The Beginners Guide to Coffee in Moshi

Wednesday, 12 June, 2013
By Georgie Chennells


High adrenalin:


The Kilimanjaro Marathon (and half marathon) is a great way to experience the town and surrounding plantations. If you're in town for the marathon be sure to get there in time for the Friday night street party!


Climb Kilimanjaro. This takes about a week and involves a padded outfit, altitude sickness pills and hopefully much coffee.

More leisurely:

• Stop off at The Coffee Shop (yes, that's its name) before you go anywhere and find all the notices you will need, from waterfall hikes to Scottish dancing. Also a good place to get your copy of The Moshi Guide, which includes all the local listings.


• Hit Union Cafe and meet all the presidents of the KNCU since 1933, whose portraits adorn the walls



• Explore the town on foot: the locals are friendly and most speak English. There are coffee shops everywhere, some better than others.

• Go to the market and bargain for kikois and giant tins of Africafe.


• There are also some fabulous rooftop bars of Moshi, mostly on the top of hotels of backpackers lodges. Hakuna matata when you have a cold beer in your hand, good company, Kili ahead and the gently humming streets of Moshi below.

• Take a coffee tour:
Kahawa Shamba Coffee Tours are organised from the Union Cafe. These can be anything from a morning to two days' length and involve hands-on experiences learning about coffee farming and Fair Trade standards in Moshi.


POSSIBLE USEFUL LINKS

> For more on coffee in Tanzania visit http://www.kncutanzania.com/
> A useful info portal to Moshi is http://www.kiliweb.com/

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