Tanzania AA - Umalila

Sweet, balanced, mango, peach, grapefruit, long finish
TOP LOT
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Bag Weight 60 KG BAG
Harvest Season 2022/23
Status Spot
Lot Number P611578-1
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About This Coffee

In the past, Tanzanian coffee faced several hurdles. Farmers in the Mbeya region typically processed at home, with a depulping style akin to Indonesia’s wet hulling process. Unfortunately, this approach led to rapid aging of the coffees. The combination of less than ideal processing and unfavorable conditions at the hot, humid port city of Dar presented many challenges.

Thankfully, times have changed. Tanzanian coffee producers have embraced innovation, transitioning  from the old depulping method to a clean washed process. This shift involves using Penagos ecopulpers and meticulously maintained clean washing channels, mirroring methods you’d find in coffee-producing regions like Kenya or Ethiopia. These investments in agronomic best practices combined with the unique varieties grown (mainly Kent, alongside hybrids and Bourbon mutations rarely found elsewhere) offer immense potential for speciality offerings out of Tanzania. 

Country of Origin Tanzania
Region Mbeya
Producer Type Washing Station
Farm Name Various producers
Processing Washed
Processing Description 24-36hr fermentation, sun-dried on raised beds
Growing Altitude 1650m
Harvest Season 2022/23
Bag Weight 60 KG BAG
Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
Plant Species Arabica
Variety Kent, N39

History of Coffee in Tanzania

Like other coffee growing regions in East Africa, it seems likely that coffee may have been known as a garden crop grown for barter and consumption (chewing rather than brewing) as early as the 16th century. German occupiers introduced commercial cultivation of at the end of the 19th century and coffee became an exported cash crop. Following WWI, the British took control of the region and the estate model was firmly established for coffee. During the transition years from British “protection” to independence, coffee farming cooperative began to emerge and would eventually dominate coffee production after formal independence in 1961. Today, 95% of coffee farmers are smallholders, growing coffee on less than 5 acres of land.

Growing Coffee in Tanzania

Exports from nearly every coffee growing country in Africa are lower now than they were twenty years ago. The most notable exception is Ethiopia, where coffee exports have reached 3 million bags, nearly double the number in 1997. Less dramatic, but nevertheless unique for Africa, is the strong and steady growth in Tanzania. Taking the average number of bags exported annually 2007-2017—to account for crop fluctuations—Tanzania experienced an increase of 11 percent over the previous 10 years. That might not seem like much until you consider that only two other African countries have experienced growth by the same measure, Ethiopia (37%) and Uganda (1%). Tanzania broke the million bags exported ceiling for the first time in 2009 and did it again in 2013. This increase in exports has coincided with a near 600 percent increase in domestic coffee consumption over twenty years. The only coffee growing country to experience a more dramatic increase is Vietnam, where domestic coffee consumption has grown by 700 percent over the same period.

  • Region Mbeya
  • Farm Name Various producers
  • Producer Type Washing Station
  • Processing Washed
  • Processing Description 24-36hr fermentation, sun-dried on raised beds
  • Bag Type Grain Pro / Ecotact
  • Plant Species Arabica
  • Variety Kent, N39
  • Min Growing Altitude 1650m
  • On Sale No
  • Top Lot Yes
  • Status Spot
  • Coffee Grade TZA CA WA AA
  • CTRM Contract Number P611578-1
  • Country of Origin Tanzania
  • Warehouse Continental NJ