This week, we are stoked to announce the return of Yulissa Chambi's Red Catuai as well as another high-profile "hills" lot from Long Miles' Heza washing station.
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Burundi Heza Hills PB Honey:
Founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, Long Miles Coffee Project began in 2013 after seeing a newly privatized coffee supply chain rife with systemic injustice and poor farming practices. Prior to Long Miles opening, it was nearly impossible to source a directly traceable microlot from a single community in Burundi, and the abundance of potato defect made even the best lots inconsistent from cup to cup. Through the opening of 3 different washing stations in Burundi, and the diligent effort and communication with 12 individually traceable "Hills" or coffee growing communities, Long Miles has made long standing year over year coffee relationships in Burundi not only possible, but coveted amongst roasters who've heard and tasted nothing but good things from them. In a constant pursuit of community empowerment, education, and high coffee quality, Long Miles has also started the Coffee Scouts project. Lead by a team of Long Miles' very own agronomists, the Coffee Scouts are a team of 26 young Burundians living local to the villages they work with. The Scouts have been provided with ongoing agronomy education and are practically trained in coffee farming best practices. They work year round as full time employees to teach classes and help plant shade trees at smallholder farms all throughout the Hills that Long Miles works with. All of this effort has culminated in the best coffee from Burundi we have ever tasted, often turning out better than many Ethiopian and Kenyan lots we come across. This lot is the result of precise screen size sorting done at Heza washing station, with anything falling between 14-15 screen being designated as " peaberry" and separated out into it's own regional lot, representing work from the whole harvest season and all of the producers surrounding Heza in Butanyerera, Kayanza. In the cup, we find loud and juicy mango notes that quickly cool into jammy apricot tones and an intense, lingering floral finish of jasmine and honeysuckle.
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Bolivia Yulissa Chambi Red Catuai Washed:
The story of Yulissa's farm begins in the 1980s, when her family purchased 20 hectares of land in Yunga, within the mountains surrounding the Caranavi region. They initially only planted 4 hectares of coffee and were happy with the land being used as a refuge from their full time jobs in the city, growing and selling coffee as a means to get away from the noise and retreat. After years of keeping this up, the Bolivian government began to wane in its support of coffee growing subsidies and it was no longer economically viable, so the farm fell into a state of disrepair with trees losing their production and getting swallowed up by the surrounding wildlife. In 2019, Yulissa decided she wanted to revive the family farm, again replanting the initial 4 hectares with Red Catuai, and planting another 3 hectares a bit later. Yulissa's intense passion for the coffee supply chain lead her deeper and deeper into coffee as a career, eventually culminating in her winning the 2024 Aeropress championship in Bolivia. Most of her harvest immediately goes to local buyers, as her name in the Bolivian specialty scene is highly regarded. This particular harvest of Red Catuai underwent a very classical washed process, with coffees being floated and fully depulped before undergoing a short 20hr wet fermentation in clean tanks. After being washed and free of any remaining mucilage, the coffees were left to dry in parchment on raised beds for 20 days. In the cup we find stupidly sweet malic tones of pear and apple, with a charming background of marzipan and black tea. As the cup cools, it ripens into a cooked fruit sweetness that reminds us of fried apples.