Tasting Notes: Black Tea, Lime, Sugar

Variety: Kent

Processing: Washed

Origin: Songwe, Tanzania

Producers: Lyula Amcos Cooperative

Altitude: 1700m

Cup Score (Importer): 87

Average Coop Member Farm Size: 1.6 Hectares

We're very excited to be bringing back the Tanzanian coffees we featured last year - staring with Lyula AB! This coffee was produced by the AMCOS Cooperative in Songwe, which has over 200 active members who pool together their cherries for processing. Coffee has been grown in the Lyula region since 1938 when coffee seeds were introduced by some missionaries - though now they're cultivating mainly improved varietals descended from Bourbon plants. The cooperative has recently improved their processing via new pulping machines, and are expanding their washed coffee production. Coffee is graded, floated, and sorted pre-pulping, and continually hand-sorted during drying to ensure consistent quality and flavor across the cooperative's different lots. We really loved this coffee last year, and this lot is a great continuation!

The flavors from Lyula AB are a great balance of savory and and bright. The profile exhibits some warm black tea notes that give a great balance of spice and earthy flavor, coupled with a lime acidity that livens up the brew. It's also a fairly sweet coffee, most likely thanks to the excellent processing and increased focus on even drying and sorting. You can definitely tell this coffee comes from Africa - exhibiting that beloved "juicy" quality that devotees search for. We're excited to have Tanzanians back in the roasting rotation - and we think you will be too after your first sip!