Cameroon Coffee: Cameroon is an Oddball in Specialty Coffee
For starters, this is West African coffee, not East African like most other arabicaArabica refers to Coffea Arabica, the taxonomic species name of the genus responsible for around 75% of the worlds commercial coffee crop.: Arabica refers to Coffea Arabica, the taxonomic species name of the genus responsible More offerings such as KenyaKenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both in the cup, and the way they run their trade, everything is topnotch.: Kenya is the East African powerhouse of the coffee world. Both More, Ethiopia
Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee: it is in the forests of the Kaffa region that coffee arabica grew wild. Coffee is "Bun" or "Buna" in Ethiopia, so Coffee Bean is quite possibly a poor More, RwandaRwandan coffee was, at one time, rarely seen in the United States as either a Specialty grade or low-end commercial coffee. There simply was not that much coffee produced in Rwanda that went anywhere besides More. And a large percentage of Cameroon’s coffee has traditionally been robustaRobusta usually refers to Coffea Robusta, responsible for roughly 25% of the world's commercial coffee. Taxonomy of Robusta is debated: some sources use “Robusta” to refer to any variety of Coffea Canephora, and some use More, grown in all provinces except the north, while arabica is mainly produced in the high altitudes of the west, northwest, and east.
The western highlands of Cameroon, where much of the coffee is grown, averages about 5,000 feet above sea level and has two distinct seasons, the rainy season and dry season, which benefits quality arabica.
The lot we last had on offer was from the CAPLAMI Cooperative in Mifi region of Western Province. CAPLAMI has over 2500 members, altitudes ranging from 1300 to 1800 meters. It is an unusual longberry Java cultivarJava Cultivar is planted widely in Cameroon, related to Abyssinia found in East Java. It is distinct from Java Typica types, such as Bergendal, Pasumah or BLP, and from Jamaique Typica in Cameroon as well. More, and cup qualities bear some resemblance to Indonesian character, but this one has many distinct differences too.
