Kenya
Situated on the equator on Africa’s east coast, Kenya has been described as “the cradle of humanity”. In the Great Rift Valley palaeontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of man’s ancestors. Kenya’s topography is incredibly diverse and very well suited to coffee production, though coffee did not reach the country until relatively late considering its close proximity to the Ethiopia. It is thought coffee was first introduced to Kenya by French missionaries in 1893 who brought Bourbon seeds from Réunion. Large estates were initially responsible for coffee production due to the British colonial rule which established import links with London, though in 1934 the Kenya Coffee Board was established which set up an auction system allowing coffee to be sold internally too.
The development of hybrids during the 1930s brought about the highly successful varietals, SL28 and SL34 – coffees that are now world famous and highly admired for their wonderful complexity in the cup with unrivalled lemony acidity. The country’s best coffees are grown in the Central Highlands on the southern slopes of Mt. Kenya to the north and in the foothills of the Aberdare Mountains to the west. Here the coffee is grown on farms with altitudes of up to 1,800 metres above sea level – and this, along with the fertile volcanic soils of the region, is the key to the almost unbelievable flavours that can be found within the cup. The best coffees in Kenya are produced by the cooperatives of which there are around 300 comprised of between half a million to 600,000 smallholder members. About 60% of Kenya’s coffee is produced on cooperatives with estates and plantations making up the balance. Typically a smallholding or ‘shamba’ is comprised of shade-grown coffee, a house, the family cow and a good variety of vegetables and fruit for the use of the family.
Coffee is incredibly important to Kenya and as a result has had a lot of investment into research and development which means it’s smallholder farmers well educated in coffee production. The auction system has been set up in a way that works to reward farmers for quality, though unfortunately corruption in the system can stop some of those premiums getting back to the right people.
Burundi
Situated in Southeast Africa, Burundi is a landlocked country bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the south and east and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Traditionally, Burundi was a kingdom ruled by the Twa, Tutsi and Hutu people until it was colonised towards the end of the 19th Century by Germany. Following the First World War, the League of Nations gave the region known as ‘Ruanda-Urundi’ (now Rwanda and Burundi) to Belgium who began to rule through the dominant Tutsi chiefs and princes. This led to a concentration of wealth amongst this group and contributed towards decades of civil unrest between the Hutu and Tutsi people. Following independence in 1962, the United Nations Security Council has recognised two separate incidences of genocide in the country with around 250,000 people killed between 1962 and 1993. There is no doubting the horrors committed during this period, but to consider Burundi only in terms of its tragedies would be wrong. It is an incredibly beautiful and culturally rich nation which also produces coffees of outstanding quality.
It is thought coffee was first introduced to Burundi by the Belgians during their rule. Plantations were established and production and sales increased, cementing coffee as an important cash crop to the country. Following independence in 1962, the coffee industry was privatised with the State only contributing to research, quality improvement and price stability – though quality and quantity gradually decreased due to political instability and the negative colonial image coffee production held. In 1976, the coffee industry retreated back into State control in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of coffee produced, this however failed and the Burundi industry has been run privately since 2009. Coffee is now Burundi’s main export and has played a large part in rebuilding the country following years of political unrest. Burundi is quickly gaining a reputation for the production of outstanding coffee, though it has faced many challenges to achieve this. The country is very densely populated with agricultural communities and as a result, the soil is intensely used. This, along with the steep lie of the land has meant the effects of erosion are keenly felt in some areas. The capital investment required to produce coffees of specialty grade is also huge and due to issues around land ownership it is nearly impossible for smallholder farmers to access credit. Luckily, the number of privately owned mills has increased and more smallholders are able to access specialty prices.
It is usually fully washed coffees from Burundi which are the best in cup profile and Bourbon is prevalent in the country though it is common to come across Typica and some SL varieties too. Coffee grows across the country, though we tend to favour those from Kayanza which borders Rwanda in the North.
