Living with and learning from the local coffee-farmer family

Coffee from Kilimanjaro is of high quality and is globally popular. For Tanzania, Kilimanjaro coffee is the country's most important "cash crop." The city of Moshi, situated at Kilimanjaro, serves as a major hub for the coffee trade.

Growing coffee requires a great deal of care and expertise. With coffee farmer Dennis, you can gain insight. You will live with his family on their coffee farm at Kilimanjaro. On the family-owned small plantation, coffee plants are cultivated, coffee is grown, harvested, dried, and the beans are separated from unwanted components and bagged. You can participate in all these steps.

Coffee: Tanzania's Most Important "Cash Crop"

Coffee is the most consumed and popular hot beverage in the Western World. For many, the morning cup of coffee is an integral part of starting the day. Annually, over 7 million tons of coffee are grown and processed in over 70 countries worldwide, with 75% exported to consumer countries like the USA, Europe and Japan. For many African and Latin American developing countries, coffee is a crucial export. Coffee is mainly grown on small farms, serving as the livelihood for these businesses.

For Tanzania, coffee is the country's most important "cash crop." Tanzanian coffee is highly appreciated for its low acidity. In the Kilimanjaro region, particularly excellent coffee beans are cultivated, referred to as "Chagga AA" after the local Chagga tribe. Chagga AA possesses a very full-bodied taste and aroma, relying on cultivated Arabica pea-berry beans, which contain less acidity than beans from, for example, Kenya.

The Coffee Cultivation and Processing Process

The Arabica plant is highly sensitive; it cannot withstand strong winds, heat, or frost and requires deep, well-draining soil that can retain a lot of water. Often, coffee plants are planted within natural forest vegetation or in combination with other crops for the provision of shade, for example, banana trees, with their large leaves, shield the delicate coffee trees from strong sunlight.

Coffee trees reach their highest yield level at about 15 years old and are usable for approximately 25 to 40 years. Moreover, a tree can carry no more than half a kilo of raw coffee per harvest, making the harvesting of coffee cherries extremely meticulous. Harvesting is traditionally done by hand, primarily because the fruits on a single branch are typically never ripe at the same time, varying in different stages of ripeness. Therefore, the ripe, dark-red fruits must be selected by hand.

This process involves multiple checks and harvesting of the trees. At intervals of 8 to 10 days, the plants are repeatedly inspected for ripe coffee cherries.

Once the fruits are harvested, the "pulp" (the flesh surrounding the coffee bean), as well as the so-called "silver skin" and parchment, which together protect the coffee bean, must be removed for further coffee processing.

In Tanzania, this is done using the dry processing method. The coffee cherries are laid out in large, flat containers to dry in the sun, and once the beans "rattle" in the dry husk, they are cracked open by a machine. Centrifuges then separate the unwanted components from the bean.

This raw coffee is filled into sacks and then enters the raw coffee auction. In Moshi/Kilimanjaro, there is a large raw coffee auction weekly during the harvesting season.

Despite a constant demand, raw coffee, which accounts for only 10% of the coffee end price, experiences significant price fluctuations on the international coffee market. This makes the livelihood of coffee farms not definitively secure. The "Fair Trade" of coffee offers a way out, where coffee farmers are guaranteed a fixed price, independent of the fluctuating world market price, and a secure quantity is guaranteed.

Roasting and final processing take place in destination countries like the US or Italy. Proper roasting requires time and experience from the roasting facility. In the traditional drum roasting method, the beans are rotated in a drum over gas flames. The supervisor determines the correct roasting level by the color of the beans, the smoke from the oven, and the aroma.

Each coffee delivery must be roasted individually, as each type and harvest behaves differently during roasting. After roasting, the hot beans are spread on flat sieves, where they are quickly cooled with constant stirring, and small and foreign particles are filtered out.

October to March is the planting season. February is the harvest season for plants at lower altitudes, and June is the harvest season for plants at higher altitudes. In December, the plants blossom, and in February, green beans develop. During these two months, several steps in plant care must also be carried out.

Your Coffee Cultivation Course in Tanzania

You will have private lessons (including small groups) in Dennis's field for a minimum of 2 hours daily, Monday to Friday. During the other hours of the day, you will work on the plantation. Dennis will also show you other interesting aspects related to coffee, such as the coffee cooperative's collection point, and can organize excursions like hikes in the surrounding area.