Zambia Anaerobic Natural Misambo

Zambia is not a coffee growing country we see many samples from. There is plenty of coffee being exported from the region, but their coffee-growing history is much younger than those that surround them. The first coffee was planted in Zambia in the 1950s, however, it wasn't until the last few decades that it became a major contributor to Zambia's agri-business sector. Kateshi is one of a cluster of coffee estates are very close to Misambo town, Kasama, in Zambia's Northern Province. Estates and "plantations" make up the bulk of coffees that are exported from Zambia. Altitude at Kateshi ranges from 1300 to 1500 meters above sea level. This is an anaerobic natural ("natural" = dry process), meaning the coffee cherry is stored in air tight canisters for a couple of days before then laying out to dry on the patio. In our experience, anaerobic process yields wild, and often funky, fruit flavors. Surprisingly, this is not the case with Kateshi! We found the fruit flavors to be pretty well-balanced for a natural (dry process), folded into the sweetness and underlying chocolate bittersweets. There are a lot of Catimor hybrid types grown in the region for disease resistance, which also happen to produce seeds that are quite large and would lend to the AAA grade (the largest grade).