Ethiopia
Being the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is arguably one of the most interesting producing origins due to the incredible range of flavour profiles it can produce along with the degree of mystery that surrounds the coffee industry there. It is by far the hardest origin to work with due to the number of different players in the supply chain and the bureaucracy involved, but it is absolutely worth the effort!
It is globally accepted that coffee originated in Ethiopia due to the fact that it was in this country that the crop truly started to flourish and was first consumed by humans. The story of its discovery is mostly fictional, though fact probably lies at the heart of it somewhere! Legend has it a goatherd named Kaldi discovered his animals behaving strangely after consuming the fruit of a particular tree. He tried the fruit for himself and started to behave similarly, feeling energised and slightly hyperactive. Word soon spread to the local village where a preacher hurled the fruit onto a fire declaring the cherries the work of the devil. Shortly after, the air was filled with the aroma of roasting coffee upon which he relented, declaring such a fragrance to be surely the work of God!
Ethiopia has had a strong coffee culture ever since and it has the largest internal consumption of any other producing country with 60 per cent of the coffee produced being sold to local buyers. Ethiopia produces a wide range of coffee with each region’s beans having very distinctive characteristics making some of these the best and most sought after in the world. Key producing regions include Harar, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe (in Sidamo), Limu, Djimmah, Lekempti and Bebeka. Ethiopia is the largest coffee producer in Africa and in the Arabica league is third, in the world with a production of between 4 and 5 million bags.
Coffee in Ethiopia has been traded on the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange since 2008. The ECX was established to create a new market place which served the needs of all of the actors involved in the coffee supply chain, from the farmers to the final consumer. Previously, only a third of all the agricultural products produced in Ethiopia reached the market due to the high costs and risks involved with trading. There was no assurance of product quality or quantity which meant buyers would only trade with suppliers they knew and trusted. This resulted in many of Ethiopia’s agricultural producers becoming isolated from the market, forcing them to sell their produce to the nearest buyer, and leaving them unable to negotiate on price or improve their market position.
With the introduction of the ECX, coffee exports in Ethiopia have become centralised enabling more smallholder producers to have access to the global market. Ninety per cent of all the coffee produced in Ethiopia now moves through the ECX where it is cupped and graded according to flavour profile and quality. Since its inception in 2008, the ECX claims to have introduced:
Market integrity – by guaranteeing the product grade and quantity and operating a system of daily clearing and settling of contracts.
Market efficiency – by operating a trading system where buyers and sellers can coordinate in a seamless way on the basis of standardized contracts.
Market transparency – by disseminating market information in real time to all market players.
Risk management – by offering contracts for future delivery, providing sellers and buyers a way to hedge against price risk.
This system seems to have been successful in giving more smallholders access to the market and can result in some really consistent stand out lots with incredible flavour profiles. The downside for the speciality buyer is the inability to access information about the precise origins of the coffee. Coffee moving through the ECX is marked generically for export based on the grade and quality, it is impossible to know which smallholders have contributed towards the lot you are buying. Times are changing however with a new USAID supported traceability program being introduced to the ECX which hopes to link bags of coffee traded through the national auction to the washing and hulling station that it was processed at. This will hopefully provide us with much more information about the growers that have contributed towards the coffee we purchase.
Tanzania
Tanzania is a country famed for its diverse culture, national parks, Mt Kilimanjaro and the stunning coastline which borders the Indian Ocean – it is, however, less known for its impressive coffee production when compared with some of its neighbouring countries, Kenya and Rwanda.
Coffee is Tanzania’s largest export crop and it is thought that ninety-five percent of the coffee produced is done so by smallholder farmers and their families (supporting roughly 4.5million people) who often have small plots of 5 hectares or less. Coffee is grown alongside subsistence crops such as bananas and maize and the remainder of the countries production comes from larger, privately owned estates. It is the fourth largest producer in Africa with nearly 75% of its annual production being Arabica.
