVID-19. It’s a very real part of everyday life that has affected everything, from how we operate as a team to how we’re producing coffee. As we opened our coffee harvest season and began to operate our washing stations, we had to think about how to go about producing coffee in a new way. How could we continue to produce coffee without putting people’s lives at risk? In Burundi, social distancing isn’t enforced and up until now, hasn’t officially been encouraged.

Thinking through how we can keep everyone safe is a big part of how we’re producing coffee this year. The main concern is for coffee farmers. The majority of the farming community are extremely vulnerable and an older population. We’ve had to build protocols for our washing stations and farmers that seem as foreign to our team as they did to us when we first heard them. Do you remember the first time you heard that we needed to socially distance ourselves and stand 6 feet apart? It’s an incredible challenge to tell people to stand apart at the washing stations when hundreds of farmers are delivering their coffee cherries at the same time. Coffee production is about space in so many ways. Usually everyone- from neighboring farmers bringing in coffee cherries to our team at the washing station- stands right on top of each other, selecting and sorting through coffee together. Lifting heavy bags of coffee cherries from one corner of the washing station to another. Producing coffee is a high touch, close proximity job. How do we change that? Culturally, it’s really difficult.

“We’ve had to build protocols for our washing stations and farmers that seem as foreign to our team as they did to us when we first heard them. Do you remember the first time you heard that we needed to socially distance ourselves and stand 6 feet apart?”

With 94 reported cases and 1 recorded death (as of 12 June 2020), COVID-19 is affecting Burundi. But…life has in some ways carried on as per usual, which has left many people feeling confused. There has been no lockdown or shutdown, no limitation on movement or travel within the country. Businesses and individuals alike are trying to follow what the country’s Ministry of Health and government is saying about COVID-19, but the reality is that there is extremely limited testing available and limited ability for the health care sector to handle a respiratory disease like this one.

In other ways, life has been turned on its head. All of the land borders have closed. The airport is shut until further notice- there are no commercial flights coming in or going out. Trading between our neighbors, both close and far, has been affected. No one is telling us, coffee producers, what to do or how to keep our team safe. That’s up to us. We’re having to think through: how do we operate to maintain safety for everyone involved while also respecting what the government is saying? We have to keep healthy as we keep producing coffee. We can’t stop the fact that the cherries are ripening and that harvest is happening. If roasters decide not to buy or roast coffee, we won’t stop producing it.

“No one is telling us, coffee producers, what to do or how to keep people safe. That’s up to us.”

In Burundi, coffee farming is ‘essential work’. Coffee makes up 70% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. As farmers, it doesn’t matter that there’s a pandemic- you still have to harvest. This is also an election year in Burundi. As a country, we had to be able to stand on our own two feet and pay for the election, which is very costly. There are no fall backs. There is no health care or wealth care solution. Coffee is how most people live, and they can’t go a year without producing it. Burundi is also coming off the backend of the worst coffee harvests in decades. Last year (2019), the country as a whole produced just 20% of its usual coffee crop. We have to produce coffee as a country, as coffee producers, as families and individuals- we can’t afford not to. It will be a challenging year, but our vision to produce quality coffee and care for the farmers who grow it doesn’t change.

“There are no fall backs. There is no health care or wealth care solution. Coffee is how most people live, and they can’t go a year without producing it.”

Normal has gone out the window. Whatever the new normal is, we’ll just have to figure it out as it unfolds. We’ll still be producing coffee. We produced last year, we’ll produce this year, and we’ll be producing next year. We’ll still be planting indigenous trees, endeavoring alongside our neighbors and coffee farming families to renew the health of the soil on their land. Our roasting partners won’t be visiting our part of the world anytime soon. We’re thinking now more than ever: how can we partner with and support our specialty coffee community?

Whether it’s Africa, USA, Europe, Australia, Asia, wherever- we’re all experiencing this. We’re looking forward to figuring things out together, once this does pass. To our friends the world over, we’re with you.

Thank you to our friends at Onyx Coffee for starting this conversation.

June 12, 2020
HARVEST UPDATE
From the farm, field and lab.

FROM THE FARM

words by Firmin, collected and translated by Joy Mavugo in conjunction with Robyn-Leigh van Laren from the Story Team.

On 20 May 2020, Burundi took to the polls to vote in the presidential election. This was a pivotal moment for the country as the last election like it, which took place in 2005, was wrought with controversy and violence. Firmin, a 52-year old coffee farmer from Mikuba hill, which is close to our Heza washing station, shares their thoughts on the elections.

