Calm Waters Coffee Roasters
Yagikawa Coop
Yagikawa Coop
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Yagikawa Coop is a group of over 800 small-holder farmers in the Kayanza region of Burundi. This coop was founded in 2007 and is one of the oldest cooperatives in Burundi. In Kirundi, the official language of Burundi, Yagikawa means “Talk About Coffee”. Coffee is delivered in cherry and fermented for 12-18 hours before being dried on raised beds. Drying times from 10-14 days are typical in Kayanza depending on the weather.
Like many of its neighbors in Africa, Burundi produces microlots almost by default. Each farmer owns an average of less than even a single hectare and delivers cherries to centralized depulping and washing stations, SOGESTALs (Sociéte de Gestion des Stations de Dépulpage Lavage), and it may take more than one producers’ delivery in order to create a lot.This purchasing style makes it nearly impossible, if not completely impossible, to arrive at single-producer, single-farm, or single-variety lots. Instead, coffees are typically sold under the appellation of the washing station. Depending on the leadership and management at the stations, both private- and state-run, the attention to detail in the processing makes a big difference. Meticulous sorting, fermenting and washing are necessary to create quality and uniformity among the coffee. The typical processing method in Burundi is somewhat similar to Kenya, with a “dry fermentation” of roughly 12 hours after de-pulping, followed by a soak of 12–14 hours in mountain water. Coffees are floated to sort for density, then soaked again for 12–18 hours before being dried in parchment on raised beds *(Information provided by Cafe Imports)
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