‘ROOT’ING FOR A CHANGE

The story starts with Rebecca Trupin, half Tanzanian, half American meeting the Aranga coffee group in 2012. She was looking to learn more about successful coffee cooperatives in the neighborhood to help the farmers from her mother's village in Marangu. The Aranga were ready and willing to support this proposition of supporting their neighbours. Whilst this was happening, Rebecca also understood that Aranga was looking for buyers. So she was looking for a market that was interested in Tanzanian coffee. Then, she met Lennart in the US and they were interested to give this a go. Although it was not a easy project since it entailed a lot of quality issues, with a help of few loyal roasters such as Kikundi, Usawa, the Aranga project had begun in 2015.Seeing this success of Aranga, the Marangus (the farmers from Rebecca's mother's village) were also keen to export their coffee internationally. These aspirations were sadly not aligned with their reality of having a high quality product. Coupled with a non transparent leadership, there were several things that needed attention before the coffees could be officially exported.

Rebecca's mother who at that time had not yet grasped the nuances of the Tanzanian coffee scene, still made her way to the coffee board for any support. Through Rebecca's high school friend, they found Frank Mlay who had been working with coffee board as a Q grader. They found that Frank also had roots in Marangu because of his father. This further sparked the interest to take a chance with Marangu and help them in their endeavors of quality and transparency.

Coffee until then was being exported under the Aranga group since they had an official license so Rebecca was primarily being the link between farmers and This Side UP for communication and coordination. Now, this partnership with Frank, led Rebecca and Frank to find Wanza and make things official in 2017. Once they had registered their exporting business, they were met with more farmer groups such as Amkeni and Masista through friends and family to export their coffees. Each group came with a distinct story yet their common desire was to sell their coffees world wide for a fair remuneration.This became the most important purpose for Wanza to be in the game.

Farmer groups face several hurdles including climate change, no youth , quality issues, access to market, insufficient remuneration etc. With full awareness of all this, Wanza strives to translate the efforts put in by these farmers for producing specialty coffee into good prices as well as long lasting relationships. This economic impact they have been creating currently in cooperation with This Side Up has fostered a culture of trust, transparency actively also between Wanza and their farmer partners, making Wanza’s evolution into the a Tanzanian coffee scene a pivotal one.

masista

hectares: 18
congregation members: 730

aranga

hectares: 70
farmers: 67

MARANGU

hectares: 24
farmers: 35

amkeni

hectares: 75
farmers: 60

This Side Up Value Chain

TRACEABILITY

You can find all the signed contracts and shipping documents that we made with Argote since 2021 below (Google Drive).

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

2015: establishment of partnership between Rebecca and by extension, Aranga. First small import from Aranga to test the waters (Indeed the waters were treacherous).

2016: after being confronted by us and the roasters we work with with heavy variability in moisture and water activity, the Aranga group consolidated drying beds from 12 to 4 locations to stabilise drying. We bought a Dutch roaster’s used moisture meter and brought it to Aranga on Lennart and Mathieu’s first origin trip together.

2017: Frank and Rebecca met and started working together as Rebecca’s eyes on the ground in Tanzania, given that she was only there sparsely.

2018: Secured earlier payment to farmers for the first time, something the farmers need as they lack access to affordable harvest financing. First time using direct export license to export, instead of going through the auction.

2019: Reserved part of sales price for Rebecca as compensation for all her free hours spent coordinating the relationship with the Aranga group. Due to lack of finance, we co-shipped with Communal Shamba through Schluter Specialty Coffee (now Covoya).

2020: Wanza first formally registered as a business. Aranga’s neighbours who had been in line to join the farmer group finally decided to form their own farmer group: Majirani - aptly meaning “neighbours”. Aranga proper sold most of its coffee to another buyer in Germany for a higher price than we offered, which we view as an immense victory!

2021: Wanza met with Sister Apia and Sister Nympha, who had been managing the Sisters' coffee project. Initially Wanza planned only to advise the group, but after trying their coffee, we decided to support them together. Wanza also partnered with Progreso, making prepayment to farmers more fluid and quicker.

2022: Wanza exported under their own export license for their first time. Shipment volume increased by almost four times, for an average of just under 6 USD / kg farmgate, unheard of in Tanzania.

2023: Dennis Koepoort visits Aranga in first visit by someone from the TSU network in a long time. Gets a valuable insight into all Wanza’s partners’ operations and starts putting Wanza coffees on his standard menu.

2024: Aranga supported Masista actively throughout the harvest and processing steps for the first speciality harvest cycle. Farmers from all the 4 groups participate in the cupping session and "taste" their own coffees for the first time because of the This Side Up origin visit. Younger farmers from Aranga show interest towards experimenting with different processing methods. Wanza working actively towards price quality differential and playing an active role in cooperation with farmer groups in regards to quality control.

