Visit Kilimanjaro's Coffee Plantations
The most popular coffee regions in Tanzania are plantations around Arusha, Kilimanjaro region, Iringa, Ruvuma and Mbeya. In the western part of the country, the primary coffee growing regions are in Kigoma and Kagera.
Gaze upon the snow-clad top of Africa in the Kilimanjaro Region, taking its name from the continent's spectacular 5,896 m (19,344 ft) mountain of the same name. A hub of mountaineering tourism, the Kilimanjaro Region's capital Moshi is a clean, bustling centre that enjoys prosperity from the local coffee industry, and boasts an attractive blend of Asian and African cultures.
Kilimanjaro Coffee Plantation, Image Source: Kili-Plantation.Com
How To Get There
For most travelers to Tanzania, getting to Moshi would require you catch a bus from Dar es Salaam or flight to Kilimanjaro International airport and find yourself surrounded with the Chagga tribes who are the people living in Moshi District.
A Visit To The Coffee Plantations:
Tanzania Coffee from Kilimanjaro is of high quality and is popular worldwide. For Tanzania, the Kilimanjaro coffee is the most important "cash crop" of the country. The town of Moshi in Kilimanjaro is the main hub for the coffee trade. A visit to the coffee plantations with local farmers can be organised with as a group with a tour operator whereby You will be picked up in Moshi in the morning, by an English-speaking guide, who will drive you to Materuni Village which will cost $45 inclusive return transfer. Upon arrival, you will register at the village office and your trip can begin.
Begin the day with a short drive up onto the slopes of Kilimanjaro, to the village of Materuni, approximately 1,800 m above sea level. The Mount Kilimanjaro provides optimal climatic and geographic conditions for coffee production: nutrient-rich volcanic soil, access to numerous springs and rivers and a moderate tropical mountain climate with stable temperatures between day and night as well as summer and winter.
Coffee production was introduced in Tanzania in 1900s from Ethiopia and today is main source of income for many farmers around Moshi as well the second most important export product for Tanzania. Seventy percent of produced coffee beans in Tanzania are Arabica, the rest is Robusta type, known for strong bitterness and contains twice as much caffeine than Arabica.
Worker Picking Coffee Beans
A tour around the coffee plantations in Materuni costs $25 per person inclusive with an additional tour around the waterfalls as you walk along the coffee farms and learn about how the coffee is grown, harvested and processed locally. Try your own hand at processing, roasting and preparing a fresh cup of coffee in the local Chagga way.
The coffee plant takes two years to mature and within 5 years it will be producing about 5kg of coffee each year. Long process. The coffee berries are harvested between July and December when the cherries turn red.
Coffee Beans in their natural state
Although all coffee making process in one coffee tour is impossible because the beans have to go through the fermentation process for a day and then have to get dried. Well, you could start coffee making from stage two, where we used already dried coffee beans. With the wooden pestle and mortar alike machine, they call it Kinu in Swahili to smash the seeds. Thereafter will roast the seads and smash them once again to get it into powder foam.
Moshi Coffee Beans, Image Source: SafariJunkie.Com
Once you have finished the whole process of making coffee you could now boil it on the stove then have a cup of coffee for a break.
Group of Tourist On a Village Tour
Where To Find The Best Coffee In Tanzania
If you were in Kilimanjaro region on safari or a visit and would like to have a cup of Africa’s finest coffee you could go to below listing place;
