The coffee we buy from the village of Mpemba is produced by a small, dedicated cooperative called Kazoza N’Ikawa, which means “the future is the coffee.” Founded in 2012, the co-op has consistently produced some of the most refined and sweetest coffees in Burundi. Look for notes of clementine, honey, and a tea-like body. Kayanza is a province in the northwest of Burundi known for its tea and coffee production. Farms associated with Kazoza N’Ikawa are small, generally having less than 1 hectare of land with just a few hundred coffee trees. Farms here, and in most of Burundi, have very little shade—mainly eucalyptus—and are intercropped with fruits, vegetables, and potatoes. In 2009, we met the cooperative’s president Germaine Simbayobewe on our very first sourcing trip to Burundi. We were immediately struck by his passion for coffee. A few years later, we met Germaine again—this time at Kazoza—and saw his drive and seriousness manifest again in this new cooperative. The coffee from Mpemba is some of the best-picked and best-sorted coffee we have seen in Burundi, so we were not surprised in 2013 when Mpemba took fourth place in the Cup of Excellence. This is our ninth year purchasing coffee from Kazoza N’Ikawa, along with help from the cooperative union, COCOCA, of which this cooperative is a member. Like many coffees from the Great Lakes region of East Africa, there is a small likelihood of experiencing a defect called Potato Taste Defect, or PTD, when grinding your coffee. Though a bit unpleasant and highly aromatic, PTD affects individual beans and is completely safe to consume. We've measured the PTD incidence rate of this lot to be 1 occurrence in 12.5 pounds, on average. If you'd like to learn more about this defect, as well as some tips for avoiding it in your cup, head to www.counterculturecoffee.com/PTD.