It kinda makes us feel old to say it, but this is the eighth year in a row that Huckleberry has roasted coffees from the Long Miles Coffee Project in Burundi. We’ve been with Long Miles since their first harvest in 2013, and look forward to new and innovative coffee from the group every year - this our second harvest roasting a delicious Long Miles honey. Honey-processed coffees lie somewhere between a washed- and natural-process coffee. The outer layer of the coffee is removed (depulped), but rather than washing off the sticky fruit on the outside of the bean, the coffee is dried with this sticky layer, often called either mucilage or honey, still on the seed. In this case, Long Miles added a couple days of oxygen-reduced fermentation between depulping and drying, and the result is one of the most complex honeys we’ve tasted from any origin, and one of the best coffees of any process we've tasted from Long Miles. The Long Miles Coffee Project was founded by Ben and Kristy Carlson, an American couple living in Burundi. Upon seeing the difficulties farmers faced while Ben was working as a coffee trader, the Carlsons built two washing stations in the region, and have worked with area farmers to help them fetch better prices. By working with the farmers to develop stringent quality practices at the farm level, then washing and milling the coffee with meticulous care, Long Miles is able to ensure that the coffee is of the highest quality possible. By working with Huckleberry and other roasters who commit to coffees before they've shipped from Burundi, the Long Miles Coffee Project is able to pay the farmers a higher price for their coffee than they would receive on the open market and from other washing stations. Mikuba is a specific hill near Long Miles' Heza washing station, and this coffee comes exclusively from the Long Miles farmers living on that hill. This is our first year roasting coffee from Mikuba, but we’re stoked to let another hill shine here at Huck.