Union Coffee

I thought this post is significant- considering it’s by the new Japanese Ambassador to Tanzania

Hard work and dedication behind every bean

It takes the hard work of 60,000 small-holder coffee farmers to produce our exquisite organic single origin Arabica.

High on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, our farmers tend their 0.5Ha coffee gardens. They prune their coffee trees and plant shade trees – native trees and bananas - to protect the coffee and encourage biodiversity, as well as diversify income. They w**d and mulch the rich volcanic soils and, when needed, further enrich the soils with organic manure.

The coffee flowers bloom in April, when the gardens are full of buzzing bees - helping pollination.

Between April and October (depending upon altitude), the coffee trees produce green coffee cherries in clusters along the branches. Over the next weeks and months, the cherries then turn yellow and, finally, a deep vibrant red.

Although picking individual coffee cherries by hand is very labour intensive, it produces the best quality coffees. Pickers go out into the farms with baskets, picking only the ripest coffee cherries.

Congratulations