Tanzania Itumpi

PROCESS: Washed
VARIETY: Blue Mountain, Bourbon, Kilimanjaro, and Luwiro
ELEVATION: 1,500-1,700 meters
ROAST: Medium-dark
BODY: Creamy
NOTES: Honey and hops flavors with tangy acidity and a smooth mouthfeel.

With its relatively close proximity to Ethiopia, and its shared border with Kenya, some of Tanzania’s population has had a long history and culture relationship with coffee, namely the Haya people, for whom the plant was not used so much as a beverage as a chewed fruit. Coffee (probably Robusta) was grown for this domestic purpose until German colonists essentially mandated that farmers grow Arabica coffee as a cash crop, spreading the plants’ reach within the country and developing the industry around Mount Kilimanjaro.

Microlots from Tanzania are traceable to the washing station level and are selected basis their cup quality. Due to the small average farm size, many producers (especially in the South) are members of AMCOS, Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies, which share centralized cherry delivery and processing stations. The coffees at these receiving points are blended together and sorted before being separated by quality, and microlot selections represent the highest-scoring lots differentiated from the larger day lots.

The AMCOS started in the 1970’s under the name Ujamaa with 56 members. In the year 1994, they were renamed as Itumpi AMCOS. Today, they are still operating under this name and have 160 active members. During harvest, producers deliver the cherries from 12.30-6 p.m. Usually, the pulper is being turned on at around 2 p.m. and can run up to 10 p.m. After being pulped, the parchment is graded into P1, P2, P3, P lights and pods in the washing channels, before it soaks in the tanks for 8-10 hours. The drying of the parchment will take 7-10 days in this area.