Burundi Dry Process Nemba

Nemba is a coffee cherry collection and processing site, and also the name of the hill top village ("colline") wheree it's located. It's part of the northern Burundi province, Kayanza, that borders neighboring Rwanda. Farmers from surrounding "collines" deliver their harvest in whole cherry at the Nemba site, where it is then graded, processed and dried. We measured the altitude at Nemba site at 1813 meters above sea level, and the small coffee farms reach over 2000 meters. Farmers grow mostly older bourbon types, the original coffee cultivar introduced to the area in the 1930s by Catholic monks traveling from the island of Reunion. This is a dry process coffee, which means the whole coffee cherry was dried with the seeds still intact. Unlike wet process coffee - where the fruit is completely removed - dry process coffees can have flavors that are fruit-forward flavor and wild. We found Nemba to have both fruit flavors and balanced bittersweetness, with moderately bright accents that made for an expressive light roast. It's on the "cleaner" end of the flavor spectrum for dry process coffee, and the quality is not surprising when you see all the work they put into removing defects and unripe coffee by hand. It starts at the cherry delivery station, and continues at the drying tables until the coffee is ready. Nemba has been around since the early 1990s, and has won several awards for their coffee, including 1st place in both the Cup of Excellence competition and Best of Burundi.