The Sambewe Agricultural Marketing Cooperative and Society (AMCOS) was created through the consolidation of the Sambewe, Lungwa, Nansama and Mandelewo farmer groups in 2018.

Our Tanzania Sambewe comes from 344 farmers in the villages of Sambewe, Itumpi, Nansama, Iyenga and Ileya in the Songwe region. During the harvest, they delivered cherries from 1–8 p.m., and on a typical day the pulper runs from 4 p.m. until sometimes midnight.

After being pulped, the beans are size-separated in washing channels, fermented for 18 to 36 hours and then fully washed in the channels. They’re then soaked for 8 to 12 hours and dried in the sun on raised beds for 8 to 14 days.

Sometimes, the AMCOS has to tell farmers not to deliver cherry, because they’re over capacity. Building a new, larger processing plant is among the group’s goals for the near future, along with renovating its office and warehouse building and planting more shade trees to better conserve the land and prevent erosion.

Cupping notes: Tropical, cherry, complex; lively acidity, rich body.