What makes Kilimanjaro coffee beans taste so balanced?

Tanzania AA Kilimanjaro coffee comes from the volcanic highlands of the Kilimanjaro region in northern Tanzania, grown at 1,300 to 2,000 meters from Bourbon variety plants and processed by the washed method. The cup shows full body, mild acidity, and rich aroma, with citrus and berry notes that are gentler than Kenyan coffee, balanced between sweet and tart and carrying a red wine character.

In Tanzania the drink is called kahawa, and coffee has been part of the northern highlands economy for generations. The AA grade refers to screen size, the largest sorted bean class, which typically signals even ripening and consistent roast development. Every lot goes through a roasting process of repeated trials, cupping, and pour-over tests before it earns a place on the shelf.

Tanzanian Kilimanjaro coffee is known as the "coffee gentleman," celebrated for its full body, mild acidity, and rich aroma. This Tanzania AA from Front Street Coffee comes from the Kilimanjaro volcanic region in the northern highlands, is of the Bourbon variety, is washed-processed, and is graded AA. Compared with the Kenyan beans Front Street has long partnered with, its fruit acidity is gentler, leaning toward citrus and berry notes, balanced between sweet and tart, with a strong red wine character. This article will present the complete flavor code of this African specialty bean, from the history of Tanzanian coffee, cultivated varieties, the terroir of the Kilimanjaro producing region, the washed processing flow, and the AA grading system, to Front Street's roasting curve and V60 three-pour brewing parameters, making it suitable for coffee lovers who want a deeper understanding.

The coffee bean Front Street Coffee is introducing today comes from Kilimanjaro in the northern region of Tanzania, Africa.

Front Street Coffee made several different roasting adjustments to this Kilimanjaro coffee bean and finally settled on its roasting parameters. Through pour-over brewing, it was found that the Kilimanjaro coffee bean has obvious fruity acidity, but not as intense as Kenya's, leaning more toward citrus and berry notes, full of sweet-and-tart balance, making it an African coffee bean with a distinctive regional flavor.

This is the necessary path Front Street Coffee takes every time it receives a new coffee bean. Roasting not only tests the coffee roaster's understanding of the bean's producing region, but also requires cupping, pour-over, and other tasting steps to determine whether the roasting curve is appropriate. So at Front Street Coffee, this phenomenon often occurs: a single cup of coffee will have multiple items that need to be evaluated. Although it takes time, Front Street Coffee believes this is necessary. Without a process of repeated trials, Front Street Coffee will not easily put a coffee bean on the shelves.

Front Street Coffee — Tanzania Kilimanjaro Coffee

Region: Northern Highlands, Kilimanjaro volcanic region

Variety: Bourbon

Processing method: Washed

Grade: AA

Altitude: 1300-2000m

Tanzania

In Tanzania, coffee is called kahawa. Tanzania is a typical East African country, bordering Kenya and Uganda to the north, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to the south, and Rwanda and Burundi to the west. Its coffee history is actually quite long, and its coffee planting area is about 250,000 hectares.

When Tanzania coffee is mentioned, many coffee people first think of Kilimanjaro coffee. That's right, this is a unique "Kilimanjaro taste." It has a full body, suitable acidity, and a rich aroma, and it has the reputation of being the "coffee gentleman."

When Front Street Coffee compares Tanzania coffee with its neighbor Kenya, Tanzania coffee has a little less bright acidity and shows more of a soft, gentle beauty, with more sweet fragrance. A strong red wine character is also one of Tanzania's features.

Although not as famous as Kenyan beans, its annual output is almost equal to Kenya's, reaching 50,000 tons per year. The earliest Arabica seeds were introduced from Reunion Island, a French territory, and planted in the two producing regions of Bayamoyo and Mogoro. In 1893, the beans planted on the slopes of Kilimanjaro became the most successful coffee beans. Other varieties were also successively introduced from neighboring Burundi in the 1950s and planted in western Tanzania. At present, they are mainly grown in high-altitude areas, accounting for 75%, while local wild coffee still continues to appear.

