Shoebox Coffee Roasters - Heza Hill PB Honey | Burundi

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Burundi — Long Miles Coffee Project Heza Hill Peaberry Red Bourbon (Honey)

Tastes Like — 🥭 Mango Syrup • 🍑 Apricot Jam • 🌸 Jasmine

DETAILS

• Producer: Local Smallholder Farmers — Heza Hill, Butanyerera
• Station: Heza Washing Station — Long Miles Coffee Project
• Region: Kayanza, Burundi
• Varietal: Red Bourbon (Peaberry)
• Process: Honey
• Lot: Peaberry Separation (Screen 14–15)

INTRO

A peaberry honey separation from Long Miles Coffee Project's Heza washing station in Butanyerera, Kayanza — one of the most celebrated and carefully managed specialty washing stations in Burundi. A whole-season separation of screen 14–15 peaberry lots from all the producers surrounding Heza, processed as honey to unlock a depth of tropical and floral character rarely seen from this origin. In the cup: loud juicy mango up front, cooling into jammy apricot and an intense, lingering jasmine and honeysuckle finish.

THE PRODUCER

Long Miles Coffee Project was founded in 2013 by Ben and Kristy Carlson after witnessing first-hand the systemic injustice and poor farming practices that had taken hold in Burundi's newly privatised coffee supply chain. Before Long Miles opened, sourcing a directly traceable microlot from a single community in Burundi was nearly impossible, and potato defect made even the best lots inconsistent cup to cup. Through three washing stations and deep, ongoing relationships with 12 individually traceable hill communities, Long Miles has transformed what is possible from Burundi — making year-over-year direct relationships not just achievable, but coveted.

Their Coffee Scouts project is a natural extension of this commitment — a team of 26 young Burundians, trained as agronomists and employed full-time, who work year-round within the hill communities to teach farming best practices and support the planting of shade trees at smallholder farms. The cumulative result of this education and infrastructure investment is, by many accounts, the best coffee Burundi has ever produced.

This peaberry lot represents the full harvest contribution from all producers surrounding Heza station — separated by screen size after processing, with anything falling between 14 and 15 screen designated as peaberry and kept as its own regional lot.

THE PROCESS

The Honey process at Heza involves:

🍒 Hand-picking — Ripe Red Bourbon cherries selectively harvested by surrounding smallholder producers 🔍 Sorting — Cherry sorted and floated before processing 🔧 Depulping — Outer skin removed while mucilage is retained on the bean ☀️ Raised-bed drying — Coffee dried with mucilage intact on raised beds 📐 Peaberry separation — Screen size sorted at the station, with 14–15 screen separated as a distinct peaberry lot

The honey processing — retaining the mucilage throughout drying — is the defining step, building the tropical fruit sweetness and jammy depth that make this peaberry separation so compelling, while the screen sorting ensures a concentrated, consistent lot that represents the very best of what the Heza Hill community delivered across the full harvest season.

THE CUP

A richly tropical and intensely floral honey peaberry from one of Burundi's most purposeful and community-driven washing stations — loud juicy mango sweetness up front, cooling into jammy apricot and a long, lingering finish of jasmine and honeysuckle. Long Miles Coffee Project at its most expressive and rewarding.

Flavour Notes

🥭 Mango Syrup 🍑 Apricot Jam 🌸 Jasmine