“Everything went well on the day of the elections. I went to vote at a polling station set up at a primary school on Nkonge (a neighboring hill) around 11:00 am. I didn’t want to go any earlier because I was waiting to hear about the security of the situation. Up until now, I can say that the elections went well. People are at peace and still going about their everyday activities as usual. Whenever elections have happened in Burundi, I have felt insecure because it reminds me of the bad times we went through as a country after the 1993 elections.

Those who survived the violence in my family hid and lived in the bush for a month. There was one day when my father got drunk, made his way to our house and accidentally fell asleep there. He was killed that day, and all of his crops were thrown into a sewage pit.

It doesn’t really matter who wins the elections – whether the title of president is won fairly or not. What’s important is that there will be no more death on this hill. As someone who has already been through a terrible history of death caused by the elections, it is too early to tell if there will be peace. Violence only erupted three months after the 1993 elections. This time, I like to believe that there will be peace for longer.”

FROM THE FIELD

written by Seth Nduwayo, Quality Control Manager.

“In the first update I raised the issue of irregular rain. What I want to narrate today is its consequence. In fact, after the long days of extravagant rain, next followed long days of baking sun. This, then, causes the berries to dry on trees instead of ripening. However, what is a problem on the one hand becomes an advantage on the other hand. In fact, two weeks ago, we were complaining that we do not have enough drying tables because parchment delays on drying tables, because of rain but today at one of our washing stations, the half of lots that were drying have been taken off table (because of enough sun light).

I will also talk of Ninga Washing Station. Ninga is located 10 kilometers from Bukeye Washing Station. When Bukeye started, there were farmers who were members of a cooperative at Ninga who came to know Long Miles had opened a station at Bukeye. These cooperative members were interested in how Long Miles take care of the farmers they partner with (farmer education through coffee scouts programs, transparency, bonus, social projects…). So they decided to deliver their cherry to Bukeye, though it was far. When they were lucky, they rented a truck but it happened that cherry collection was banned. Then they started walking to Bukeye. However, it was not easy to reach Bukeye, not only because of the distance, but also because of threats from workers of another washing station they went past before reaching our station. Those workers were supported by some corrupt local leaders. As Ninga is a region with a lot of good coffee, Long Miles got a plan to build a Washing Station there. Then land was bought in 2017. We always thought Ninga could start in 2018 and Ninga farmers hoped to cut with the threats and long walking. But for many reasons, some financial, others related to coffee sector regulations and speculations, it is in this year that we will be able to set basic infrastructures that can allow us to receive farmers and dry some coffee on the land. So, farmers are very happy that the washing station they had been waiting for has just started slowly. For them, this is a victory as many challenges made them feel pessimistic while today, a candle of hope is shining in a room of darkness.”

FROM THE LAB

written by David Stallings, Roaster Relations

“The first round of samples from the 2020 harvest season are officially en route to our lab in the States. Currently “On Hold” in Bahrain, according to DHL’s tracking, to be exact. These samples represent the very first coffees to come off of our drying tables this season. Over the next eight to twelve weeks I will be tracking hundreds of samples as they pour into our lab, eager to do a complete physical analysis on them, roast them, cup them, and in turn, send them back out to roasters and importing partners the world over.

Admittedly, when I say “our lab” in the States, I am referring to a corner of my basement. Do not be mistaken, it is a well-outfitted corner. In it sits an Ikawa, a two-barrel Probat sample roaster, an EK43. Immediately upon moving into this house, three years ago, I installed what I deemed the necessary water treatment equipment to make sure I could cup and brew coffee I would be happy with. It is, without question, the basement of a coffee professional. But, a basement none-the-less.

But that is 2020. I do not know one person who is not “making do” right now, who is not parent, teacher, employee, employer, (and so much more) all wrapped into one. While we often wear these many hats, we are not accustomed to doing so simultaneously. The dramatic shift away from what I, and so many others, know to be normal has provided some excellent and much-needed perspective.

Just a few short weeks ago, for example, we believed that we were facing a harvest that would be comparable to the volumes we saw in 2017. As the days pass, one after another, without rain, we are realizing that some cherry on the tree is likely to not ripen. Though significantly better than last season, volumes will likely not be what we expected and certainly not what we had hoped for. Six months ago this would have been extremely jarring to me. But the world has taught me some measure of patience through the pandemic, some measure of understanding just how little control I have. As the old adage goes, it is not what happens but how we respond, and I am certain this year holds many wonderful responses from the team I am so lucky to work with.”

Links worth checking out
- We wrote a letter to our friends at Onyx Coffee Lab about Coffee Production in the age of COVID. You can read it here.
- New York Times article on Burundi voter turnout and some context on the election.
- New York Times article on the election results.
June 5, 2020

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