Giku

The Belgian roastery Replica Roasters from Leuven once again turned to coffee from Long Miles Coffee in Burundi, imported by its partner, Osito. The beans come from the Giku hills and underwent honey processing at the Ninga washing station. The result is exactly what you’d expect from Kayanza—plenty of oolong tea and red fruit—but shifted a bit further into the tropics, toward lychee. The roastery itself says that anyone who loves their Mutana will feel right at home here. The roast is set for filter brewing. Ninga is located at an elevation of roughly 1,900 meters above sea level near the Nkokoma River and is the newest of the washing stations built by Long Miles in Burundi.

It was established for a simple reason: farmers from the surrounding hills had to walk for hours to more distant stations to sell their cherries at a fair price and through a transparent purchasing process, which naturally took a toll on the quality of the cherries they brought in. Today, Ninga serves three main farming communities in Kayanza—Giku, Bumbu, and Ninga itself. Long Miles was founded in 2011 by Ben and Kristy Carlson, and their model is based on the simple premise that better infrastructure means better coffee, better prices, and a better life for growers; today, they work with thousands of farming families.