Many Hands, Beautiful Hills — Burundi Tasting with Passenger Coffee, August 17th 2024
Date: August 17th, 2024
Time: 1pm - 2:30pm
Location: Subtext Coffee Roasters — 130 Cawthra Ave, unit 104. M6N3C2
Please avoid wearing any scents.
Our admiration for the work of the Long Miles project in Burundi has been no secret—almost all of our Burundi coffees over the years have been sourced from their various initiatives. A combination between a growing specialty market and many smaller harvests have made it increasingly difficult to access Burundi specialty.
When we heard from Evan Howe, Passenger's wonderful green buyer, about an ambitious initiative to source from and put on display all twelve hills in Burundi as a tasting set, we couldn't help but try to host the experience in Toronto—are we ever grateful for the efforts of Passenger, Long Miles, and Osito for making this happen.
Below is the initiative in Passenger's words:
Over three years ago, Passenger’s green buying team initiated conversations with our sourcing partners to see if it would be possible to collaborate on a unique tasting collection exploring Burundian coffee terroir. Having worked in partnership with Long Miles essentially since our start as a roasting company in 2014, we had an appreciation for the fact that coffees from particular hills would often exhibit unique cup qualities. But while we had anecdotal experience of, for example, Nkonge lots tasting distinct from Mikuba lots in a given year, we had never tried to explore this more comprehensively. We wanted to be more strategic about isolating variables (choosing lots of the same quality grade, harvested at the same time, processed in the same way, etc.), and, rather than tasting traceable microlots from 3-5 hills comparatively, we wanted to see what it would be like to taste traceable microlots from all twelve hills as a complete set.
After years of effort, another trip to Burundi to visit all twelve hills in person, and the incredible support of the Long Miles Coffee Project, Osito Coffee, and the Infantree Brand Agency, this unique tasting collection has finally come to life. The Many Hands, Beautiful Hills project exemplifies the core focus of Passenger’s Foundational Sourcing ethos. By striving to share an increasingly nuanced portrait of the people and places of the Foundational Partnerships, we hope to inspire continued appreciation of, and investment in, the incredible coffees that our partners produce.