This month, we brought in our very first coffee from Madagascar. This washed Red & Yellow Bourbon and Catimor lot from Soavinandriana has been an absolute pleasure to brew, with notes that remind us of plum, dark chocolate, papaya, strawberry, and brown sugar, with one of our staff commenting how it tasted like a chocolate-dipped strawberry! We're thrilled to be sharing this coffee with you.
Madagascar has limited access to export markets, which makes this high quality coffee all the more special! If you want to introduce someone to an unexpected coffee region, this is the perfect place to start.
Try it for yourself here: Madagascar - Soavinandriana | Washed
How this coffee was made
The Madagascar Coffee Company (MCC) processed this lot at its central mill in Soavinandriana, in Madagascar's Itasy region. The team selects only ripe cherries and dry ferments them in bags overnight. They then depulp the coffee and ferment it underwater for another 24 hours before washing it and drying it on raised beds for 10 to 14 days. MCC runs its own drying structures and dry mill, so the team oversees quality at every step, from freshly picked cherry to export-ready green coffee.
About the producers
About 40 smallholder producers organized around MCC grew this coffee at 1,400 metres in volcanic loam. They cultivate locally adapted Red and Yellow Bourbon, along with some Catimor. Each family tends a plot of less than a hectare and intercrops coffee with rice, maize, beans, cassava, avocados, citrus, bananas, and more. Harvests this small give farmers the chance to sort their cherries meticulously, and MCC helps transport them to the central mill for processing.
Reviving Malagasy coffee
Poorly maintained trees, fractured infrastructure, and inconsistent processing pushed Malagasy coffee into decline, and MCC is working to bring the island's coffee sector back to life. MCC offers training, renovation support, and coffee tree nurseries, along with clear price incentives for quality. All of this work feeds into helping families earn more from their coffee.
Why Madagascar coffee is so special
Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot. Nearly 90 percent of its plants and animals exist nowhere else on earth, including many coffee species, and the island holds some of the most diverse coffee genetics on the planet. Its rich microclimates and nutrient-dense soils make it a remarkable place to grow coffee.
A brief history of coffee in Madagascar
Coffee arrived in Madagascar from nearby Réunion sometime in the mid to late 1800s. Records from that era are thin until 1895, when French colonists arrived and took control of the industry. The French encouraged smallholder Malagasy farmers to plant coffee, and within a few decades it became the island's most important export. By the early 1930s, coffee sat at the heart of the economy.
Following conflict between French colonists, Malagasy nationalists, and Réunion Creoles in 1947, Madagascar gained independence in 1960. Close trade ties with France helped the coffee sector grow steadily, and from the 1960s through the 1980s, production flourished. Madagascar climbed to become the world's eighth largest coffee producer. In the early 1970s, the government founded CAVAGI to oversee the sale and pricing of coffee, vanilla, and cloves, all of which remain key exports today.
The late 1990s brought hard times. A global price crash combined with weak infrastructure left many farmers unable to compete. Plenty of producers pulled out their coffee trees and planted rice, which was a far more reliable crop.
Madagascar also has almost no large coffee estates to set a standard for organized production. Large estates only ever accounted for about 5 percent of output, and in the 1970s, the government nationalized many of them and redistributed the land among co-operatives. Today, smallholders like the families behind this lot grow nearly all of the island's coffee, which is exactly why the support MCC provides matters so much.
Historical background adapted from "A Guide to Coffee Production in Madagascar," Perfect Daily Grind (2021).