Unlike most African producing countries, Tanzania's coffee bean bags are not the common jute bags, but rough fiber bags made from agave leaves. This is because the local government banned the use of jute bags in order to protect Tanzania's sisal industry.

Cultivated Varieties

The most commonly cultivated coffee varieties in Tanzania are Bourbon, Typica, and Kent.

Bourbon

Bourbon is also a natural mutation originally from Yemen. Its name comes from its original growing place, Bourbon Island, which is now Reunion Island. During the French colonial period, the French often exported this coffee overseas, especially to the United States. Bourbon coffee fruits are short and round, and the density of the pulp and seeds is very high. Bourbon coffee usually has high sweetness and bright acidity. Bourbon coffee's yield is 20-30% higher than Typica, but it is still regarded as a low-yield bean variety and is similarly susceptible to leaf rust disease.

Generally, when we speak of the Bourbon variety, we mostly mean Red Bourbon. This is because after the Red Bourbon coffee tree flowers and bears fruit, the color of the coffee fruit changes from green > slightly yellow > slightly orange > ripe red > then darker red as it becomes more mature. Therefore, some people also say that Red Bourbon is a Bourbon variety grown at high altitude, usually with better aroma, brighter acidity, and even a flavor similar to red wine when drunk. This Tanzania Kilimanjaro variety from Front Street Coffee is precisely Bourbon.

Typica

Its flavor performance is excellent, and it is recognized as a specialty coffee variety, but its yield is extremely low and it is susceptible to rust disease, requiring more manpower for management. Typica coffee originated in Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan, and is the most widely cultivated coffee variety in the Western Hemisphere. The plant is relatively robust, but not tolerant of light. The top leaves of Typica are red-copper colored, so it is called red-top coffee.

Kent

A Typica hybrid variety discovered in 1911 at the Kent coffee estate in the Mysore region of India, bred from S288 and Typica, with high yield and rust resistance. Its coffee aroma is fuller than that of Bourbon, and it has been introduced to Kenya, Indonesia, and other New World producing countries, making outstanding contributions.

Kilimanjaro Volcanic Region

Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro is 5,895 meters above sea level and is connected to Mount Meru. The coffee here grows at an altitude of 1,150 to 1,500 meters. It is Tanzania's largest coffee-producing region and an important lifeline of Tanzania's economy. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest peak on the African continent and the only snow-capped peak on Earth located on the equator. The fertile volcanic ash gives the coffee here a full body and soft acidity, with the typical characteristics of African coffee beans.

In Tanzania's coffee-producing regions, the north includes areas such as Moshi and Mbeya around the highlands at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, while the south is dominated by the Songea-Ruvuma area through which the Ruvuma River flows.

ARUSHA

Arusha is adjacent to the producing areas around Mount Kilimanjaro. This area surrounds the active Meru volcano, which has been quiet since 1910.

Altitude: 1100-1800 meters

Harvest period: July to December

Varieties: Kent, Bourbon, Typica

Ruvuma

This area is located in the southernmost part of Tanzania, and its name comes from the Ruvuma River. Coffee is grown in the Mbingo area and is considered a producing region with the potential to produce high-quality coffee. In the past, development was hindered by a lack of funds.

Altitude: 1200-1800 meters

Harvest period: June to October

Varieties: Kent, Bourbon, and N5 and N39 derived from Bourbon

KNCU&TCMB

In the past, Tanzania's coffee industry was always dominated by estate cultivation, but now more than 85% is grown by smallholders. Many smallholders have formed cooperative organizations, the most important of which is the Kilimanjaro Cooperative Union (KNCU). Tanzanian coffee is sold by auction by the Tanzanian Coffee Marketing Board (TCMB) to private exporters. In the 1980s, most Tanzanian coffee sales changed from auction to direct sale to Tanzania's coffee marketing board. Now this situation has changed somewhat, and the coffee industry is undergoing reform so that in the future individuals or groups will be allowed to buy coffee. At that time, coffee will also need to be graded in different ways in order to attract buyers from Germany, Finland, Belgium, and Japan.

