Zambia Coffee Overview

Zambian Coffee Cup Quality

We started offering Zambian coffee in a different era: The 2000 crop ranged from unremarkable estate coffees to very poor quality generic stocklots of peaberry and flatbean. These were widely available, and I thought they were all very poor in the cup. It is sad to know that these low quality lots are ruining a good origin’s reputation, and that some “specialty” roaster somewhere is buying this stuff and selling it as “good” coffee.

The past few crops produced some mixed results, honestly.  In fact, I think the logistics of shipping these coffees can result in a marked loss of flavor, or in the case of Tanzania, baggyThe flavor of coffee that has been stored for too long, it has absorbed the flavor of whatever it has been stored in. : Coffees that are held… flavors from being stored in shipping containers for long periods at port! If it is good coffee, it has to be handled properly and shipped quickly. When this isn’t done, the defective coffee is easily detected on our cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest…. table. Anyway, when we have a Zambian in stock you can bet it is good! Zambia seems to have cup quality issues stemming from basic agricultural and environmental challenges; with water and drought, soil management, relatively lower altitudes of coffee plantings, and some fairly non-stellar coffee varieties in production. 

But in some ways the challenges in Zambia, in particular the water resources needed for coffee, are an advantage as well. The arid climate during harvest means that coffee dries effectively, without the damage that can occur in regions and climates where coffee dries too slow. 

We have seen a steady rise in coffee quality offered generally from Zambia, and in particular with some farms that have greater investment in the crop. The addition of “honey” process and some naturals has created more flavor options, and also masked some of the detrimental flavors coming from the 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… type varieties. HoneyIn coffee, honey-like sweetness is often found, but we use terms such as refined honey (highly filtered and processed) as opposed to raw honey rustic honey sweetness. This… coffee is different from traditional wet-process coffee – the outer skin is pulped off using little or no water, and then the coffee is dried with the remaining fruit attached to the parchmentGreen coffee still in its outer shell, before dry-milling, is called Parchment coffee (pergamino). In the wet process, coffee is peeled, fermented, washed and then ready for drying… layer. This provides a different drying dynamic as well as the interaction with the fruit layer, and this suits the base profile of this particular originIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, “I was just at origin.” Of course “Origin” for most product we use is not….