Growing Regions

Key Varieties

Coffee That Survives Alongside Its Farmers

Burundi is one of the world's poorest countries — consistently ranked in the bottom five nations globally by per capita income. It is landlocked in the heart of Africa, 1,500 kilometres by road from either Mombasa or Dar-es-Salaam — the nearest major ports. Logistics costs for a container of Burundian coffee to reach port often exceed the cost of shipping that same container from Africa to Europe once it arrives. Coffee represents approximately 40% of Burundi's export revenue and supports the livelihoods of over 8 million people.

The country has experienced multiple cycles of political violence, civil conflict, and forced displacement since independence in 1962. Farmers in remote areas like the Ninga Hills have been forced to abandon their farms and coffee trees during conflict periods, returning when conditions allowed to find years of cultivation disrupted. The fact that Burundian specialty coffee quality is as extraordinary as it is — given these conditions — is a testament to the resilience and skill of the farming communities involved and the commitment of organisations like Long Miles Coffee Project that chose to build infrastructure in the hardest places.

Ben and Kristy Carlson: Americans Who Moved to Burundi

In 2011, Ben and Kristy Carlson — Americans with young children — moved to Burundi with a specific mission: help coffee growers access specialty markets by building the processing infrastructure and direct-trade relationships that the market failure had prevented. They started Long Miles Coffee Project with 50 farming families and three washing stations in Muramvya and Kayanza provinces. Today, the network includes over 5,500 families across stations including Bukeye, Heza, Ninga, Giku, and Bumba.

The Long Miles project addressed a specific gap. Burundian coffee, when processed carefully, produces cups that rival the best East African specialty coffees. But without the infrastructure and the buyer relationships, the quality was being lost — to poorly managed fermentation, inconsistent drying, and export aggregation that erased lot identity. Long Miles built both the hard infrastructure (washing stations, raised drying beds, borehole water systems) and the soft infrastructure (storytelling, buyer relationships, lot traceability) that allowed Burundian specialty to reach global roasters at the quality level the terroir deserves.

The Ninga Station: Most Remote, Most Resilient

The Ninga washing station — built by Long Miles in 2019 specifically to serve the Ninga Hills community in Muramvya Province — is SEY Coffee's (Brooklyn, #4 world) description of it as "by far the most remote part of Burundi" from which they source. Two rivers and a province border separate the Ninga Hills from the nearest main road. The community has endured repeated cycles of conflict and forced displacement. "Here, trees cling to the land beside winding dirt paths and humble homes, enduring cycles of conflict and forced dormancy," as Onyx Coffee Lab describes it.

Before Ninga station was built, farmers from this area had to travel far to reach other Long Miles stations or sell cherry to nearby stations known for using inaccurate scales and paying below-market prices. Long Miles purchased land in the Ninga Hills community and built the station specifically so this community could access quality processing and fair compensation without the punishing journey. The cup result — "juicy watermelon, fresh peaches, cherry popsicles within a light, fruit-punch body, with a sugary sparkling finish with a touch of rose-hibiscus florals," as Blossom Coffee describes it — is extraordinary.

Processing: Long Miles Standard

Long Miles washing stations process Red Bourbon through a careful wet protocol: cherries floated and hand-sorted on delivery day, depulped on the day of harvest, single dry fermented for 12 hours, rinsed with fresh water, density graded, and dried on traditional raised African beds for 16–20 days until reaching target moisture. Ninga station's own borehole water system ensures consistent water quality throughout — a critical factor in producing the clean fermentation that distinguishes Long Miles lots from stations relying on surface water sources.

Select stations also produce natural and honey process lots during good harvest years. The Ninga Hills natural lots — 35–40 days drying — produce dark berry, raisin, and caramel complexity that Flower Child Coffee (who carry Ninga washed lots) describes as "apricot, persimmon, dried berries."

The Potato Defect: Burundi's Shared Challenge

Burundi, like Rwanda, faces the potato defect — a bacterial infection (Pantoea agglomerans) introduced by the antestia bug (Antestia lineaticollis) that causes affected beans to release a raw potato odour when ground. Invisible post-processing and only detectable after grinding, the defect requires intensive sorting throughout the supply chain. Long Miles stations are known for particularly rigorous sorting — multiple passes at the washing station, further sorting at dry milling — to minimise defect risk in the green coffee exported to roasters.

Key Producers & Exporters