Washed Processing Method

This Tanzania Kilimanjaro from Front Street Coffee is washed-processed. Tanzanian coffee is mostly processed by the washed method. After picking, coffee farmers send the coffee fruits to the nearest processing plant for processing. The washed method is currently the most widely used processing method, using washing and fermentation to remove the skin, pulp, and mucilage.

Steps of the washed processing method:

1. Sort and remove impurities mixed in with the coffee fruits 2. Remove the coffee pulp and outer skin 3. Send into fermentation tanks, and remove the pectin layer adhering to the parchment through fermentation 4. After cleaning thoroughly, carry out drying

Grading System

Tanzania's coffee grading method is the same as Kenya's, both grading by the size of the coffee beans. During screening, green coffee beans are passed through screens with fixed-size holes. The larger the screen number, the larger the green coffee bean.

AA grade: Screen size between 17 and 18 (7.20mm screen)

AB grade: Screen size between 15 and 16 (6.8mm~6.2mm screen),

PB grade: Round green beans, accounting for about 10% of all coffee beans

C grade: Screen size between 12 and 14 (4.8mm~5.6mm screen)

Roasting Curve

Kilimanjaro coffee is a large, uniformly sized coffee bean with a grayish-green color. Compared with others, it has stronger acidity and a sweet fragrance, with an excellent flavor. Front Street Coffee's roaster chose a medium-light roast, which after roasting gives off sweetness and a light acidity.

Bean drop temperature: 170°C, turning point: 6'30'', 150.8°C, first crack: 10'16'', 182.7°C, first crack development 1'45'', drop at 193°C.

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: V60

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Water temperature: 91°C

Grind size: fine granulated sugar (80% passing through a No. 20 sieve)

Brewing Method

Front Street Coffee uses staged extraction, that is, three-stage pouring.

First pour: Blooming (to help release gas)

During the roasting process in which green coffee beans become roasted beans, a series of chemical reactions and physical changes occur. After reaching a certain degree of roasting, a large amount of gas (mostly carbon dioxide) accumulates inside the coffee beans.

Generally speaking, the fresher the beans and the closer to roasting, the more bubbles usually appear during blooming. Dark-roasted beans also release more gas during blooming than light-roasted beans. Front Street Coffee's coffee beans are all freshly roasted, so customers are generally advised to rest the beans for three days first, letting the coffee beans release carbon dioxide first, so that in brewing they can avoid the problems of instability and under-extraction.

After the gas is released during blooming, the coffee particles can absorb water evenly, allowing the later extraction to be uniform. A good bloom can allow the coffee grounds to release gas quickly and fully and evenly, while also allowing the coffee grounds to fully and quickly contact water, helping the coffee grounds to be extracted evenly.

Second pour

The second pour starts from the center, injecting a small stream of water into the bottom of the coffee bed. In order for the penetration force of the water stream to be concentrated, the circling range should be small, about the size of a coin, and then spiral outward. From the start of the second pour, pay attention to the water amount, and try not to exceed the height of the coffee bed. That is, when the water stream circles to near the filter paper, you can stop pouring.

Third pour

As the originally thicker coffee bed near the edge of the filter paper becomes heavier from absorbing water, it slides down and becomes thinner as the water level drops. When the water level drops by half, you can proceed with the third pour. From the start of the third pour, observe the extent to which the water level drops. Similarly, start pouring from the center and circle outward, and do not let the water amount exceed the height of the coffee bed. At this time, you will also observe that the foam has covered the entire surface. The third pour should increase the tumbling of the coffee particles, causing all the settled particles to tumble and thereby dissolve soluble substances.

The rolling particles will begin to stop when water is no longer added. At this point, the flow rate caused by the dropping water level is needed to create friction among the coffee particles. So once water addition stops, the coffee grounds sink downward, causing clogging, so pay special attention to the rhythm of pouring. If pouring is interrupted too many times, it is equivalent to letting the coffee grounds sit in water all the time, which will cause the later stage of coffee extraction to produce astringency and off-flavors.

Flavor Description

Berry aroma, citrus acidity on the palate, soft and refreshing acidity, honey sweetness in the middle, tea-like finish, with a sweet aftertaste.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.