The farmers in the Kigoma region harvest their coffee in the rolling hills between Lake Tanganyika and the rugged mountains that create a natural border with Burundi. They grow mostly Bourbon variety coffee plants here at elevations between 5000 and 5500 ft. Our coffee comes specifically from growers of the Rumako and Manyovu cooperatives, part of a much larger umbrella association called Kanyovu.

We worked directly with co-op’s cuppers in Kigoma to select the beans for this ‘super-lot’ which expresses in its cup quality all the hard work of the growers through means of bean selection, processing and drying. Our lot was the first that the co-op exported independently, which allowed the members to garner more of the profits and began the move towards self-sufficiency down the road. 

The farms of the Kanyovu co-op surround the Gombe Stream National Park. One goal of the Jane Goodall Institute is to protect the Gombe from deforestation, which causes erosion problems along the lake and threatens the habitat of the endangered chimpanzees. Reforestation and increased shade diversity in the coffee areas is an excellent way to build a buffer around Gombe.