Coffee drying tables covered in ripe red cherries with green vegetation in the background. Swiss Water Emerald Micro Lots Burundi Kalico Red Bourbon

Emerald Micro Lots: Burundi Kalico Red Bourbon

A relationship coffee providing meaningful support to women farmers in Burundi.


In 2012, Angèle Ciza decided to go into the coffee business. With a friend, she purchased a number of washing stations, hoping to work closely with growers as a means to begin processing some of the best coffees in the country. Sadly, Ciza passed away in 2022, but her legacy and tremendous impact lives on through her company, Kalico (short for Kahawa Link Company)—a name synonymous with specialty
coffee in Burundi. Kalico is now managed by Ciza’s son, Alexandre Shaka Mugisha, and works with seven washing stations in the region, processing high quality coffees from natural to honey to washed. We’ve been buying coffee from Angèle, and now Alex, since 2020, and are proud to continue support of their meaningful work.

Woman lifting up handsful of ripe red coffee cherry on a sorting table in Burundi. Swiss Water Emerald Micro Lots Burundi Kalico Red Bourbon

Kalico operates in Northeast Burundi, where five beautiful lakes meet in the provinces of Kirundo and Muyinga. This coffee is full of flavors that are greatly influenced by its unique growing conditions: rich volcanic soils, high altitudes, and the winds that grace the lakes region.

Through an emphasis on agricultural education, the quality of the coffees produced
through Kalico’s partnership has grown steadily—along with prices paid to farmers, and improvements for women. Kalico invests continually in training, environmental
protection, micro-finance, and other social causes such as a scholarship program to pay for school fees for young girls. Over 70% of the producers they work with are women, and Kalico directly provides essentials to these women like loincloths and farm animals (who will provide them with organic fertilizer for the soil). Swiss Water is honored to be a part of continuing Ciza’s legacy in support of Burundi’s women farmers, all while sharing their exceptional coffees.

Coffee Facts:

Producer: Kahawa Link Company (Kalico)
Region: Kirundu/Mutarishwa
Altitude: 1650–1750 masl
Varieties: Red Bourbon
Harvest Season: March–July
Processing: Washed
Cup: Black Currant, Black Tea, Dried Fruit, Hibiscus

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