Like much of coffee production in Africa, Burundi’s coffee history is tied to colonialism – first introduced by the Belgians in the 1930s, coffee now makes up more than 80% of exports from the small, landlocked country. The backbone of Burundi’s coffee production are smallholder farmers – growing coffee in small gardens, tended by family.

This coffee represents a new relationship for us – sourced through JNP Coffee. Founded by Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian in 2012, JNP is committed to both sourcing exceptional coffees from Burundi, as well as encouraging transformational change for local coffee farmers by promoting gender equality, supporting financial literacy education and developing leadership skills.

For years, the JNP team noted that there was one coffee from Ngozi Province that consistently scored higher than all the others from this region. Given Jeanine’s kinship with the area – after all, her mother was born and raised there – they set out to track down that prized source. It took some work, but they finally found the hill where this special coffee grows. The differentiation that terroir can make in coffee is astounding! In Kirundi, Bahire means “be well.”