About this coffee

Finagro Estate is a 600-hectare coffee plantation in the Karatu district of Tanzania. The estate is technically comprised of two conjoined farms—Ascona and Helgoland—and is currently owned and managed by Neel and Kavita Vohora, siblings, multi-generation coffee growers, and agricultural entrepreneurs in this extremely unique part of East Africa. Both farms are cultivated along the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest unbroken caldera in the world and a breathtakingly scenic landscape of escarpments and fertile open range that has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.

The coffee planted on Finagro is sub-divided into blocs by microclimate or cultivar, allowing the Vohoras and their harvest staff of 850 to manage each specific need of the farm in an orderly way. Neel and Kavita have been steady suppliers for Royal for a few years, and beyond the ever-in-demand peaberries that have become synonymous with Tanzania specialty, the brother and sister have put their size and expertise to use introducing a dizzying variation of processing styles into the world. Some of which we are also lucky to cup and carry each year.

Processing for the peaberry lots involves a brief cherry fermentation lasting 24 hours after picking. Then the coffee is depulped, fermented for 36-72 hours, shade dried for 3 days, and finished by drying in full sun for another week.