BURUNDI Yandaro Kayanza

PROCESSING: Washed
SCA SCORE: 86 points

FLAVOR PROFILE: Stone fruit, honey sweetness, green tea and cardamom notes

Yandaro Washing Station – Burundi

The Yandaro Washing Station in Burundi has that rare quality of places where tradition and precision come together without compromising either. Located in the north of the country, in the heart of Kayanza Province, Yandaro works with hundreds of smallholder farmers who grow Red Bourbon on cool mountain slopes at altitudes reaching up to 1,800 meters above sea level.

Here, volcanic soils, regular rainfall, and significant day-to-night temperature variations create a slow maturation process. The washing station transforms this potential into clean, vibrant lots with a distinctive and well-defined identity.

Processing is rigorous and almost ritualistic. The cherries are manually sorted through several stages before undergoing controlled fermentation in cool water. The beans are carefully cleaned until only the pure coffee seed remains.

The final washing takes place in long channels, where the densest beans are separated. The coffee is then dried on African raised beds, preserving the most delicate elements of its profile: bright citrus, red-fruit sweetness, black tea-like clarity, and an elegant structure characteristic of the finest washing stations in Kayanza.

Yandaro is known in Burundi for its consistency. Year after year, its lots stand out for their freshness, balance, and floral-fruity expression, immediately attracting the attention of specialty coffee buyers.

This is the kind of washing station that does more than simply process coffee — it helps shape a distinctive style: clean, precise, modern, while preserving the authenticity of Burundi's terroir.