a wild cup of fermented fruit, plum wine, apple cider vinegar, star fruit, aromatic cedar and pine wood, and moderate acidity in the lighter roasts.
Zambia is not a coffee growing country we see many samples from. There is plenty of coffee being exported from the region, but their coffee-growing history is much younger than those that surround them. The first coffee was planted in Zambia in the 1950s, however, it wasn’t until the last few decades that it became a major contributor to Zambia’s agri-business sector.
“Mafinga” refers to the highest point in the country, and is where the estate coffees that make up this lot are from. The cluster of coffee estates are very close to Kasama town, in Zambia’s Northern Province. Estates and “plantations” make up the bulk of coffees that are exported from Zambia.
This is a yeast process coffee, where special yeasts are added to affect fermentation and hopefully affect flavor. Yeast process coffees are usually fermented in an air tight environment like barrels, a process also referred to as anaerobic. This type of processing has had quite an impact on this coffee’s cup profile, lending wilder fruits, and even wine-like flavors to the mix. Altitude ranges from 1300 to 1500 meters above sea level.
This lot is a AAA, which refers to the largest screen size, 16+ microns in this case. Screen size does not necessarily differentiate quality (as we see with AA, and AB lots in Kenya), but the bean size is quite uniform, and so even roasting tends to be more easily achieved. There are a lot of Catimor hybrid types grown in the region for disease resistance, which also happen to produce seeds that are quite large and would lend to the AAA grade.
- Origin: Zambia
- Region: Mafinga, Kasama
- Altitude: 1300-1500m
- Cultivar: Catimor
- Grade: AAA
- Processing: Yeast Fermentation
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s