Arabica seedlings were first introduced to the country in the 16th century from Ethiopia and Réunion (Bourbon) Island and were traditionally ‘chewed’ as a stimulant by The Haya tribe who came to use them as money. Following German colonisation in the late 19th century, coffee began to be cultivated as a cash crop and exports increased three-fold in the early 20th century. The British then took control of what is now modern-day Tanzania after World War I and started a coffee program which saw over ten million seedlings being planted, increasing production further. Today, both Arabica and Robusta are grown in the areas of Kilimanjaro, Manyara, and Arusha in the North-East, Kagera, Mara and Kigoma in the North-West and Mbeya in the South. Traditionally, Tanzania’s potential for producing quality coffee has been challenging to fulfil due to the logisitical difficulty faced when trying to export. However, there is a clear commitment to the creation of a profitable coffee industry in Tanzania and the TaCRI (Tanzania Coffee Research Institute) was established in 2001 with this aim.
Rwanda
Historically, much of Rwanda’s coffee was exported to Belgium following the League of Nations Mandate after World War I which stripped Germany of its colonial rule of Rwanda and handed it to the Belgians. It wasn’t until 1917 that the country had enough coffee to export, but production increased due to the law put in place in the 1930s which made coffee a compulsory crop. By the 1990s, coffee was Rwanda’s most important export but just as it was establishing itself as a credible coffee producing country, disaster struck in the form of the genocide in 1994 which claimed 800,000 lives in 100 days. This understandably had a massive impact on the coffee industry displacing thousands of farmers as a result of the conflict. The only good thing to come from this horrendous tragedy was the fact that many of the country’s Bourbon coffee trees were left relatively untouched. Coffee was to become an opportunity as Rwanda tried to recover and much of the foreign aid and investment streaming into the country was put into establishing coffee infrastructure and promoting quality. Rwanda remains to be the only African country to have hosted a Cup of Excellence competition and has attracted specialty buyers from all over the world.
One challenge that is yet to be overcome is the existence of a very unique and strange defect in the country which can put some people off working with coffee from Rwanda. Coffee is an agricultural product and as such, is very easily defected through the interference of pests or problems during the wet/dry process. The ‘potato’ is one such defect which has such a dramatic effect on the taste and aroma of coffee that it has made quite a name for itself in the industry. Interestingly, this defect is isolated to Rwanda and Burundi due to a certain type of micro flora that exists here. This micro flora makes its way into a coffee cherry once it has been perforated by an insect known as the ‘antestia fly’ and manifests itself in the cup as a strong starchy smell of raw potato!
The issue with the potato defect is that it is completely random and cannot, be picked out or detected once it has been roasted. If you have purchased a speciality grade Rwandan coffee, it is most likely that the only point you will become aware of a potato cup is when you grind the coffee and the room is filled with the aroma of raw potato. There is currently strong investment into researching this issue to try and work out how to eradicate it. We strongly believe it should not put you off buying a Rwandan coffee as you truly would be missing out on so much all for the risk of having to re-grind one cup.
Potato defect aside, Rwanda is blessed with ideal coffee growing conditions that include high altitude, regular rainfall, volcanic soils with good organic structure and an abundance of Bourbon. The vast majority of Rwandan coffee is produced by smallholders of which there are thought to be around half a million with parcels of land often not much larger than just one hectare per family. Coffee is grown in most parts of the country, with particularly large concentrations along Lake Kivu and in the southern province. Rwandan smallholders organise themselves into cooperatives and share the services of centralised wet-mills –or washing stations as they are known locally.
Indonesia
Coffee was first exported from Indonesia in 1711 by the Dutch East India Company who sent almost all of the produce to Amsterdam where it was sold for incredibly high prices. Coffee was therefore a profitable export for the Dutch, though the same cannot be said for the farmers producing it due to the colonial rule.
Indonesia began with Arabica production but following a bout of leaf rust in 1876, much of this crop was destroyed leading to the introduction of the more disease resistant Robusta which makes up a large proportion of the coffee produced in Indonesia today. Producing regions include: Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Flores and Bali – each of which have slightly different ways of growing, processing and trading coffee.
