BURUNDI - HEART OF SONGA

The Heart of Songa is a coffee. Specifically a washed red bourbon coffee grown high in the hills of the Bururi province of Burundi. A coffee with flavours of tropical fruit, grapefruit, mandarin, cherry and peach, which are balanced with rich chocolate.

The Heart of Songa is also found in Kawazamurabwe: the community organisation which produces this coffee. Kawazamurabwe translates to “coffee raises up farmers”, in this case the 150 farming families who share their resources to produce this high quality lot.

Transport in the highlands is tricky, so the collective organise pickup of coffee cherries from each farm and delivery to the mill. Members collaborate in the sorting, washing and drying processes, sharing their labour, knowledge and skills across families and generations.

COFFEE ORIGIN 

Coffee arrived in Burundi through Belgian occupation, with the European mandate administration requiring each farmer in the combined area of Rwanda and Burundi to grow at least 50 trees, with all profits going to Belgium.

In the decades following the independence process of the 1960s, Burundi’s coffee growing industry has been buffeted by regional unrest, natural disaster and civil war. Today over 650 000 families make their livelihood through coffee cultivation, and these farming families have created their own system of community associations to support and improve their coffee growing processes.

Country: Burundi
Province: Bururi 
Town: Songa
Community Association: Kawazamurabawe
Varietals: Red bourbon
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1500 – 1800 masl

TASTING NOTES & CUPPING PROFILE

Burundi is a small but mighty coffee growing nation, known for a strong emphasis on quality over quantity, and the care taken in hand processing their coffee crops which results in great depth and complexity of flavour. The Heart of Songa is a perfect example of this complexity. When we assessed the fragrance of the grounds we were surprised to be met by aromatics of cedar, along with a warm nuttiness.

The notes took a strong turn when it came time to taste, with fruit coming to the fore: tropical fruit and grapefruit in the initial impression, mandarin and lemon zest acidity, and a sweet finish of cherry and peach. There is a fine clean note of chocolate running through, which provides some warmth and richness to balance these fruit notes. Overall a very interesting coffee, marked by sparkling sweetness.

Aromas: cedar, roasted nuts
Flavours: tropical fruit, grapefruit, chocolate
Acidity: sparkling, mandarin, lemon zest
Body: medium
Aftertaste: cherry, peach
Cupping Score: 86/100.

BREW GUIDE

Burundi Style Brew
A common way of serving coffee in both the homes and cafes of Burundi, this method requires no electricity as long as you have a way to heat the water. Great for camping, or a quiet morning when you’ve got nothing ground and you don’t want to wake the house.

What you’ll need:

• mortar and pestle  
• freshly roasted Burundi Heart of Songa coffee beans
  
• tablespoon for measuring
  
• water and a way to heat it
  
• heat proof jug – something like a large pyrex measuring cup is perfect
  
• fine mesh strainer
  
• wooden spoon
  
• jug or pot for serving

Method

1. Scoop out one tablespoon of coffee per cup you’d like to make into the mortar, then add one more tablespoonful to account for the settling once ground
     
2. Grind the coffee beans down with the pestle as evenly as you can, keeping an eye on the mesh of your strainer for grind size – you want it just large enough to be sieved out by the holes of the mesh
   
   
3. Heat one cup of water per cup you’d like to make, plus one cup for warming the brew gear and cups, eg: if I want 4 cups of coffee, I’ll put 5 cups in the kettle
   
   
4. Once the water has boiled, set it aside from the heat and let it cool for 45 seconds – 1 minute. in that time you can use a little of the water to rinse the serving jug and cups you’re going to use – this helps keep the coffee hotter as you drink it
       
5. Spoon your ground coffee into the heat proof jug you’re using to brew the coffee using the one heaped teaspoon per cup of coffee ratio
   
   
6. Add just enough hot water to cover the grounds and leave the coffee to “bloom” for 30 seconds – the coffee will puff up as it releases gases from the roasting process and you will see a golden oil starting to come out of the coffee grounds
     
7. After 30 seconds, stir the coffee and add hot water to the ratio above – 250ml/1cup of hot water per heaped teaspoon for the number of cups of coffee you want to make
    
8. Stir the coffee to make sure all the grounds are fully saturated and then let the coffee steep for about 3 minutes as the grounds settle to the bottom of the jug
   
   
9. Position the strainer above your serving jug – you can use an insulated bottle if you’d like to keep it hot – and gently pour the brewed coffee through the strainer
   
   
10. Put your used coffee grounds in the compost, pop the brewing jug, strainer and spoons in the washing up, and sit down to enjoy the Heart of Songa, brewed Burundi style.