PRODUCT: Peet’s East African Uzuri Coffee Blend
| We just finished our first bag of Peet’s newest coffee, Uzuri African Blend.
African coffees are our personal favorites. From Ethiopia in Northeast Africa, we love the exotic, fruity, complex Harrar, a dry processed or unwashed or “natural” coffee. This is the original method of processing coffee, where the entire cherry is cleaned and then placed in the sun to dry before the beans are removed. Perhaps our favorite coffee is the floral and citrussy Yirgacheffe, a wet processed or washed coffee, where the beans are removed from the cherry before they are dried (washing requires a lot of water, so the technique can’t be used everywhere). Moving down the east coast of Africa, Kenya’s high-altitude-grown coffees are complex and appealing; and its neighbor to the south, Tanzania, grows similarly excellent coffee around Mt. Kilimanjaro. African coffees have earthy flavors that appeal to us, unique to the region. Now back to Peet’s Uzuri, which means “beautiful” in Swahili: It was named by the small-scale coffee farmers whose beans—grown in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania—are included in the blend. Uzuri African Blend has a great social mission.
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New Uzuri is destined to be a Peet’s favorite. |
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| Previously, these farmers did not grow “Peet’s quality” beans. Through a partnership with TechnoServe, an organization that provides advice, market access and capital to business people (including farmers) in developing countries, Peet’s has provided the know-how that enables farmers grow higher quality coffee. This provides Peet’s with a new source for top-quality beans; and more importantly, it puts more money into the farmers’ pockets.
Peet’s says, “Their lives begin to improve almost overnight as they rise from overwhelming poverty to stable incomes.” The farmers include survivors of the Rwandan genocide, who are rebuilding their futures through coffee farming. You can read their stories. For some, this may be reason enough to buy Uzuri African Blend. But this is delicious coffee: It is medium-bodied, smooth and round, with malty with dark berry flavor and floral hints. There no acrid or bitter notes. We’ll be buying more of it (and we taste more up to 100 different coffees each year). Buy Uzuri at Peets.com and wherever Peet’s coffee is sold.
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