610 coffee growers contributed to this lot at Gaharo Hill, each cultivating an average of 80 Red Bourbon Arabica trees on approximately 120 square meters of land, with an average yield of 1.5kg per tree. 

Coffee is their main cash crop and grows alongside food crops including maize, beans, cassava, potatoes, peas and potatoes.

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.

Quality standards at the station are strict: only fully ripe cherries are accepted, and all deliveries are floated and hand sorted before processing. After depulping, the coffee was fermented overnight in concrete tanks, washed in clean water, and separated by density in grading channels. It was then dried on raised beds for two to three weeks, with careful movement and monitoring to ensure slow, even drying before milling and export preparation.