Tanzania Ngila Estate SL28 Peaberries
Tanzania Ngila Estate SL28 Peaberries
Vera affectionately calls her SL28 varietal Ndege, translating from Swahili into Bird. SL28 is amongst my favourite varietals.
The terroir and skill of growing and processing it well make the difference between a good and an incredible coffee experience.
I probably s h o u l d have saved this coffee for later in the year, but who doesn’t love a refreshing blackcurrant iced filter brew when it’s scorching?
If you don’t jump on it quickly, we’ll just nitro-cold brew it until it is no more! Can you imagine? That is a lot of cold brew!
Random useless coffee fact: there is less SL28 grown in Kenya today, as Ruiru and Batian have been handed out as a replacement. The relevance is that, in my opinion, for what it’s worth
I think we get more SL28 “black curranty” flavour from Tanzania and Costa Rica, as they cultivate the SL28 separately.
Top Trumps
Farm: Ngila Estate.
Owner: Vera Stucker. Vera is an engineer who spends half of her life in Germany. Vera is driven to make the coffee better at Ngila and make long-term futures there for her team and the wildlife there.
Area: Arusha Northern Tanzania
Process: Fully washed (and shade-grown)
Varietal: SL28. Screen: Peaberry
Altitude: 1560-1640 Meters above sea level
Roast: One Roast
Filter:
|Aromatics: Sweet, berries |Body: Light-medium |Acidity: Currants, citric, balanced, sweet|
On opening the Tanzania Ngila Estate SL28 Peaberries are bright and a touch shallow, in their single dimension. As the coffee cools a little, this is more blackcurrant than a blackcurrant.
The sweet, ripe acidity on the front end with black tea and a lingering hint of grapefruit on the finish, as a nod to the SL28 varietal and blackcurrant.
This is super sweet on cooling and beautifully balanced.
Espresso Potential 🍜
We brewed this coffee using the cheapest commercial grinder in the building, AKA an Anfim Luna and a La Marzocco Linea Classic S, running at 94 °C.
Working from the most dilute:
9oz Milk-based drink: More pudding than coffee. Creamy, caramel and fruity.
6oz Milk-based drink: Caramel, blackcurrants. Spot on!
Espresso: Juicy currants (not sours). Surprisingly sweet and balanced.
Farm Stuff
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.
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