History & Origins
Blackburn Estate started in 1930, before being transferred to a Scotsman until finally reaching Gehrken’s father after WWII in 1949.
Michael took over in 1983, as he fell in love with the stretches of grasslands and wildlife of East Africa.
Back then, Blackburn’s coffee trees were entirely overgrown, and a troop of baboons had moved into the main house.
It was only in the late-eighties, when the government began to free up the market, that Michael started to explore farming coffee.
This Estate is unique amongst other coffee farms in Tanzania, situated along the border of Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Behind the towering Mount Oldeani, or Bamboo Mountain, sits Blackburn Estate, over 500 hectares of wilderness area, conservation land, and coffee.
Blackburn is now an award-winning estate, distinguished not only by taste but also by Michael’s commitment to ecologically-sound farming.
Terroir & Growing Conditions
This coffee comes from the award-winning Blackburn Estate, where owner Michael Gehrken farms in the volcanic soils of the Nogorongoro Conservation Area near Karatu.
The coffee is grown at an altitude between 1760 and 1950 meters above sea level.
80% of the estate’s diverse landscape is reserved for free wildlife roaming, with this coffee growing in one of the farm’s heavily shaded areas under a natural canopy.
With 66 ha of coffee surrounded by 212 ha of wildlife corridors and 117 ha of land dedicated to mulch production – this grand area roars with rich biodiversity as coffee trees sway throughout.
The wildlife corridors range from high rainforests and secondary forests to steppes and savannahs at the lower elevations.
The soils of Blackburn were heavily exhausted from years of growing arable crops. So, Gehrken decided to transition his arable land into fields of grass, to produce hay that would contribute to the mulch production for the coffee. By producing grass rather than arable crops such as wheat, the soil is constantly replenished, while nutrients and the topsoil remains intact thanks to the no-till system enforced by the Blackburn team.
Processing & Production
Originally planted with the ancient Nyasa varietal, the Estate teems with varieties ranging from Kent, KP423 and TC/10 – a hybrid resistant to the Coffee Berry Disease and drought, but not high yielding.
For processing, the coffee is fermented, washed, and dried at Blackburn with its own wet mill, and the parchment is sent to a dry mill for hulling.
Water from springs situated on Mount Oldeani have created two reservoirs used for pulping.
The bean is wet processed and fermented for 2 to 3 days and sun dried on raised beds like Kenyan beans.
Blackburn is insecticide free – in other words, close to producing fully organic coffee.
But since the introduction of bio-control with seven separate species of ladybird, this is no longer necessary.
Annual production varies depending on weather conditions, but in 2019, Blackburn produced 67.9 tons of coffee, some of which was allocated to Blackburn’s own roastery in Tanzania.
Cup Profile & Tasting Notes
Rich aggressive flavor full of apple, maple, brown bread, and mollasses.
Muted acidity and an intense creamy body rolls over the palette with smooth finish.
Syrupy sweet and rich, this coffee gives us notes of stewed plums and rhubarb, mellowed by an acidic grapefruit finish.
In the cup look for tastes of Treacle, Honey and Meyer Lemon.
The cup is unexpected for Africa in general having some of the characteristics of a good Sumatran but with more of the “dynamicism” African coffes are known for.
Roasted a dark medium “2nd crack” “full city” brings out a wonderful floral and fruit, and mollasses aromas.
Notes of bittersweet chocolate on the finish round this as a very unique solid crop.
This is our first coffee from Tanzania, delivering flavours of plum, caramel and hints of spice (possbiby a little caraway), combined with a syrupy mouthfeel and lingering notes of cocoa.