Tanzania Peaberry

Tanzanian peaberry is unique in that the bean is a single seed from the coffee cherry instead of the typical two. It still has all the nutrients that would be dispersed for two seeds making it a complex and flavorful coffee. Tanzanian coffee is known for its floral and fruity notes, and this particular offering is delicate with black tea, apple and lime notes.

Country: Tanzania

Tanzania's coffee industry has a long and complex history, with coffee cultivation dating back to pre-colonial times. Some of Tanzania's population, particularly the Haya people, have had a long history and cultural relationship with coffee. The plant was originally grown for its chewed fruit, likely Robusta, until German colonists arrived and mandated the cultivation of Arabica coffee as a cash crop. This led to the spread of coffee cultivation around Mount Kilimanjaro and the development of the coffee industry in Tanzania.

After World War I, Tanzania was transferred from German to British control, and the British attempted to develop a more efficient and profitable coffee industry similar to that of Kenya. The 1920s saw the formation of cooperatives of smallholder farmers, but it took many years for Tanzanian coffees to gain recognition internationally.

In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar were merged to establish the Republic of Tanzania. In the 1970s, growers attempted aggressive growth, but struggled to increase production. In the 1990s, the Tanzanian government began efforts to reform and privatize coffee exports, allowing growers to sell more directly. Today, Tanzania is best known for its peaberry coffee, which makes up the majority of what is available to Western buyers.

Peaberries are a naturally occurring mutation of the coffee seed that forms a single, small, rounder unit instead of the two "flat beans" that typically sit inside a coffee cherry. While peaberries make up somewhere between 5-12% of any yield, some coffee varieties and origins tend to see a higher occurrence of them than others. In Tanzania, most of the coffee exported is bought by Japanese roasters, who prize bean-size uniformity and consider peaberries an undesirable defect. Therefore, the peaberries are often unsold to the Japanese market, leaving them available to Western buyers.

Some coffee enthusiasts swear by the unique flavors of peaberry coffee, claiming that they have a degree of flavor potency that normal beans lack. Others cannot discern any difference in flavor. Regardless, peaberry coffee tends to be slightly pricier than normal coffee due to the extra labor involved in sorting them out.

Cafe Imports sources peaberry coffee from Tanzania, with the majority being Excelso grade coffees (15/16 screen size) that are expected to have a balance of sweetness, fruity effervescence, and a foundation of cocoa and/or toffee. Most of these coffees are blends of beans from between 10-30 smallholder farmers and are traceable to the region. Cafe Imports also works with its partners to request and pay for more selective picking and processing, resulting in high-quality coffees from the hardworking men and women in Tanzania.

Variety

Although this lot is not traceable to a single variety, it is comprised of Blue Mountain, Bourbon, Kilimanjaro, Luwiro, and various other heirloom varieties cultivated in Tanzania.

Process

Note that Fully Washed coffees from Tanzania are put through a fermentation process, while Washed coffees are typically mechanically demucilaged. Fully Washed lots are typically depulped the same day they're harvested, then fermented in cement tanks for anywhere from 24–72 hours. They are then washed clean of mucilage and sorted through water channels before being spread on raised beds to dry, or dried in mechanical driers. Sometimes they are given a 8–12-hour post-washing soak before they are dried.