Burundi Dry Process Kibingo

Unlike wet processing, where the cherry and fruit are removed before drying, dry process coffees ("natural") are laid out with the cherry intact through the entire drying phase. With the fruit intact, dry times increase 3 to 4 fold, taking upwards to a month depending on weather. Dry process coffees tend to be fruit-forward, sometimes even "winey" in a slightly fermented flavor, bodied and acidity flattened to some degree. What we have here with Kibingo is a clean example of dry process coffee with a lot of fruit character, never quite reaching the "ferment" flavors. Kibingo Station is a coffee cherry collection site located in Kayanza, Burundi's northern province that borders neighboring Rwanda. The washing station acts as a central delivery site for a few thousand small holder famers who occupy the 18 hills that surround Kibingo. Kibingo sits at just under 1900 meters above sea level, and many of the farmers have coffee planted much higher than this. Kibingo is named after reeds that are growing in the river running alongside the station site, planted in order to help keep the soil at the banks from eroding. They've been around since the mid 1980s, and a couple years back, took 1st place at the Burundi Cup of Excellence competition, no small feat.