Kipenzi (Peaberry Natural)

[caption id="attachment_426381" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Kerembe & Mkunde - Founders of Communal Shamba[/caption] We're incredibly proud to share the story of Communal Shamba, a fledgling Tanzanian coffee collective producing the kind of coffee we’re super proud of. Founders of Communal Shamba, husband and wife team, Keremba Warioba and Dr Mkunde Chachage worked and studied in Australia for over 10 years. Although they had no coffee experience, a strong passion for agriculture and social impact inspired us to offer support in getting their fledgling business off the ground with an open door to training and a commitment to buy their first harvest sight-unseen. Returning to Tanzania in 2017, Keremba and Mkunde partnered with farmer co-op Mkulima Kwanza and our initial faith was rewarded with a delicious crop and immediate fans. Now, five harvests in, the business is bringing recognition and funds into a community historically mired in commercial coffee. It’s not just delicious though – backed by Dr Chachage’s medical know-how and strong collaboration with the community, the sale of their coffee is funding some valuable expansions for the local primary school and health clinic literally amongst the coffee farms. Great coffee and positive impact? This is what gets us up in the morning! Five Senses were the first coffee roasters to and, gathered around the sorting tables, we naturally began to talk about the opportunities for quality improvement, especially cherry ripeness. While selective picking was a new conversation, the Mkulima Kwanza members immediately identified the opportunity and took action the very next day where we arrived at farms to find bulging bags of pristine, ripe cherries. The results of this latest selective picking - aptly named Kipenzi or ‘Beloved’ in Swahili – are a delicious testament to the work of Communal Shamba and Mkulima Kwanza.