I recently ordered some Zambian coffee from Paradise Roasters. (It is no longer on their website, by the way.) The tasting notes sounded like I would enjoy this coffee, and I have. This coffee did require some extra grooming and a finer grind than I have been used to with regular espresso blends, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Though I have never brewed Ethiopian beans, I was wondering if anyone could offer a comparison between the Ethiopian and Zambian coffees? Looking forward to your experiences.

I had a sample about 5 years ago. It tasted like a blend of Kenya and Sumatra Mandheling.

RogerAN wrote:I recently ordered some Zambian coffee from Paradise Roasters. (It is no longer on their website, by the way.) The tasting notes sounded like I would enjoy this coffee, and I have. This coffee did require some extra grooming and a finer grind than I have been used to with regular espresso blends, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Though I have never brewed Ethiopian beans, I was wondering if anyone could offer a comparison between the Ethiopian and Zambian coffees? Looking forward to your experiences.

Zambia coffee is similar to many East Central African coffees in that until recently they have been for the most part low quality, low volume, and difficult to export. Zambia has mostly old Bourbon varietals and lots of Catimor hybrids that will certainly evoke a Sumatran vibe. Much of the older Bourbon plants have been replaced or died from disease, which is why the higher yielding and disease resistant Catimor types became popular.

Total country production is very low, under 10 tons IIRC. Much is commodities grade and sold on the cheap. I tasted a pre-ship sample a couple years ago I got at a trade show and it was a surprisingly not bad coffee, just inside specialty grade. I didn't buy but heard that, as is typical of central African coffees, by the time the coffee made it to port and across the water quality fell 2-3 points due to time and poor conditions during transport.

Another note is that due to the difficulty of exporting coffee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (due to the lack of infrastructure in the eastern coffee growing regions and corruption, among other social issues) many Congo coffees are smuggled into countries like Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda and sold as coffee from each respective country.

All that to say, it is rather hard to pinpoint a typical profile to be expected in Zambia. I have heard of projects planning to work with farmers to improve quality, educate, and provide a means to market Zambian farmers, and some of these will likely start to bear fruit in the coming years, possibly even bring coffee up to the level expected by the specialty coffee community here. Past corruption and the bilking of a $18 million fund from a World Bank project back in the 1990's has brought pause from big funding projects there.

Thanks, Keith for this very informational reply.

I did enjoy the coffee and learned some things that will help me in the future. I plan to try some Ethiopian coffee before long and it will be interesting to compare, based on my less than perfect taste buds. I envy those with more sophisticated tasting abilities, but I still enjoy espresso of various blends and origins. Best to all!