Vera affectionately calls her SL28 varietal Ndege, translating from Swahili into Bird.
SL28 is amongst my favourite varietals of all time. The terroir and skill of growing and processing it well make the difference between a good and an incredible coffee experience for me.
Later on, we will also have the limited edition SL28 from Volcan Azul! I fear this is selfishly motivated.
In the early days of UK speciality coffee, (the Royal) “we” compared a great Kenya Gethumbwini to Ribena, and it changed how some looked at coffee.
This lot came in earlier in the year, but I have been holding out, as I had a feeling that it might just improve, and thankfully, it paid off!
For want of a blanket analogy, an SL28 (to me) is a little like having a good bottle of Portuguese (red table wine from the) Duoro Valley. You know it is just going to consistently deliver fantastic fruit.
Farm: Ngila Estate.
Area: Arusha, Northern Tanzania
Process: Fully washed (and shade-grown)
Varietal: SL28
Altitude: 1560-1640 Meters above sea level
Roast: Traditional Espresso
The Ngila Estate is based on the slopes of the Ngorongoro Crater, and they have been growing coffee for over 100 years. There is a set aside of 80 hectares of preserved rainforest that reaches 1800 meters above sea level. And Ngila is certified by the Rainforest Alliance and uses natural insecticides, like Neem extract, and mineral fertilisers.
Ngila determines the trees that they are going to pick using a Brix meter; picking is selective, and sorting is very intensive. Many of the workforce at Ngila are migrants. For some, it is a break from stone crushing, which is another local manual labour.
Tanzania has a growing population of over 60 million people. The population has grown by a million a year for the last 50 years. Yes, that is a population growth of 5-fold in 50 years.
Want to keep up to date? You can follow Ngila Estate on Instagram here
Milk-based drinks: 17g of coffee into 34g of espresso liquid in 25-30 seconds.
Working from the most dilute:
9oz Milk-based drink: Bold black currant and cocoa. This is not shy
6oz Milk-based drink: more depth. Surprisingly punchy, Big cocoa and powerful blackcurrants
Espresso: 17g of coffee into 45-50g of espresso liquid in 28-34 seconds. Don’t panic if it’s outside this. Try it and find what you like.
The milk-based drinks were so powerful; however, Tanzania Ngila Estate SL28 Espresso is surprisingly sweet. The fruit is so balanced and curranty.
