Notes: Strawberry, Citrus, Passionfruit

Processing: Natural

Elevation: 1,500-1,800 MASL

Varietal: Bourbon

Region: Ngozi, Burundi

Color: Agtron 67 Whole Bean | 100 Ground

About
Straw Hat is the kind of natural-process African coffee that reminds you why we got into this in the first place. It's a Burundi Bourbon from the hills of Ngozi, bright, juicy, and packed with fruit. Strawberry leads the way, followed by a wave of citrus and passionfruit that keeps the cup interesting from first sip to last. There's a sweetness here that lingers, like the warm tail end of a summer afternoon. If you've been craving something fruit-forward but balanced—not too wild, not too tame—this is it.

More About The Coffee
Ngozi sits in the rolling green hills of northern Burundi, just east of Kayanza and home to some of the country's finest specialty coffee. The elevations here run slightly lower than neighboring Kayanza, with warmer temperatures and slightly less rainfall—but the slightly acidic red soils more than make up for it, creating ideal conditions for producing exceptional coffee.

The coffee in this lot comes from smallholder farmers, most of whom tend incredibly small plots—often half a hectare or less—just enough to generate cash income alongside subsistence crops. Nearly all of the coffee grown throughout Burundi is Red Bourbon or closely related varieties like Jackson, partly due to the country's relatively recent entry into specialty coffee production, and partly thanks to a deliberate effort by the Burundian government to protect traditional flavor profiles.

For this natural process lot, ripe cherries are picked by hand, then moved immediately to raised mesh platforms to dry in the sun. The drying process takes three to four weeks of nearly constant attention—the cherries need to be raked frequently to prevent uneven drying, mold, or fermentation issues. It's incredibly labor-intensive work, but the payoff is worth it. The extended drying time with the fruit still intact allows the sugars and flavors of the cherry to migrate deeper into the bean, creating that intense fruit-forward profile that Burundi naturals are known for.

Coffee in Burundi is a community effort. Smallholders bring their cherry to local washing stations, where careful processing and quality sorting turn small plots of farmland into world-class lots. The work happening at stations across Ngozi—and the resilience of the producers there despite challenging political and economic conditions—is what makes this kind of coffee possible. Every bag is a small celebration of that craft.

Straw Hat | Ngozi, Burundi