Country: Tanzania
Area: Karatu District, Arusha Region
Processing: Anaerobic Washed, Fruit Fermented (Mahaha)
Varietal: Bourbon, Kent
Altitude: 1600-1850 MASL

white chocolate
blackcurrant cordial
navel orange

We love coffee from Tanzania, and this lot comes from the good people of Finagro plantations, in the North of the country. Finagro is a multi-generational collective of coffee farms that takes pride and care in every step of its coffee production. Finagro regularly win out awards for processing coffee locally in Tanzania, and this lot is particularly extraordinary.

This particular lot was initially an experiment by production manager Neel Vohora who secretly processed a very small batch of coffee with the introduction of a local native fruit called Mahaha – you can see a photo of the fruit here – the guys at Finagro tell us it’s only grown locally, and the fruit is quite tart with a flavour between olive and plum. First the ripest cherry is picked and pulped, then the mahaha fruit and coffee are macerated and held in a fermentation tank for 96 hours before moving to drying beds for 12 days.

The flavours of northern Tanzanian bourbon derivatives are strongly held, but the interaction with the mahaha fruit delivers some stunning complexity in the mouthfeel and acidity; almost macadamia or coconut butteriness opens to black berries and citrus.