We taste: a graham cracker, milk chocolate and sugarcane sweetness is complemented by a juicy brightness with notes of citrus oil, grapefruit, green apple and pear. A black tea briskness and complex notes of chai spices (think clove, anise, cardamom and ginger) round out the cup. A complex yet easy to drink East African coffee.

Producers: 2000 farmers organized around the Turihamwe Turashobora producer group

Region: Ngozi Provence, Burundi

Elevation: 1,750 meters above sea level

Process: Fully-Washed, Dried on Raised Beds

Varietal: Local bourbon cultivars

Coffee Story*

The story starts with a spark, first held by Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, founder of JNP Coffee. Jeanine was born in Burundi’s capital city of Bujumbura to a family with a coffee growing legacy. Her path back to her birth-country, after earning an MBA from Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School and enjoying a successful career in international business, would be through a not-for-profit organization she founded called Burundi Friends International (BFI), a not-for-profit funding educational and economic empowerment programs for rural Burundians, which is now in its 13th year. From the board of BFI and after attending a Cup of Excellence competition, Jeanine realized she could be a part of coffee promotion, and JNP Coffee was born, and the spark became a flame. 

One of JNP’s core principles, the ember at the center of its fire, is that of gender-sensitive sourcing and women’s empowerment, and among the company’s earliest strategic partners was the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA), of which JNP is a founding member in the country. 

And so the flame spread. Turihamwe is the next chapter in the story that is the legacy of Jeanine, JNP, and IWCA. In full, this group of producers represent themselves as Turihamwe Turashobora in Kirundi, which translates to “Together We Can!’’ After a gestation period as members of the IWCA Burundi chapter, this farmer-and-women-led-organization pooled the premiums earned through IWCA and JNP’s “Dushime” payment program and built their own wet mill in 2018 to maintain quality and better capture and represent the value of the coffee grown in their community. 

JNP Coffee’s partnership with Turihamwe is deep, from the personal ties (Jeanine’s mother was born to a coffee farming family in the same province), to shared principles of gender equity, quality, and transparency. In a bold move, JNP not only supports the farmers of the group through the Dushime payment program, but also commits to purchase the full harvest and carry financial risk for the facility’s entire outturn and has done so since its inception. 

The wet mill and quality team is entirely women-led and works closely with JNP’s trained Q Graders on best quality practices and lot curation. In addition to an efficient water treatment system for the processing station, JNP Coffee is also looking to invest in Rainforest Alliance certification (RFA) for this group. 

Fully washed processing for members of the Turihamwe Turashobora group is as detailed as anywhere in Burundi where the best coffees are produced. Cherry is floated for density and visible defects prior to mechanical depulping and demucilaginating. Thanks to the mechanical mucilage removal fermentation is quick, lasting only overnight, after which the wet parchment is sorted by density under water in concrete tanks, and then soaked again once complete. Drying takes place at first under shade, and then in open air with the parchment piled into pyramids, which are flattened and re-shaped each day as a form of incremental air exposure to slowly and evenly dry the coffee and lock in the final moisture. The resulting profile is exceedingly clean, bright and delicate. 

*written by Chris Kornman with Charlie Habegger - Royal Coffee