Indonesian coffees are prized for their unique flavour profile which is completely distinct when compared with coffee from any other origin. They are often low in acidity with heavy body and rich chocolate notes, though they can also be slightly wild and funky with notes of earth, wood and spice. This flavour is mostly brought about the method used to process the coffee known locally as ‘Giling Basah’. In this process the coffee is picked, depulped (usually on the individual small holding) and then partly sun dried until the moisture content of the beans reaches 30-35 per cent. Unusually, the parchment beans are then hulled at this stage to tear off the outer layer protecting the inner bean revealing a whitish coloured, swollen green bean. The drying is then completed on the patio until the moisture content reduces to a level where mould formation is not a risk. After this is complete, the beans turn to a dark green/blueish colour which is very distinctive and makes Indonesian beans processed in this way instantly recognisable.
This process does not come without its problems – due to the fact that the protective layer is removed at an earlier state, the beans are left exposed to the elements (and insects) during a really important stage in the process. This can put many specialty buyers off due to the increased risk of defect and slightly ‘scruffier’ look to the bean. However, it is possible to find clean and consistent Indonesian coffees which add a lot to blends due to the depth of flavour they can provide.
Guatemala
The history of coffee in Guatemala is very similar to its Central American neighbour, El Salvador, in the sense that it was thought to have been found growing there in around 1750 but did not take off commercially until one hundred years later following the decline of the indigo industry due to the introduction of chemical dyes. It was at this time that the value of the coffee industry was realised and, in 1868, the government distributed one million seeds across the country and set up an organisation to promote coffee and educate growers. Coffee became the country’s main export which, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of land for many indigenous farmers and contributed towards the vast distribution of wealth in Guatemala.
These political issues continued to dominate throughout the 20th century and culminated in civil war from 1960 to 1996. During this time, many farmers abandoned their land due to the conflict and Guatemala’s coffee production dipped. However, at the turn of the millennium, the coffee production peaked just as the world coffee crisis hit forcing many producers to dig up their coffee trees and farm alternative crops such as nuts and avocados.
Nowadays, thanks to the industry body Anacafe which has worked to actively promote the many regional differences in Guatemalan coffee, the country has a reputation for quality and supports a number of projects which aim to create a more sustainable and specialty focused industry. The key growing regions are: San Marcos (West), Acatenango (South-West), Atitlán (Central), Cobán (North), Nuevo Oriente (East), Huehuetenango (North West), Fraijanes (South East) and Antigua (South). Varietals grown are mainly Bourbon, Caturra and Catuai with the occasional Typica and Marogogype. We generally look to the areas of Huehuetenango and Antigua for our Guatemalan coffees as it is these regions which contribute some of the most successful coffees in the Cup of Excellence programmes.
Mexico
It is thought that coffee was first introduced to Mexico in the late 18th century with seeds that most likely came from Jamaica. However, due to the vast amount of mineral wealth in the country at that time, there was very little incentive to grow the industry. It was therefore not until 1920 (the end of the revolution) when indigenous producers were freed from some of the larger plantations to grow coffee on their own land that smallholder production truly started to come into place. Production continued to increase throughout the 20th century and the Mexican Coffee Institute was established in 1973 to provide support and technical advice to producers which increased further investment in coffee.
However, disaster struck in the 1980s due to a drop in the price of oil which saw the government change its policies bringing about a decline in the industry and the collapse of the Mexican Coffee Institute. Farmers then had no access to credit and struggled to find a market for their crop, falling prey to predatory coffee buyers known as ‘coyotes’ who would buy low and sell high. This decline also led to a massive drop in quality, giving the country a bad reputation for the production of specialty coffee. In recent years, producers in the regions of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz have formed collectives to try and take on some of the roles previously carried out by the Mexican Coffee Institute and have been successful in forming direct relationships with buyers who value quality.
