Grand Cru Burundi, the most exquisite micro-lot coffees of Burundi.
2023-2024 Harvest
ABOUT THE COFFEE
Our Grand Cru Burundi coffees are the best of the new harvest, selected for their exquisite quality and terroir. These exclusive Grand Cru Burundi coffees score between 87 and 92 and include washed Bourbon coffees, prized for their citrusy flavor and sparkling acidity, and Bourbon naturals, known for their sweet and complex flavors of stone fruits. All are small micro-lots. Inquire for quantity and pricing.
The people behind these exceptional coffees
Celebrating Women Growers.
In Burundi, coffee farms are small and may have as few as five coffee plants or as many as fifty. These many small farms are cared for mostly by women—particularly uneducated women, who are considered an undervalued resource, as they are in most poor countries. Our founder, Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, has a special understanding of the challenges of women in Burundi. She was born and raised there and her mother’s family had a small coffee crop that earned enough money to send her mother and her siblings to school. Jeanine explains, “Most Burundians attend only elementary school, and only 2% receive a degree in higher education. I was one of the lucky ones,” she says, “I received an education and earned both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in International Business from Universities in the United States. When I started JNP Coffee, I wanted to create a better model for the coffee business, to work with the women growers as partners.”
Jeanine
Niyonzima-Aroian
Founder of JNP Coffee
Hello! I’m Jeanine Niyonzima, founder of JNP Coffee, a direct trade company that represents more than 10,000 coffee farming families in Burundi.
I founded JNP Coffee in 2012 with a dream to empower coffee farmers in my home country, Burundi. Our business model is driven by quality coffee based on strong producer partnerships and shared knowledge in pursuit of several United Nations sustainable development goals.
Score
Bavyeyi
Grand Cru Burundi Coffee
Bavyeyi coffees are grown in the rich volcanic soil of a remote mountain area of northern Burundi in Ngozi Province, an area famous for its excellent coffees. The conditions in this region are perfect for producing distinctly high quality coffees and JNP Coffee works with an experienced group of farmers, many of whom are Muslim women. These farmers collaborate enthusiastically with the JNP Q-grader when she visits their farms, understanding that quality can mean empowerment. Bavyeyi coffee was named by Jeanine in honor of her own mother who grew up in Ngozi and helped her family grow coffee. Bavyeyi means "parents" in Kirundi.
Bahire
Grand Cru Burundi Coffee
Bahire, a new coffee discovery! For years Jeanine saw that there was one coffee from Ngozi Province that consistently scored higher than all the other fine coffees from that region. Feeling her kinship for Ngozi, afterall her mother was born and raised there, she set out to find that coffee. It took some work, but she finally found the hill where this special coffee was growing and she was in awe of the differentiation that terroir can make in coffee. JNP Coffee now works with the farmers of Bahire. Bahire means "be well" in Kirundi.
131
Score
Available
Fully Washed
87
Vibrant acidity of red currants and raspberry with an aftertaste of rose.
30 kg
Bahire
Turihamwe
Grand Cru Burundi Coffee
The proud women farmers of Turihamwe coffee truly embody the spirit of entrepreneurship. They have been growing coffee in Kayanza Province for about five years and have devoted themselves to attaining quality and to building a sustainable future for their families and their community, a future that they see is possible because of their partnership with JNP Coffee. For several years they worked together, studied together, and saved their Dushinme® premiums together. Soon they had enough money to build their own wet mill, which they did themselves. Now they control the quality of their coffee beyond the harvest and through the critical processing steps. The name Turihamwe, was chosen by the women themselves. It means "together" in Kirundi.
1628
Score
Available
Fully Washed
89
Yellow fruits and spice featuring a heavy body with notes of orange, plum and white peach. Tropical notes.
4 bags
Turihamwe
Hafi
Grand Cru Burundi Coffee
The remotest of the remote! That's often where you find the prize. In the hills of Muyinga Province, the farmers of Hafi coffee would face more than a day's journey if they tried to deliver their freshly harvested coffees to the nearest wet mill. That's why, until this year, all Hafi coffees were naturally processed. It was even difficult for JNP Coffee to visit them as it's a six hour journey from the capital, if the roads aren't washed out. Jeanine did visit though and what she found was that these farmers in their remoteness had become masters of the natural process. The had developed a 72-hour anaerobic process for closing the coffee cherries in raised beds. This controlled fermentation adds a jamminess to the coffee as well as other wonderfully complex multi-layered flavors. Hafi is named for the farmers desire to have a washing station nearby. Hafi means "near" in Kirundi.
Incuti
Grand Cru Burundi Coffee
Kayanza Province is known to produce some of the highest quality coffees in Burundi. Incuti coffee grows near a high-altitude rainforest in Kayanza among the tea, banana and cassava plants. This exceptional coffee was new to the JNP Coffee family a few years ago and comes with a special story. The producer was a past winner of the Cup of Excellence in Burundi, when Jeanine served on the COE jury. He had also heard about JNP Coffee’s Dushime® program and their support for farmers.
Based on this, he sought out Jeanine to see if her company would work with his group of farmers. When Jeanine visited the farms, she was impressed not just by the coffee but also by the character and persistence of this hardworking man, who has since become a dear friend. JNP Coffee continues to work with the farmers of Incuti. Incuti means "friend" in Kirundi.
BURUNDI
Burundi is a small country located in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Warm days, cool nights and its rich volcanic soil promote its agricultural economy. Coffee production supports thousands of families and their local communities.
Thanks to its fertile and mountainous regions, Burundi's coffee crops can grow at exceptional altitudes, from 1,200 to 1,950 meters (3,937 to 6,397 feet) above sea level. This is a key ingredient to achieving the bright acidity, sweet, complex and full body you find in a cup of Burundi coffee.
