Tanzania Coffee Overview

Potential and Problems in Tanzania

That potential glimmers on the horizon, sometimes achieved by the highest-grown Estates and small-holder Cooperatives. But sometimes the quality is lost in translation … or more precisely, in transit. The Tanzania coffee character is typical of East African washed (wet-processed) coffees: It is generally bright (acidic), and almost aggressively flavorful. Lack of balanceSuggests a harmony and proportion of qualities, and implies mildness since no one quality dominates.: Balance is both an obvious and slippery taste term. It implies a harmony… can be an issue sometimes, but the main risks are faulty flavors from bad fermentationFermentation in coffee processing traditionally referred to the stage in wet-processing of the coffee. We now understand that fermentation happens more broadly in nearly all processes, including honey…, and storageGreen coffee can be stored much longer than roasted coffee: Roasted coffee starts to lose its aromatics in 10 days after roasting. Green coffee can be stored months… or transit damage. The abundance of bureaucracy around coffee exportation, especially when you try to do something milkly innovative like a shipment of mixed micro-lots, can result in coffee stuck at the sweltering hot port of Dar Es Salaam. Even hermetic packaging like Grainpro-lined jute bags, or vacuum packing, does not prevent damage to the cup quality of coffee under these conditions.

Coffee is grown in the North and South zones and there is good quality potential from both areas, although buyers are more familiar with the northern Kilimanjaro and Meru coffees from around ArushaThe name of a cultivar from Tanzania, as well as a general trade name for Tanzania coffees from Mount Meru area. Arusha is also planted on estates in… and Moshi. There is also potential in Kigoma area near Lake Tanganyika. The Kagera area near Lake Victoria is a 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… growing zone, with coffeaThe botanical genus colloquially referred to as the “coffea genus,” which is comprised of over 120 individual species. These are generally opposite-leaved, evergreen shrubs or small understory trees… canephora making up some 25% of all coffee grown in Tanzania. In the south, Mbinga in the Songea area has produced a solid cup, and the drier Mbeya region is perfect for coffee growing and processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural….

Coffea 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… came to Tanzania with Jesuits and German colonization, and it was likely quite similar BourbonA coffee cultivar; a cross between Typica and Bourbon, originally grown in Brazil: Mundo Novo is a commercial coffee cultivar; a natural hybrid between “Sumatra” and Red Bourbon,… varieties still grown to this day. Original strains of coffees from the isle of Bourbon (now Reunion) were distributed through East Africa in this period, sometimes named for missionary groups who brought them such as French Mission BourbonFrench Missionaries brought the original coffee to East Africa, from Reunion island to Tanzania, then Kenya. There are still areas with original Bourbon rather than the SL varieties…. or Scottish MissionThe Scottish Mission introduced Mokka coffee from Yemen to their site in Kibwezi Kenya in 1893, and later at Kikuyu. These were called the St. Austin and St…. Bourbon. Kent varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies… was brought from IndiaS-795 is a variety based on the ” S-Line” coffees of  India, and stands for Selection 795,  It has a very fine cup, one of the best in…, but is rare to find in production. Newer hybrids are N39, which is distinctly a Bourbon-type in its form, and the lovely-named KP432. Would you like a delicious cup of KP432 this morning?

TACRI, the research institution in Tanzania, has aggressively developed new varieties to improve disease resistance and increase yields for the farmers of Tanzania. We hope new varieties will cup as well as the old Bourbons, and not include the problematic Robusta genetics that come with CatimorAteng is a common name for Catimor coffees widely planted in Sumatra and other Indonesia isles.: Ateng, with several subtypes, is a common name for Catimor coffees widely… types. That’s a tall order though. Coffee fungus diseases and coffee wilt are serious issues in Tanzania, as well as imbuing seedstock with drought-resistant characteristics. While coffee is an important crop and accounts for 20% of export income, water for sustenance crops and for humans is more vital to the health of the people!

A Place for Peaberry

PeaberryA peaberry is a green coffee “bean” that has a rounded form: Coffee is the dried seed from the fruit of a flowering tree – each fruit having… from Tanzania has had a unique marketing niche in the United States, and I am not sure why. Peaberries are often sorted out and sold at premiums here over what they can get other places, but the cup is sometimes tainted and not worth the price. There is no inherent quality in a peaberryThe Spanish-language term for Peaberry is the same for “snail”. See Peaberry for more information on the single bean fruit of the coffee tree. A peaberry is the… because of its shape, although the roast dynamic is different and (I feel) benefits small home air-powered roasters. Peaberries occur more in plants with poor nutrition, deformed roots, or those stressed by other factors like lack of water in the maturation stages (a big problem in parts of Tanzania). But the quality issues arise mostly in that a peaberry bulk lot is often collected from many growers over an extended period of time, meaning a mix of the good and bad, the freshly harvested and the older coffee waiting to be bulked up. That’s not a great prelude for success in the cup.

We are now working direct in selecting specific cooperative and small estateA “coffee estate” is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does… coffees first hand in Tanzania, primarily because our in-country partners have done the footwork to provide us that capability. In the past, nearly all coffee had to be traded through the weekly auction run by the government’s Coffee Board. And even if they could find buying partners who would pay more, for financing reasons, regulations and tradition, many fine coffees were sent to auction only to end up bulked for more commercial full-container sales.