ROASTING IN AUGUST: BURUNDI TURASHOBORA
BURUNDI IS BACK
This stand-out crop is locked-in, roasted, and ready to ship to fans and subscribers of our Small Batch coffee-of-the-month series. Welcome back, Burundi Turashobora. We first offered this microlot from an East African women’s growing collective in 2021, and we’re thrilled to have it back again.
TAKING ROOT IN CHANGE
Burundi’s high altitude, abundant rainfall, and volcanic soils make for ideal coffee growing conditions. Yet small production and an inconsistent supply chain were not doing the coffee justice. Burundi native Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian sought to change that, and it started—as many things do—with observation and education.
QUALITY AND EQUALITY
Since 2012, JNP Coffee has been reshaping the coffee supply chain from the ground up—starting with the women farmers themselves. Jeanine founded JNP on the belief that improving their coffee’s quality goes hand in hand with improving the equality of the livelihoods of the women farmers who grow it, spreading the profits to all who farm, grow, and harvest.
NEW HANDS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Historically, Burundi women grew and harvested the coffee cherries, but it was the male heads of households who delivered the cherries to the wet mill—and therefore got paid. By investing in education, agronomy training, and financial literacy, JNP equips these smallholder producers with the tools they need to improve quality, claim ownership of their harvests, and earn premiums for their work. Thanks to Jeanine, women are now centered within a more transparent and traceable system that rewards their efforts and builds long-term self-reliance.
INVESTING IN LASTING CHANGE
This impact extends beyond coffee to strengthen entire communities—unlocking opportunities for a new generation of producers, improving livelihoods for communities in a country with high poverty rates, and ensuring that value flows more equitably from origin to cup.
THE TASTE OF TURASHOBORA
This particular group of farmers call themselves Turihamwe Turashobora in Kirundi, which translates to “Together We Can!’’ They are entrepreneurs who are responsible for their own destiny. And it’s an investment you can taste. Burundi Turashobora is emblematic of everything we love about a coffee from this region: subtly sweet, bright, and complex, with an elegant, almost syrupy body. First sips of this coffee call to mind the ruby red brightness of a rooibos tea, followed by juicy notes of crushed cranberry, and a rich, warm, malty finish.
Turashobora: We Can. And they did.
FRESH FROM THE PEET’S ROASTERY
Out of the bag, the beans were small and medium-light green with consistent color. There also were a couple of peaberries and some flat beans but no visible defects. The smell was grainy but also sweet and tart like fruit skin.
Burundi Turashobora was easy to roast but very sensitive to heat, roasting a little fast to first crack, but slow to the finish. Sometimes I had to back off with the heat a little to make sure the roast finished at the target color—not too light and not too dark.
At completion, the room smelled like cranberry shortbread, retaining the fruity, juicy notes this region is known for. This coffee was a fun one to roast, really showcasing how the art of hand roasting brings out the best in a bean, and it smelled amazing both before and after it was roasted. We look forward to the opportunity to roast it again.
We cupped this coffee with our R&D team, as well as several of our summer interns who always bring a fresh and exciting perspective to the cupping table. Across the five samples we tasted—each roasted to slightly different specs to unlock the best expression of this coffee—we were all met with aromas of white flower, a cranberry and currant juiciness, and a unanimous agreement on the grounding notes of chicory and malt. Other intriguing flavor notes that were mentioned included magnolia, citrus, baker’s chocolate, and apple skins. An (unsurprisingly) impressive coffee with an equally impressive story to tell.
– John Nicolini and Michael Madden, Roasters
PEET’S LIMITED RELEASE COFFEES
You might think that a monthly coffee subscription sounds amazing in and of itself, but Peet’s coffee-of-the-month takes it a step further than most. Good things come in small packages, and we only get these coffees in small batches, which is why you can only find them at peets.com and only for a month at a time. They’re special. And while you don’t have to be a Small Batch Coffee subscriber to experience these amazing coffees, their fleeting nature means they can sell out—fast. So subscribing guarantees you get to taste each one of these incredibly special lots.