Our QC’s Flavour Impressions

Roasting advice

We noticed in previous years that TSU Washed 1 wasn’t developing the beans as fully as possible so we tried Christopher Feran’s High Alt itude 1800m profile which gives fantastic results. We actually adapted our standard Washed profile to have a lower drop temperature (145 degrees Celsius) and a few more seconds total roast time so you can use both - they now develop acidities in these dense beans beyond citric into smooth malic flavours, allowing the chocolate body and layered sweetness to develop adequately. Cut the roast short if DTR exceeds 23%. 

CONTACT wanza

Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks. 

CONTACT  Rebecca Trupin / Frank Mlay Niwa’s

EMAIL  rebecca.trupin@gmail.com / wanzacoffee@gmail.com

TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181

Aranga Coffee Group, Nkoaranga, Arumeru District, Arusha Region, Tanzania

coffee is the best teacher

Aranga coffee group's success is synonymous with being proactive and determined to develop a transparent and democratic governing system. The members – now 28 in number – are true artisans of their coffee and drink it themselves, which is a rarity for the East African region, outside of Ethiopia.  Aranga members are subsistence farmers. Formally registered in 2002, the group enshrined weekly meetings to keep all members informed of the group’s business doings, make decisions collectively, and meet with a local agronomist to learn improved farming techniques. Over a decade later, these investments have paid off. 

In the last few years of producing and selling high quality coffee , one of the key areas of progress has been seeing farmers achieve economic growth. This higher economic growth is a result of direct trade coupled with higher prices as well as stable access to the market. 

In their community,  they pioneer in empowering women to take up coffee farming as a means towards economic independence. They invest in the younger generation to become enthusiastic about coffee farming via several initiatives including  distributing  coffee seedlings at a discount price. They also have a 'back to school', an informal program that allows for learning in detail each week about different aspects of things from bean to cup. 

Their  practical limitations currently include access to market information as well as infrastructure. These limitations are also the opportunities they seek for their future. Going in depth with coffee processing methods, finding access to finance a central processing unit and continuing educating themselves as well as the other. 

Aranga boasts some of the best coffee to be found anywhere in Tanzania and has a remarkably successful and transparent business.

CULTIVARS

Arabica Bourbon (Jackson, Mbirizi) and Kent

elevation

1,450 - 1,700 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

local organic certification (since 2016) by the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM), shade-grown, farmer owned and farmer-run cooperative, actively seeks participation of women in coop activities.  Currently they have 13 youth members who are active with the group growing coffee.

PROCESSING

Double wet fermentation: Cherries are depulped using simple hand-pulpers and strictly washed the same day they are picked. They are then double wet-fermented (2x 18 hours), shade dried, and then sun dried on raised beds.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

CONTACT WANZA

Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks

TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181

EMAIL mlayff@gmail.com/ wanzacoffee@gmail.com

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Aganga’s coffee amongst your customers.

coffee : a divine intervention

Frank met the Masista group through his friends as they needed help in selling their coffees. Masista is a congregation of 730 nuns from the Roman Catholic Church, benefit directly or indirectly from coffee.

They were neighbors with Aranga and had heard about their partnership with Wanza. Founded in 2021, this group was driven to foster knowledge sharing within the community. Their efforts towards producing high quality speciality coffee was met with the resistance to pay high prices locally. They also didn't know who bought their coffee which made this relationship even harder.

After their initial 'flirt' with Wanza they were able to actively see some changes. Not only were they getting good prices for their produce, they were also able to steadily increase production. Both being incentives to continue improving the over all quality. In the 300 acres of their property they have, around 12.5 is currently in the Tumaini property used for coffee. They also allow children to visit the farm and learn more about coffee production as part of the experience.They have invested in personnel from Tanzanian Coffee Research Institute to help them with agronomical decisions include production and processing.

Seeing the average age of their congregation is quite high, they are motivated to involve youth to play much more active role in coffee production. The future includes them working more on acquiring expertise in processing techniques as well as infrastructure to make the quality uniform as well as consistent.

CULTIVARS

Arabica Bourbon (Jackson, Mbirizi) and Kent

elevation

1,200 - 1,300 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

This is the first season they actually worked with their neighbors in Aranga to revise the production and processing protocols which seems very promising. They have decided to separate the lots and cup them separately in cooperation with Wanza so it can be organized easily based on quality of the cup. They also intercrop with banana, maize. They rear cattle for community use including milk, meat diversifying the source of their income. They do bee keeping and have a thriving fish pond that they use as source of food. This acts as a model farm for children to come learn more about agriculture. Currently have 2 permanent workers and during harvest season employ up to 40 workers.

