This fully washed AA-grade coffee was grown by the smallholder producers in the Mara, Tarime region of Tanzania at 1,750 meters above sea level. Located in Tanzania’s northern highlands above the shores of Lake Victoria, the farmers often grow coffee on less than 2 hectares of land alongside other cash and subsistence crops. Traditionally a region for natural processed coffees, the ideal growing conditions have attracted wet mill operators in recent years so smallholders can sell their coffee as cherry. Not only does this allow farmers to bring coffee to market quicker, it frees up land that would have been devoted to drying.
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 cooperatives 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.
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 from 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.
Country: Tanzania
Region: Mara, Tarime
Farm: Multiple smallholder farmers
Elevation: 1750-1900 MASL
Variety: Bourbon, Kent
Processing: Washed
Tasting notes: Chocolatey, clean, bright, and nicely nuanced with black cherry, plum, and tangerine.
Website orders are roasted and packed every Monday and picked up Tuesday by USPS for delivery. As we only roast exactly as much of each coffee as we have known orders for, please be sure and place your order no later than 10 AM (PST) on Monday for fulfillment that week. Orders that come in later than that may not be fulfilled until the following week.
Here is a quick guide to what our shipping rates are based on the quantity you order:
Orders weighing 0 - 7.99 Pounds ship for $8.00.
Orders weighing 8 Pounds or more ship for Free!
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