Tanzania Ngila Estate SL28
Vera affectionately calls her SL28 varietal Ndege, translating from Swahili into Bird. Vera Stücker is an engineer by trade and an inspirational, driven lady. We have been buying her coffee for some years now, as we believe she delivers the most consistent crops year on year. Vera’s plans are not to make her life better, but to improve coffee quality and make people’s lives around here better.
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. We also have a limited edition SL28 from Volcan Azul that is currently live too. The days of fine SL28’s from Kenya are between the states of going and gone, sadly, due to disease associated with climate change.
For want of a better analogy, an SL28 (to me) is a little like having a good bottle of Portuguese Douro or French Pic Saint-Loup wine. You know it is just going to consistently deliver fantastic fruit.
This is great as a developed filter roast or light espresso.
Farm: Ngila Estate.
Producer: Vera Stucker
Area: Arusha Northern Tanzania
Process: Fully washed (and shade-grown)
Varietal: SL28
Altitude: 1560-1640 Meters above sea level
Roast: One Roast
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
|Aromatics: Fruit Treacle, Black Tea |Body: Light, creamy on cooling | Acidity: Soft currants, subtle citrus|
On opening (my cloud of doubt has been lifted!) I am greeted by sweetness, currants and a fresh clean cup. I want to write “blackcurrant” but it is better. This is because the terroir of Ngila defines this varietal in a softer, sweeter way than you might expect from a fine Kenyan coffee. Soft red and blackcurrant sugars, subtle cocoa and a black tea-like finish. The liquor just gets sweeter and creamy. The finish becomes a little more citrusy and the acidity lifts a little on cooling.
In comparison to other SL28s, this is “up there” with the sweetest.
