Busambo: Kayanza, Burundi
There’s something about Busambo that feels like the very end of summer. It’s bright, juicy, sweet, and just a little nostalgic. This washed Red Bourbon from Kayanza, Burundi, is the kind of coffee that keeps changing in your cup as it cools.
We’re excited to welcome Busambo to the lineup, sourced through our friends at Red Fox Coffee Merchants and processed at Umoco washing station near Kayanza. With notes of candied grapefruit, Rainier cherry, and cream soda, this one brings plenty of sweetness and a super-clean acidity to every sip, and its story is just as captivating as what’s in the cup.
From the Hills of Kayanza
Burundi is a small, landlocked country in East Africa, tucked between Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Coffee is an important cash crop for farming families throughout the country, providing income for everything from education and livestock to everyday household needs.
Busambo comes from the Kayanza region in northern Burundi, specifically the Busambo community. Coffee farms here sit high in the hills, with this lot grown between 1,850 and 2,100 meters above sea level. Most farms are small, generally just one to two hectares, and coffee is grown alongside popular crops like bananas, maize, cassava, and beans.
The surrounding landscape plays a big role in what ends up in the cup. Kayanza's high elevations, rich red clay soils, cooler temperatures, and plentiful rainfall create some seriously exciting conditions for coffee.
the Red Bourbon Varietal
Busambo is our second Red Bourbon from Burundi. If you remember Long Miles Bumba Hill, you’ve already met the variety once before.
So, what exactly is Red Bourbon? Bourbon is a classic variety of Arabica coffee, known for producing sweet, balanced, high-quality cups, especially when grown at higher elevations. Red Bourbon gets its name from the deep red color of the cherries as they ripen.
In the cup, Bourbon coffees are often known for their sweetness, bright acidity, and clean, balanced flavors, all things we’re tasting in Busambo. Here, that comes through as flavors of candied grapefruit, juicy Rainier cherry, and cream soda.
👉 Curious about what a coffee varietal actually is? Mike breaks it all down in a recent blog, Coffee Varietals, Explained.
Umoco Washing Station
After harvest, coffee cherries from Busambo and other surrounding farms make their way to Umoco washing station. The station acts as a central processing hub for coffee from the surrounding communities, where local producers typically bring their cherries in on foot, by bicycle, or by motorcycle.
At Umoco, Busambo goes through a washed process designed to let the coffee’s natural character shine. The coffee undergoes 12 hours of wet fermentation followed by another 12 hours in cement tanks, before it is dried for 20–25 days on raised African drying beds. The result is an incredibly clean cup, exactly what we want from a coffee this bright.
A coffee that likes to keep you guessing.
The hot-to-cool evolution of this cup is what makes this coffee so fun. It starts bright and energetic, gets juicier as it cools, and finishes with a soft sweetness that keeps you coming back for another sip. It’s a little cup of sunshine that likes to keep you guessing, just in time for the end of summer, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!