Burundi Nemba

• Country: Burundi
• Region: Kayanza
• Producer: Nemba washing
• Variety: Red Bourbon
• Processing:  Washed
• Altitude:  1700 masl

Nemba washing station lies in the northern province of Kayanza and more than 3.100 producers bring their coffee there during the harvest season.

All producers are smallholders who own less than 250 trees. Each tree produces an average of 1.5kg of coffee per year, meaning they end up selling up to 200-300 kg each year. Most of the coffee in Burundi is Red Bourbon. This way all the families can deliver their coffee to the washing station to be processed together.

Each washing station is managed and led by an agronomist. This agronomist collaborates with the producers determining and implementing the practices best suited to the specific growing conditions of their farming plots and give the producers organic fertilizers.

Process
During the harvest season, all coffee is selectively hand-picked. The cherry is wet-processed under constant supervision and the whole process is closely monitored. All cherry is floated in small buckets (the unripe cherries are sold as B-quality cherry), and then the higher quality cherry is sorted again by hand to remove all damaged, underripe and overripe cherries. After sorting, the cherry is pulped within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then washed in clean mountain water for 12 to 24 hours. Parchment is then soaked for an additional 12 to 18 hours before being dried on raised beds for 2 to 3 weeks.