Together We Can...

February 18, 2022

As we say “every coffee tells a story”, and we have one to tell you. In January we received bags of one of the first five micro-lots produced in Burundi by the “Turihamwe Turashabora” investment group and imported by JNP Coffee in Massachusetts. JNP Coffee’s deep ties to Burundi lie in the concept of collaboration with farmers in Burundi to produce coffee of specialty quality with the terroirs’ best character and together share the success of their work by earning financial premiums. In the province of Ngozi there are seven women that saved the premiums earned from JNP coffee through the IWCA premium program. In 2019 they used their savings to form a small financial group named “Turihamwe Turashabora” which in Kirundi translates to “Together we can”. They used their funding money to build their own washing station named “Gitemezi” after the local hill where the station stands. These women have the belief that good quality coffee is a way out of poverty. They have a goal to increase their capacity to 1,200 bags a year in the following years. The financial benefits for these women allow them to participate in new financial literacy programs sponsored by JNP Coffee and Burundi Friends International, the program helps them make appropriate economic decisions.

The coffee is of the Bourbon variety and its full of the citrus and sweet molasses and dark bakers chocolate notes that prized Burundian coffees are known for. Our mission at Las Fincas is to deliver coffee full of quality and rich of stories, such is the one of this burundian micro-lot tells so sweetly. The traceability of this coffee invites our customers to know the impacts their purchases have at origin and the benefits that this provides to farmers like the women of Turihamwe Turashabora station. The most effective financial models are those where women play the principal role. This allows women to provide stability for their families and ensure a source of income. This also helps women increase productivity, decrease infant mortality and promotes better nutrition and health in coffee farming families.

Coffee industry in the country started in 1922 with Belgian Colonialism and remained private until 1976. The industry flourished between 1976-1991 before the civil war of liberation. In 2019 an outbreak of malaria dropped coffee output for about a third triggering a new proposal to nationalize the industry in 2020 with a new $55 million investment from the world bank to help farmers boost output of 30,000 tons by 2023. We don’t know what the impact will be for the private ownership for the moment but we expect that this should result in a new positive era for the production of coffee in Burundi as it has happened before.

We encourage you to try this amazing coffee that is not only delicious but also represents how the future of specialty coffee relies in the collaborative efforts to produce quality at origin while empowering the farmers that produce it and at the end of the chain consuming these coffees of amazing character. We will be roasting the first lots as soon as we have enough orders to start shipping them out. We will be packing them in 150g aluminum can with our innovative pressurized process. If you would like to reserve and pre-order some cans of Turihamwe Turashabora please subscribe and we will let you know when the coffee is available for purchase.

Also in News

Some of You Might Be Wondering - Las Fincas Coffee

Follow

Get on the list! Sign up and be the first to know about our exclusive offers, limited edition micro-lots, private tasting events and more... don't miss out!

Together We Can...

Also in News

Some of You Might Be Wondering

Because It’s the Right Thing to Do, the IWCA

Sweet Like Honey!

Follow