Mexico is now the fifth largest coffee producer in the world with around 75 per cent of production carried out by smallholder farmers, who often have less than two hectares of land and therefore sell their coffee to cooperatives. There are some estates growing fantastic coffees particularly in the southern states (Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas) with more farmers embracing quality in an effort to combat ‘Roya’, the leaf rust disease which is currently devastating the farms of Latin America.
Nicaragua
Coffee was first brought to Nicaragua in the late 1700s but it wasn’t until 1870 that it became the country’s main export. The government strived to bring foreign investors into the country as part of an effort to make trade easier, unfortunately the result of this was that much of the money made from coffee production ended up leaving the country due to the large amount of land owned by foreigners. Nicaragua therefore did not enjoy the same effects of coffee production with regards to investment in infrastructure and it remains to be the second poorest country in Central America after Haiti.
The coffee industry in Nicaragua has undergone periods of turmoil that have hindered the development of the speciality sector in the country. Many experienced coffee farmers fled during the years under Sandinista rule of the late 1970s to the 1990s. When the political scene changed, those farmers returned and not long after, Nicaragua started to produce some very good coffee. However, the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch and the prolonged world coffee price crisis created further giant -sized hurdles for a country that can, and now does, produce some very desirable coffees indeed.
Key growing regions include the mountainous regions of Matagalpa and Jinotega though it is Nueva Segovia that is heralded as Nicaragua’s premier growing region, particularly the Cordillera de Dipilto – Jalapa – a mountainous region which runs along the Honduran border. Time after time it is this region which is responsible for some of the country’s best lots, often placing highly in the Cup of Excellence competitions.
Panama
This country has only become well known for its coffee in the last 12 years or so, though it has been growing it since the early 19th century. Panama has a number of distinct micro climates which means there is fantastic potential for great quality coffee, though you will always pay more for coffee from this country due to the higher minimum wage and demand for land by American ex-pats which has reduced the potential for coffee production. The neighbouring country of Costa Rica was producing ten times the amount of coffee when compared with Panama and it has only been since the outstanding success of one farm, Hacienda Esmeralda, that the country has really started to be taken seriously as a quality coffee producer.
Hacienda La Esmeralda is owned and run by the Peterson family (of Swedish origin) and is located in Boquete, Western Panama. The family has owned this farm since 1967 and previously used it to farm dairy cattle, it wasn’t until 1987 that significant parts of the farm were given over to coffee. In the late 1990s and the turn of the millennium, commodity coffee prices were extremely low due to the world coffee crisis. The Specialty Coffee Association of Panama therefore introduced a competition called ‘Best of Panama’ as part of an effort to boost the quality and therefore value of Panamanian coffee. The competition saw producers enter their coffee to be judged and ranked before being put onto an online auction where their coffee was made available to an audience of international buyers. Hacienda La Esmeralda had been growing Geisha on their farm for some years and had noted a set of particular cupping characteristics when tasting coffee produced from those trees. The family therefore entered a Geisha lot into the competition in 2004 which went on to attract a record-breaking price of $21/lb. By 2010, their coffee was selling for $170/lb and even managed to sell for $350/lb in 2013 when they submitted an experimental naturally processed Geisha lot.
There can be no doubting the influence of this success story which has seen hundreds of farms in Central America plant Geisha in the hope their coffee will attract similar prices. Panama’s best growing region is arguably Boquete which is mountainous and has a cooler climate which helps to slow the development of the coffee cherries, bringing about greater complexity in the cup.
Honduras
Coming Soon.
El Salvador
Coffee has been grown commercially in El Salvador since the 1850s – it was an important export for the country following the decline of the indigo industry and quickly became the world’s fourth-largest coffee producer. Yields were high and there were good relationships with import partners which meant El Salvador built a reputation for its efficiency and quality coffee. The coffee industry contributed towards some of the country’s most important infrastructure, though it also assisted in widening the gap between the nation’s rich and poor, with landowners maintaining political and economic control.
