The story
Zambia is a small coffee producer, and it is worth saying so up front. The importer Algrano notes that the whole country grows less coffee in a year than one large Kenyan cooperative. It is also landlocked, so coffee bound for overseas roasters goes overland first, mostly to the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
Coffee arrived fairly late. Sweet Maria's says it was introduced in the 1950s using seed from Tanzania and Kenya, and Algrano adds that settler farmers were growing it around Mbala before 1950. The modern industry came in the 1970s. Zambia's economy leaned heavily on copper, and when copper prices fell, the government and World Bank programmes backed coffee as a new export crop. Nkwazi, the Proflight inflight magazine, says that push favoured large, well-organised estates in the Northern Province alongside smallholders. According to Algrano, Zambia's Coffee Act allows only Arabica to be grown commercially, and the industry borrowed much of Kenya's production and grading system.
Output grew for decades and then fell sharply. Algrano puts the peak at around 6,500 tonnes in the 2004/05 harvest; Nkwazi gives 6,654 tonnes of green coffee exports that year. After funding ran out and a severe drought hit in 2005/06, many small farmers pulled up their trees for crops that paid faster. Both sources say output fell to about 180 tonnes by 2015. Nkwazi reports a partial recovery, to almost 2,000 tonnes of exports in 2019. The Zambia Coffee Growers Association, as quoted by Nkwazi, points to the high cost of growing coffee, rather than a lack of land, as the main brake.
Almost all Zambian coffee comes from the Northern Province and the Muchinga escarpment. Algrano names Kasama, Mbala, Nakonde and Isoka among the main areas, with a few estates further south near Serenje and Lusaka. Sweet Maria's names the same northern districts. Most coffee grows above 1,200 metres, says Algrano, with lots higher than 1,500.
Production is concentrated in a few estates rather than many small farms. Nkwazi says Northern Coffee Corporation, owned by Olam and formerly called Kasama Coffee, handles most of the country's exportable coffee from five estates covering over 2,200 hectares. Sweet Maria's describes a cluster of estates close to Kasama town, including Kateshi. In Mbala, the Swiss-run Mount Sunzu farm grows coffee on the slopes of the Sunzu Mountains.
How it's processed
A coffee bean is the seed of a small fruit called a cherry. After picking, the fruit is removed and the seed is dried.
Most Zambian coffee is washed: the skin and fruit are stripped off before the beans dry. Algrano says the industry was built around fully washed coffee for export, which is why it is still the main style. Coffee Review's notes on a Kateshi estate lot describe it as washed.
Natural coffee, dried with the whole cherry still on, is a newer addition. Algrano says a growing number of farms are trying it, and Sweet Maria's has sold a natural lot from the Kasama area that was dried on patios and raised beds.
The harvest falls in the long dry season, from May to September according to Algrano. That helps with drying, since rain rarely interrupts it, but it also means many farms rely on irrigation to keep trees healthy through the dry months.
On varieties, Algrano lists older Kenyan types such as SL34 alongside Catimor, and newer plantings of Starmaya and Marsellesa. Sweet Maria's says Catimor types are common around Kasama because they resist disease. Coffee Review's Kateshi lot was Castillo, Catimor 129 and F6.
What it tastes like
Zambia does not have a fixed flavour reputation in the way Kenya or Ethiopia does. Algrano describes its washed coffees as generally clean and balanced, with medium acidity and body, moving between citrus and fruit, chocolate and caramel depending on the farm. Sweet Maria's says they tend to be less bright and acidic than other East African coffees, with a balanced profile.
Individual lots vary. Sweet Maria's Kasama natural showed cocoa, burnt sugar and dried berry rather than strong fruit, while Coffee Review's washed Kateshi lot was noted for cocoa nib, date and guava. Algrano describes Mount Sunzu's coffees as cocoa and caramel. With so few lots on the market, the notes on each coffee are a better guide than any country-wide rule.