Higher Grounds Trading Company

About Higher Grounds Trading Company Burundi Buyungero Cococa

2018 marks our first year souring coffee from the east African country of Burundi, and we’re delighted by the COCOCA cooperative’s efforts. This delicately nuanced coffee offers notes of vanilla, orange zest, and a dark brown sugar sweetness. Since the start of the reform process of the coffee sector in Burundi, growers were challenged to develop organizations capable of defending their own interests and to participate effectively in the management of the coffee supply chain. Since 1997, growers have organized associations of growers in the hills, unions, growers in each geographical area serving a washing station, federations of farmer associations, and finally a nonprofit, the National Federation of Coffee Growers Associations. This federation provides a recognized framework for the representation of growers at the national level. Our importer, Cooperative Coffees, began collaborating with COCOCA in 2017 in order to support their organic transition project for four organizations in the region of Buyengero. Since then, Cooperative Coffees has sourced from two cooperatives/washing stations: Dusubizitekigitegwacikawa (Ntita washing station) and Kawazamurabawe (Horezo washing station). We look forward to enjoying more of COCOCA’s coffee in years to come.

Higher Grounds is proud to offer exceptional coffees from around the world by building lasting partnerships with small-scale growers, working directly with them to ensure a top-quality product. Through those close relationships and ongoing community projects both in our local area and globally, we provide coffee drinkers with an excellent product and the opportunity to engage in a cycle that begins at, and returns to, our partners in coffee-growing regions.