Masha | Burundi

TL;DR:  a true juice bomb! This is a coffee that helps support literally thousands of farmers, and is so delicious it will have you grinning from ear to ear all day long.

 

Masha washing station in Kayanza Burundi accepts coffee from over 3200 local farmers. Each producer has only 297 trees on average on roughly .11 hectares of land. These small-holder farmers are reliant upon coffee for their livelihood.

Harvest here is typically April through June, but coffee's have a long journey to export from this landlocked country.

From our import partner Cafe Imports:

Masha coffee washing station shares its name with the sub-hill upon which it stands and is actually more famous for its cattle than its coffee (the sub-hill that is). The name Masha is derived from the Kirundi word “amasho” meaning “herds of cattle”.

The sub-hill has been a cross road for many herds in the region and many of the local herders even have a unique greeting for each other, used only in these parts which is appropriate considering that 70% of them own cows.

They will say “gira amasho” towards one another meaning owner of cows and the abundance of cattle was even a reason for many Kings fighting over the territory in order to claim ownership over the vast herds of livestock.

Apart from cows and coffee, the hill on which the station is found, Gihororo, is named after the imihororo trees from which the locals weave traditional clothing making this region truly abundant in precious resources to its people.

The station did experience its fair share of difficulties, especially when the country was in a period of turmoil. In 1997, the storage facility and main house at the station was burnt down by rebels during the political conflict in Burundi.


We’ve roasted this coffee with our usual vigour and intensity, but kept a lighter touch given the honey style processing. We aimed to keep things bright, fun and juicy, and let the coffee do all the talking.

We prefer our filter brews from a v60, but we won’t judge for use of anything at all to make yourself a coffee - even a (clean) sock.

 

Our recommended ratio when brewing filter coffee is 60g of coffee per litre of water. Simply scale this down, or up, for your desired size of brew.

 

With all methods, you’ll want: a grind size similar to granulated sugar, boiling water, and about 3 minutes of brewing time. This goes for v60, aeropress, plunger, and the (still hopefully clean) sock.

 

Our favourite recipe for v60:

• 20g of medium to coarsely ground coffee, it’ll feel a little like granulated sugar.
• Set your kettle to boil, and ready your socks to be rocked.
• We use a 60g bloom, with a swirl of the slurry to make sure it’s all wet. You can stir of that’s easier, just don’t rip the paper!
• After that, when your timer is at 45 seconds, add more water to a total of 200g, and swirl gently.
• Then finally at 1:15 on your timer, add the rest of your water, to 330g, and do one last little swirl.
• Wait till it drains through, roughly 3:30 is a good time, pour into your favourite mug, and let those socks be rocked.

 

If you’d like more info or tips, get in touch! hello@coreroasters.cc