The industry continued to thrive throughout the 20th century until civil war hit in the 1980s which forced many farmers to abandon their land and coffee trees in order to escape the conflict. Whilst this saw a dramatic fall in production, causing many buyers to look elsewhere, there was one positive to come out of the war. During that period, many other Central American producing countries were undertaking research into higher yielding, disease resistant varietals to replace the lower yielding heirloom varietals. El Salvador managed to escape this process and has therefore held on to its fantastic Bourbon trees which are far superior in the cup when compared to coffees grown from varietals which have gone through a programme of cross breeding. Around ninety per cent of El Salvador’s coffee is also shade grown which contributes towards fantastic character and complexity and helps to maintain the country’s vast array of plants and wildlife.
El Salvador is a land of volcanoes providing a stunning and dramatic backdrop, fantastic altitude and mineral rich volcanic soil – the perfect combination for the production of outstanding coffee. We believe the country’s best coffee comes from the West and the Santa Ana region which sits amongst the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica has grown coffee since the early 19th century when its government subsidised taxes and provided land incentives to encourage the growth of the industry. Between 1846 and 1890, coffee was the country’s sole export with much of it ending up in England leading to the establishment of the Anglo-Costa Rican bank in 1863 which helped to finance the industry. Coffee is therefore responsible for much of Costa Rica’s culture and infrastructure such as the National Theatre and the very first railways. It was during this period that Costa Rica established itself as a leading quality focused coffee producing country due to the high volume of washed coffee produced by the country’s 200 wet mills. At the time, washed coffee was perceived to be of a higher quality, providing more consistency than naturally processed beans from elsewhere. The country maintained this reputation for a period of time until higher yielding varietals gained popularity over some of the more complex ‘heirloom’ plants. Many felt the quality of the cup profile in Costa Rican coffees dipped, particularly when compared to its Central American neighbours; El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Another reason behind this perceived quality decline is that the very large wet mills developed big brands and bought up the coffee from small farms to be blended, in doing so these smaller lots lost their identity – in both name and the cup.
Things started to change in the early 2000s as more and more farmers began to invest in milling equipment themselves, allowing them to have more control over their coffees in the market. Nowadays Costa Rica is an exciting origin to explore in the cup with many different processing techniques and regions now available. The country’s best coffees come from the regions of Tarrazu, the Central and West Valley and Tres Rios, all of which have fantastic altitude and good rich soil as a result of thousands of years of volcanic activity taking place.
Brazil
Brazil is South America’s most influential and economically powerful country and one of the world’s largest economies. During the last few years great strides have been made in lifting millions out of poverty across the country. Coffee was introduced to Brazil in 1720 in the southern state of Paraná and has become the powerhouse of the coffee world accounting for more than a third of all coffee produced. Legend has it that at that time the Brazilian government had wanted a cut of world coffee production and sent Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta to French Guiana on the pretence of mediating on a border dispute. Aware that he would not be allowed to visit the fort-like coffee plantations, the lieutenant instead used his charms to woo the first lady of Guiana and encouraged her to give him the seedlings he also desired. Unable to resist his charms, she presented him with a bouquet spiked with coffee seeds at a farewell banquet held in his honour. Whether sex and deceit can really be attributed to Brazil’s introduction to coffee cannot be proved but there can be no doubt that now, in the 21st century, Brazil’s dominance in world production is unrivalled. Annual crops as high as 60 million bags are becoming common place and it is the world’s largest coffee producer.
Coffee plantations cover about 27,000 km2 (10,000 sq mi) of the country; of the approx. six billion trees, 74% are Arabica and 26% Robusta. The states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Paraná are the largest producers due to suitable landscapes, climate and rich soil though production has mostly moved North due to the harsh frosts experienced in the mid-1970s in Paraná which destroyed much of the coffee. Most plantations are harvested in the dry months of May to July and new crop tends to arrive into the UK between October and January.