Lunji Coffee Farm

Around Mbeya, there are many coffee farms on the slopes of the impressive mountains. We were keen to visit one of the best farms. (Edi was already suffering from good coffee deprivation.) The Lunji Farm is one of the biggest farms in the area and is owned and run now by two generations of a lovely family with German roots. The farms founding dates back in the 1850’s when a britisch army officer started farming coffee at this place. Travellers like us can park their campers in their huge garden or rent a room and can learn about coffee farming in Tanzania.

Paul, the owner of the farm, took us on a tour, explaining us about growing coffee and all the details, which make a good coffee in the end. He studied agriculture in Germany and is now implementing a lot of modern knowledge in his farming, as well as supporting the smaller farms around him to increase quality and crop yield.

We found many similarities to growing wine, from the challenge with finding the best soil and variety to the danger of fungal and pest infestation. To get a variety, which is resistant to fungi and also to draught, Paul is grafting these two qualities into one plant.

Coffee roasting is a highly complex process because of the many parameters involved. Linji Farm is producing the highest quality of coffee and is roasting a part of their production for their online-shop sales. The rest, some years close to 100 tons, is sold to the world market.

As they have their roots in Germany, you can find Lunji Coffee online on https://www.lunjikaffee.de/ and order it from there, if you are interested in trying one of the worlds best coffees. Edi loves it!

Paul took us also to the city of Mbeya, where he had some business to do at the coffee mill. Lucky for us, this way we could visit the mill where we saw how the coffee beans were processed before they were auctioned and shipped to Hamburg, the big turntable for coffee worldwide.

We could buy vegetables from the farm, as they grow everything in their garden. Our camping spot was beautifully surrounded by many flowers, the Frangipani smelling the best.

We had a great time with Clemens, Paul and Diana and learned a lot about coffee farming in Tanzania. We wish them all the best for their plans to grow the best coffee in the world!

Our plan was to visit a crater lake next, but if we will make it up the road? More on our following post 😉