245 coffee growers contributed to this lot at Musumba Hill, each cultivating an average of 60 Red Bourbon Arabica trees on approximately 240 square meters of land, with an average yield of 2kg per tree. 

Farmers traverse a long and difficult trek - over 8-kilometres of narrow footpaths and steep slopes to deliver cherries to the washing station. Farmers come despite the difficulty, because of their preference for selling to Long Miles, who has invested directly in community development projects, including farmer training and education programs to improve coffee yields and quality.

The Long Miles Coffee Project was founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, who began working in Burundi in 2011 with the goal of helping producers access better markets through high-quality coffee. Today, Long Miles own, and operate 3 different washing stations across Burundi where they partner with 7,500 smallholder farmers.

This particular lot was processed at the Bukeye Washing Station, which sits at the base of Gaharo Hill and was the first washing station built by Long Miles. The station was constructed with bricks gathered from the valley below and land cleared by Gaharo’s farmers. Today, those same farmers continue to deliver their cherries to this special place.

Cherry from Musumba Hill farmers is floated and hand-sorted for maximum ripeness upon delivery to Bukeye. The best overall cherry is accepted for natural processing and is moved to shaded drying beds to allow residual surface water to evaporate, during which it is hand-sorted for any insect damage and visual imperfections.

Skin-dry cherry is then moved again to the larger beds with no shade to dry completely in the sun, a process that typically takes 4 or more weeks to complete. Occasionally cherry is piled into small pyramids to keep the total temperature lower than the surrounding air, and maintain a slow and even dehydration process.