Climpson and Sons - Single Origin: Tweega AA, Tanzania

Access to high-end coffees is still limited and even if the Tweega is not from a specific washing station it will in many cases out cup a lot of the Tanzanians considered as specialty in the market today. It is traceable back to all the producers that contributed to the lot, but we will not be able to provide a spec in this area.

Coffee producers have access to agri-inputs (fertilizer etc), financial support, and loans as well as assistance on wet mill management and quality control. When the producers are delivering parchment to the warehouse the coffees are immediately analyzed and cupped for direct feedback to the washing stations and growers.

Process: Fully washed: Cherries are hand sorted for unripe and overripe cherries before they go in to production. A disc pulping machine removes the skin and pulp. The coffees are graded by density in to 3 grades by the pulper. Grade 1 and 2 go separately to fermentation. Grade 3 is considered low grade. The coffee is fermented for 16-24 hours under closed shade. After fermentation the coffees are washed and again graded by density in washing channels and are then soaked under clean water for 16-18 hours.

Drying: Sun dried up to 21 days on African drying beds. Coffees are covered in plastic during midday and at night

Coffee in Tanzania

Positioned in East Africa amongst the Great African Lake region and home to Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is perhaps one of the world’s most majestic coffee growing countries. Introduced from the Reunion islands in 1898 Arabica Bourbon seedlings were first planted in Bayamoyo and Mogoro on the Eastern coastline, shortly before introduction to the volcanic soil of the Kilimanjaro slopes. By the 1950s other varieties had found their way into the Western areas of Tanzania from neighboring Burundi. Today Arabica constitutes almost 75% of the country’s coffee exports, cultivated in practically all high altitude areas throughout Tanzania.

Arabica production is dominated by smallholders with over 90% of growing spread across around 450,000 smallholders known locally as ‘Kahawa’, with the remainder consisting of cooperatives or single farm estates. Coffee is predominantly traded through auction, however there is a direct trade route for producers looking to sell directly. Although Tanzania faces challenges in regards to their coffee production, such as low-yielding crops, a lack of training resources and equipment, the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI), established in 2001, aspires to improve the education and livelihoods of farmers alongside further developing a sustainable and profitable trade for the country.

Tanzania’s coffee flavour is diverse and evolving; the northern areas near Lake Victoria lends more body and creamier flavours than that of the acidity on the country’s higher altitude.

Roasterr: Climpson and Sons

Climpson and Sons does not deliver to United Kingdom