Sambewe AA

With its relatively close proximity to Ethiopia, and its shared border with Kenya, some of Tanzania’s population has had a long history and culture relationship with coffee, namely the Haya people, for whom the plant was not used so much as a beverage as a chewed fruit. Coffee (probably Robusta) was grown for this domestic purpose until German colonists essentially mandated that farmers grow Arabica coffee as a cash crop, spreading the plants’ reach within the country and developing the industry around Mount Kilimanjaro.

Sambewe AMCOS represents around 442 smallholder farmers, all of whom live in or around the villages of Sambewe, Itumpi, Nansama, Iyenga, and Ileya in the Mbozi district of Tanzania. This AMCOS is the result of four local farmers groups combining forces in 2018; the producers all share a central processing unite and deliver their coffee in cherry form.

Fully Washed coffees from Tanzania are put through a fermentation process, while Washed coffees are typically mechanically demucilaged. Fully Washed lots are typically depulped the same day they’re harvested, then fermented in cement tanks for anywhere from 24–72 hours. They are then washed clean of mucilage and sorted through water channels before being spread on raised beds to dry, or dried in mechanical driers. Sometimes they are given a 8–12-hour post-washing soak before they are dried.