Gahahe Filtro Especial is one of the flagships of Nomad. Every year it stars in the richest sips of batch brew at our HQ and is also responsible for refreshing us every summer with cans of Splash Cold Brew. We love Burundi for a lot of reasons. And this year we really like its vibrant personality with floral, fruity tangerine and juicy, caramelized roasted pineapple notes.
The Washed Gahahe station is located in the Kayanza region. This station at Washed, located at an altitude of 1805 masl is equipped with 10 fermentation tanks, 4 cherry sorting tables, 2 dipping tanks, a pre-drying area with 18 tables and a drying area with 180 tables, allowing the station to process up to 750 tons of coffee cherries annually.
Gahahe is involved in several farmer outreach and support projects, including a livestock breeding project and a variety of Farmer Hub projects focused on strengthening cooperatives and improving yields.
Many trees in Burundi are of the Red Bourbon variety. Due to the increasingly small size of coffee plantations, root aging is a major problem in Burundi. Many farmers have trees that are over 50 years old, but with small plots to cultivate, it is difficult to justify replacing them with new trees at the risk of going 3-4 years without a remunerative crop. To encourage farmers to renew their plantations, Bugestal purchases seeds from the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), establishes nurseries and sells the plants to farmers at or below cost. At the Washed station, farmers can also obtain organic fertilizer derived from composted coffee pulp.
Despite the ubiquity of coffee cultivation in Burundi, each smallholder has a relatively small crop. The average farmer has approximately 250 trees, usually in their backyards. Each tree produces an average of 1.5 kilos of cherry, so the average farmer sells about 200-300 kilos of cherry annually.
Process
Quality assurance begins as soon as farmers deliver their cherries. The cherries are wet processed under constant supervision. Pulping, fermentation time, Washed, sorting into carcasses and a final soaking are closely monitored. All cherries are floated in small buckets as a first step to verify quality. GREENCO still buys the floating cherries (damaged, under-ripe, etc.), but immediately separates the two qualities and only markets the floating cherries as B quality cherries.
After floating, the higher quality cherries are re-sorted by hand to remove all damaged, under-ripe and over-ripe cherries. The cherries are then hulled within 6 hours of delivery. The coffee is dry fermented for up to 12 hours and then soaked in clean mountain water for 12 to 24 hours. The parchment is then soaked for an additional 12-18 hours and then transferred to drying beds. The parchment is raked frequently to ensure uniform drying and damaged kernels are removed. The parchment takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks to dry.
When replicating the recipe, there are different variables that can interfere in the final result of your cup, such as roasting date, conservation of the beans, environment, water, etc. It is important to keep in mind that all these factors may influence and you may have to make small adjustments when replicating this recipe.
Method: V60
Mill: Mazzer Omega at number 7
Recommended mineral water: Font D'or at 96ºC
We used 15 grams of coffee for 260 grams of water.
We add the water in 2 pours. First pour 60 grams, wait 30 seconds and then pour the rest of the water to 260 grams. The total infusion time should be 3:40 minutes.
