This washed Java from Cameroon is a well-balanced and approachable coffee. With mellow notes of chocolate-covered raisin, malt, and a pecan shortbread cookie finish, this coffee is exceedingly easy to drink.

As the African coffee harvest season begins to wrap up, fresh offerings have landed at ports across the globe. Our team tried dozens of samples to find something novel and interesting to share with our community. We have never before sourced a coffee from Cameroon before, but the quality of the sample we received from Covoya Coffee Importers was impossible to ignore, so we booked this coffee to introduce folks to this lesser-known, yet burgeoning producing region.

While coffee is not exactly new to Cameroon, having first been introduced to the region in the 1880’s, the industry has seen an unfortunate cycle of boom and bust within the country. After the fraught conditions of the global coffee market in the 1990’s following the collapse of the International Coffee Agreements, Cameroon’s annual production peaked and quickly retracted as global coffee prices fell to an all time low. Despite this checkered history, the coffee industry of Cameroon has been rebounding in recent years, with robusta making up about 80% of their total coffee exports. Started in 2019, the Grassfield Cooperative is a relatively new venture, located in the Kouoptamo region of Western Cameroon near an active volcano called Mt. Oku. The average elevation of the smallholder farms is 1150masl, and the microclimate of the area is well suited for the cultivation of specialty arabica. This particular lot is a single cultivar called Java, which, despite the name, actually has closer genetic ties to Ethiopian landrace and Abyssinia varieties. Java was first isolated in Cameroon before ultimately being exported to Indonesia and introduced as a staple arabica subspecies for many Southeast Asian coffee producers. One of our goals in sourcing coffees from new origins we’ve yet to explore is to find a better understanding of the history of the global coffee supply chain, and how it connects people from all around the globe. We hope this coffee serves as a good opportunity for everyone to learn a bit more about what Cameroon has to offer!

Region: Kouoptamo, Western Cameroon

Producer: Smallholder Cooperative

Cultivar: Java

Process: Washed

Altitude: 1150 Masl

Roast Degree: Light

Importer: Covoya Coffee Importers