Coffee from Zambia

Zambia is a country located in the South-Central part of Africa, which got its name from the Zambezi river that crosses through. In translation, it is believed to mean ”Great River”, so this already tells us a lot about the place. From now on we can only assume that the coffee grown here is just as great, but it can't hurt to dig a little and find some details about it. Otherwise, how else can we prove its greatness?

A piece of Zambian history

Zambia became independent of the United Kingdom quite recently, if you think about it. To be exact, 1964. Formerly, it was known as Northern Rhodesia. Coffee was introduced here much later compared to its neighbours, in the 1950s, and it was thanks to Kenya and Tanzania. From here on, several projects, which had as focus points irrigated and rain-fed fields, started to be implemented in order to assure the continuity of production for small-holder coffee farmers. They were even more successful than expected, so, in the 1980s, coffee production started to be taken seriously, also beginning the export process. 

Where does it grow?

The main areas where coffee can be found growing are around the Lusaka city and the Northern District of the Muchinga Mountains. For the latter, three regions can be distinguished: Nakonde, Kasama and Isoka. This part of the country has been proved to have the best conditions for coffee growing, due to its proximity to the equador. The highest point in the whole country can be found in the Mafinga Hills, where coffee is grown at an altitude of 2.300 meters. The reason why it is important for the coffee to be grown so high is that this way the plants have more time to develop their flavours and characteristics, resulting in denser and fuller taste beans. Therefore, coffee grown at lower altitudes will often be more plain flavoured, without any bold traits. 

But how are the flavours?

Unlike the majority of African coffees, the one from Zambia is characterized by lower acidity and a not so intense overall drinking experience. The body is fantastically full and the taste is as bright as the sun. These characteristics are best put in the spotlight by a medium roast, because this way the acidity levels don't rise too much and the natural flavours and aromas are perfectly balanced. 

Of course, this happens in an ideal scenario where the time of roast is not too farther away from the brewing time. Sadly, the logistics of shipping from Zambia to the whole Europe are not too well put together, so the coffee ends up staying in ports for long periods of time before it starts travelling. Therefore, a lot of flavour tends to be lost during this whole waiting process. Time management is crucial in maintaining the flavour of freshly-roasted coffees, so it shouldn't be neglected in any way. 

How is it processed?

In Zambia, coffee is wet-processed. This begins by double picking the beans and making sure they don't have any imperfections. Then, after no more than 5 hours, the processing itself begins, so the flavour is not lost. For this, great amounts of water are used. First off, all the coffee cherries are dumped in a huge tank of water (or more) and the good ones will sink, while the ones that have gone bad will rise to the surface. Then, they will be pressed against a screen for the skin and pulp to be removed. Once this is done, the beans are taken outside where they will be left to sun dry, until they reach an optimum level of moisture (which is about 12%). In order to make sure that the light is evenly distributed, shade nets are used. The water used for this whole process will then be repurposed as a fertilizer for the next lot of beans, if possible. 

What do you think? Is this coffee worth trying? Well, you might be surprised to learn that it is possible that you already did. This is because the giant Starbucks has a famous coffee called the Single Origin Zambia Peaberry. And what is a peaberry you might ask? Well, it is a natural phenomenon where the coffee fruit, which usually has two beans, now only has one bean! This means that all the flavours that used to be shared between the two beans is now concentrated in only one. And we don't mind!