Many Hands, Beautiful Hills Burundi Twelve Coffee Tasting Set

This special release is composed of 250 limited edition tasting boxes, each containing a collection of twelve extraordinary coffees produced by the Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi. All but one of these microlots were sourced from the 2021 harvest, and as with every coffee that we roast at Passenger, the entire collection of coffees has been carefully preserved in frozen storage since arrival to the U.S. Each box also includes a beautifully designed 40 page photo book featuring images and lot-specific information for each of the featured coffees, and a list of names acknowledging each of the 2,733 farmers who contributed to this special collection.

Passenger is proud to count the Long Miles Coffee Project and the communities of Burundian coffee farmers that they work closely with, as one of six Foundational Partnerships that form the heart of our sourcing program. Since 2018, Passenger’s primary menu offering from Burundi has been the Heza Foundational Lot, named for the Long Miles washing station where the majority of our annual selections are processed. As with the other two washing stations that Long Miles operates in Burundi, Heza is strategically located in close proximity to thousands of rural coffee farmers who are members of distinct hill communities (the smallest geopolitical unit in Burundi is the colline or “hill”). During the coffee harvest, each microlot produced by the Long Miles team is kept separated and traceable to the specific hill where it was harvested.

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.

In this limited edition set, you'll experience:

Twelve Distinct Tins of Exceptional Burundi Coffee

• Each tin contains 60 grams (enough to enjoy comparatively in a cupping format or prepared with your favorite manual brewing device).
• Each of the twelve coffees are unique and fully traceable to the specific hill where they were harvested.
• Each of the twelve coffees were processed as fully washed microlots by the Long Miles team.
• Each tasting collection will be roasted to order, with each coffee roasted to the same profile, and to the same end temperature offering a unique opportunity to taste the nuances that the microclimate of each individual hill brings to the cup.
  

A Beautiful Full Color Photobook

• The 40 page book, specially created to accompany the collection, features an introductory essay, maps and information contextualizing the hyper-specific geography that each coffee represents, photographic landscapes and farmer portraits taken by Julianna Stallings on Passenger’s most recent trip to Burundi, and the full list of farmers who contributed to the project.

WORLD CUPPING TOUR 2024

We're taking this show on the road! Join us as we cup through each coffee in this collection.