Burundi Bourbon Washed | Heza Butanyerera (Single Origin Espresso)

About This Single Origin 

Burundi Bourbon Washed  | Heza Butanyerera

ROAST: Espresso Roast

PROCESS: Washed

REGION: Nkonge Hil，Butanyerera

ELEVATION: 1960

VARIETAL: Bourbon

CUP: Dried Fig，Hibiscus  

Getting to Heza Washing Station (1,960 m.a.s.l.) feels like an 
off-road adventure—winding mountain tracks, small hand-built 
log bridges, and wide-open views of Burundi’s hills. “Heza” 
means “beautiful place” in Kirundi, and the station lives up to its 
name with panoramic skies and a tight-knit community of coffee 
farmers.

Heza uses spring water pumped from a nearby natural source. 
For washed lots, cherries are delivered, floated and hand-sorted, 
then pulped and fermented for 36 hours underwater beneath a 
plastic tarp. After fermentation, the parchment may be 
“footed”—a team gently dances on it to loosen remaining 
mucilage—then rinsed, density-graded, soaked again, pre-dried 
on covered tables, hand-picked for defects, and finally dried on 
raised beds for 16–20 days to reach 10.5% moisture.

For natural lots, cherries are floated, hand-sorted, then dried 
whole on tables for 25–30 days, darkening from deep red to 
prune-like purple-black, also finishing at 10.5% moisture.

Life moves slower on Nkonge Hill—quiet paths, steep slopes, 
banana trees and tea fields, and fertile soils fed by natural 
springs. The high elevation makes cherries denser and slower to 
ripen, and Long Miles farms grow 5,334 trees on these slopes, 
directly across from Heza.