TANZANIA Ngila Estate. Floral Black Tea, Toffee, Meyer Lemon

Country: Tanzania

Region: Karatu, Arusha, Ngorongoro

Farm: Ngila Estate

Varietal: SL-28

Process: Washed

Altitude: 1600-1800 M

Certification: Farm Gate - Direct Trade

 

The Ngila Coffee Estate is around 100 hectares, containing some 150,000 coffee trees which produce around 120 tons of prime Arabica highland coffee every year. The farmlands are located at 1500 -1600 metres above sea level and 4° south of the Equator. It’s positioned on the edge of the cloud forest of the northern highlands, near to the Conservation Area on the slopes of Ngorongoro crater in northern Tanzania in East Africa.

Ngila Coffee Estate was founded at the beginning of the twentieth century by a German settler. It was an ambitious undertaking but was a success. The coffee farmers laid the foundation for the unique coffee that grows in this mineral-rich volcanic soil.

In 1992 the farm was bought by the German family Meyer. Since then, new technology like modern drip irrigation and water-saving coffee processing equipment has been installed. All coffee on the farm is selectively handpicked and sorted to remove any damaged or under ripe cherries before pulping. Picking on the farm is incredibly stringent, and the harvest season at Ngila lasts nearly two months, with 3 to 4 passes being done for each tree.

 After hand-sorting the coffee is delivered to flotation tanks, where any underweight or damaged cherries are again removed. After this, the coffee passes through a Penagos pulper which extracts some of the mucilage from the berries. The coffee is taken in buckets from the density-sorting channel to the drying tables where the parchment is then air dried for at least 7 days. The coffee is turned regularly and covered with netting during the heat of the day.