PROCESSING

Ripe cherries are hand picked. Depulped using hand-pulper and then put into the washing channels, while the heavy beans are separated using the floating technique. After soaking for 24 or 48 hours depending on the weather in clean water, it is again washed and dried until desired moisture.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

CONTACT WANZA

Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks

TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181

EMAIL mlayff@gmail.com/ wanzacoffee@gmail.com

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Masista’s coffee amongst your customers.

change is a bean away

Wanza's connection to the Marangu group is rather close one. While Rebecca's mom and sister are part of the group, Frank's father is from the same village as them. Rebecca's mother wanted to help the group find a good buyer. Although she didn't know about the dynamics in the Tanzanian coffee industry, there were also other difficulties such as a non transparent leadership, lack of quality and marketing for the coffee from this group.

Frank felt that him getting involved would prove to be beneficial to the group. His passion to support the people of his roots and his expertise in quality/marketing as well as his experience in the coffee board accelerated this process. They decided to work only with a few members of the group instead of all of them. It was those who were interested to put effort into following the rules for producing high quality speciality coffee. The coffee from the Marangu farmers were separated and sent along with the Aranga coffee. During this time, the vision and idea for Wanza was also being birthed by Rebecca and Frank.

One of the important issues faced by farmers currently is climate change, evidently reducing production as well drasticallly in the last two years. This is currently being combatted in cooperation with seedlings developed by coffee research institute in Tanzania by rehabilitating the farms. They intend to centralize the coffee processing as well so they can consciosuly create uniform quality. They have steadily gained support from Wanza through training, marketing, quality control in the last few years and as that continues, they dream of bringing together indvidual farmers for a common mission!

CULTIVARS

Arabica Bourbon (Jackson, Mbirizi) and Kent

elevation

1,400 - 1,500 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

First year in 2024, they have tried to create 3 separate lots based on quality for This Side Up network in cooperation with Wanza coffees. TACRI distributed more than 60000 seedlings to farmers for rehabilitating the old farms in an attempt to increase productivity. Average age of the marangu farmers is 50+ years and they don’t have a lot of youth participation yet actively in the group although some of have expressed interest to join.

PROCESSING

Double wet fermentation: Cherries are depulped using simple hand-pulpers and strictly washed the same day they are picked. They are then double wet-fermented (2x 18 hours), shade dried, and then sun dried on raised beds.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

CONTACT WANZA

Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks

TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181

EMAIL mlayff@gmail.com/ wanzacoffee@gmail.com

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Marangu’s coffee amongst your customers.

the relentless pursuit

In 1999, in Mwika, a small village on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, 150 farmers harvested and processed their own coffee at home and then brought the parchment to the group headquarters. In 2001, with the help of Technoserve's capital, they built the first Central processing unit. Started with 69 members, now the group remains with 45 of them who have a special status of a "coffee group" instead of a cooperative which is the expected norm in Tanzania. Other than climate change, the lack of youth participation questions the long term sustainbility of coffee production in this region. Despite this, the older farmers still continue to experiment in different ways including using cattle for both manure as well source of fuel for cooking among other things which keeps the group fairly active and competent.

Wanza was trying to get them on board but it was never in the cards until Frank directly was in contact with the chairman learning about their victory streak at the quality championship. Frank realized that despite winning quality championships, they were not getting paid enough nor higher than their peers for all of their efforts. They were forced into a corner running out of options of a fair compensation. It was either selling it via the auction or letting the quality deteroirate .Now with Wanza by their side there came access to This Side Up and the international market. With fair compensation for their coffees, the group continues to build dreams for the future, such as upgrading their CPU, to renovate their office and equipment as well as opening a fund for members to help them afford agricultural inputs.

CULTIVARS

Bourbon, Jackson Bourbon

elevation

1,600 - 1,750 meters above sea level

NOTABLE

Several smallholder farmers came together to better control the quality of their product and commercialize it to the international market. Over time, they’ve proved to be very good businessman and committed coffee growers..

PROCESSING

Cherries are brought to a central pulper where they are depulped, soaked over night and floated using raised channels and set out to dry on raised beds. The group runs a central washing station equipped with both depulper and drying beds.

TASTIFY™ CUPPING NOTES

CONTACT WANZA

Wanza can be reached by email or by phone. Rebecca or Frank are also happy to have visitors to show around their coffee farms and host in their village, close to the city of Arusha and to numerous national parks

TEL +1 (615) 200 9209 / +255 713 838 181

EMAIL mlayff@gmail.com/ wanzacoffee@gmail.com

Photo gallery

You may use these images freely to promote Amkeni’s coffee amongst your customers.