Ipyana (Tanzania) - recipe and background

Ipyana (Tanzania) - recipe and background

Ipyana has a depth of flavour we love, initially registering as almond and hazelnut laced with vanilla. A wonderful apple-like acidity reveals itself as it cools. It’s a pleasure to let this one unfold on your palate. Brew it any way you want: as an espresso the acidity may be highlighted, in a cafetiere you’ll get a fuller mouthfeel, in a pour over or aeropress you’ll be able to play with the balance of sweetness and fruit depending on your brew ratio and technique. 

Our recipe for Ipyana on Kalita Wave

17g coffee to 250g water
Encore grind 22


Pour a 30g bloom
At :30 pour water until weight reaches 100g
At 1:00 pour until 150g
At 1:30 pour until 200g
At 2:00 pour until 250g


All the water should have run through by 3:10. 

The Ipyana Co-Operative

The Songwe region, rich in agricultural production, is situated in southern Tanzania bordering Zambia and Malawi. This is the location of the Mbozi District, populated with 175 villages and around 515,000 people. The Ipyana Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Society (AMCOS) works with five of these villages Ipyana, Iyula, Igale, Iyula B and Idunda to gather and export excellent coffee.

The AMCOS was started in 2006 and is now composed of 507 members (76 women) growing coffee on 5 hectares of land or less. Collectively, the AMCOS produces around 130,000 kilograms of coffee each year. The area is dominated by clay soils with regular rainy seasons and mild temperatures - ideal conditions for coffee production.

Members of the AMCOS source their coffee seedlings from the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute and follow specific planting guidelines to ensure successful coffee production. Each farm is managed with regular weeding, pruning, spraying, and application of fertiliser. Soil health is maintained with the application of mulch whilst pests and diseases are carefully monitored. Agricultural advice is offered to each member via farmer training programs and field visits from the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute and Coffee Management Services.

The AMCOS itself is managed by an elected board with members who oversee the cooperative. There is a Chairman, Vice Chairman, and a secretary, helping ensure that each member is profitably growing coffee and maintaining a sustainable livelihood.

The Mbeya Region

The Mbeya district is located in the southern highlands of Tanzania - and is known at 'the Scotland of Africa' is a growing metropolis and business centre for the southern regions and the neighbouring countries of Malawi, Zambia and Congo. The city is well connected with an all-weather road that forms part of the 'Great North Road' running from Cape Town to Alexandria. Mbeya also boasts as one of the regions that form the bread basket of Tanzania. Fancy driving along one of the local roads from Mbalizi near Mbeya? Click HERE for a cool trip by motorbike to soak up some atmosphere in the region.
 
Coffee is an important agricultural product in Tanzania - start HERE to read a good overview by the importer of this particular lot, Mercanta. And then check out this lovely short film for some footage of coffee production in the southern areas of Mbeya and Mbinga (Ipyana lies exactly halfway between the two at the northern tip of Lake Malawi). As climate change and urbanisation shrink the traditional coffee producing area in the north by Mount Kilimanjaro, production in the south is stepping up. 
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