Single-Estate Tanzania Peaberry Crown Jewel - 12oz. Bag

Intro

This Single-Estate Tanzania Peaberry is a fully washed and dried on raised beds coffee from the Karatu District, Arusha Region, Tanzania and is Rainforest Alliance certified.

The flavor profile offers hints of plum, meyer lemon, caramel and milk chocolate.

Origin Information

Grower - Neel and Kavita Vohora | Finagro Estate
Cultivar - Bourbon (N39), Kent, SL-28, and SL-34, TACRI, Ruiru-11, Batian
Region - Karatu District, Arusha Region, Tanzania
Harvest - June - December
Elevation - 1600 - 1800 masl
Process - Fully washed and dried on raised beds

Flavor

Plum, meyer lemon, caramel, milk chocolate

Roast

We roasted this batch of Rainforest Alliance certified Tanzania Peaberry to a medium dark roast. Depending on the grind and brewing method, this Single-Estate Tanzania Peaberry Crown Jewel can produce hints of plum, meyer lemon, caramel and milk chocolate.

Brewing

As with most Top-Shelf coffees, we suggest using the pour-over method to maximized the aroma and flavor of this Crown Jewel coffee using a 1:16 coffee to water ratio with the water between 200F and 205F. Once grounds are placed in the filter, pre-soak grounds by covering with water for ~30sec to allow for blooming, then finish with either a steady pour or a couple of short pours to complete the brewing process.

Coffee Background

Tanzania peaberries are considered an East Africa classic and are constantly in high demand. Many of them, however, tend to trade on an outsize reputation and with less than perfect traceability. Nonetheless there certainly are exceptions, such as this coffee: a single-estate peaberry lot from the Vohora siblings, part of an outstanding, multi-generational family who take climate preservation and quality equally seriously.

Peaberries are far more prevalent in Tanzania exports than almost anywhere else in the world other than Kenya. Together, the two neighboring countries are really the only ones to have successfully commercialized the grade. In Tanzania’s case, peaberry coffee is regularly in higher demand than larger screensizes; so much so that the grade is practically synonymous with Tanzania’s specialty sector. This is thanks to many years of successful marketing of what is, in every coffee producing country, a naturally-occurring mutation of the seed that accounts for 5-10% of all coffee worldwide. Peaberries from specialty producers and high elevations roast beautifully thanks to the tightly-controlled size and density, and for the same reason the cup is often more focused and clearer than multi-screen versions of the same coffee.

Producer / Source Background

The Finagro Estate is a 600-hectare coffee plantation in the Karatu district of Tanzania. The estate is technically comprised of two conjoined farms—Ascona and Helgoland—and is currently owned and managed by Neel and Kavita Vohora, siblings, multi-generation coffee growers, and agricultural entrepreneurs in this extremely unique part of East Africa. Both farms are cultivated along the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest unbroken caldera in the world and a breathtakingly scenic landscape of escarpments and fertile open range that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

The coffee planted on Finagro is sub-divided into blocs by microclimate or cultivar, allowing the Vohoras and their harvest staff of 850 to manage each specific need of the farm in an orderly way. Neel and Kavita have been steady suppliers for Royal for a few years, and beyond the ever-in-demand peaberries that have become synonymous with Tanzania specialty, the brother and sister have put their size and expertise to use introducing a dizzying variation of processing styles into the world. Some of which we are also lucky to cup and carry each year.

Processing for the peaberry lots involves a brief cherry fermentation lasting 24 hours after picking. Then the coffee is depulped, fermented for 36-72 hours, shade dried for 3 days, and finished by drying in full sun for another week.