Madagascar isn't the first place people think of when they think of coffee. The island nation does produce a relatively large amount of the robusta species of coffee, and has many endemic Coffea species that are not commercially cultivated. Arabica however is extremely rare here. Accounting for less than 1% of the countries production in recent years. Only about 1 ton in total. Arabica coffee was introduced by the French in the 19th century. and much of what can still be found is of the bourbon variety. Arabica can be found growing in the highland interior of country near the countries capital at heights up to 1600m. In 2018, four coffee famers who are also very good friends and have know each other for a long time, decided to join forces founded Santatra Coffee Cooperative. Santatra means “to enjoy the best” in Malgasy language, a name that makes justice to the quality of the coffee produced by Santatra Cooperative. The membership grew and it currently stands at 31 farmers. The vast majority of the members are young and energetic, with a high level of motivation to produce the best coffee they can. The current president of the cooperative is Mr. RANDRIANAIVO RENAUD. Mr. Renaud is 59 years old. With his wife Hantajaona they have formed a family of five sons of whom one still lives with them. Renaud began growing coffee in 2012 when he planted 10 coffee trees, currently he has 350 coffee trees planted. In addition to coffee hew grows beans, cassava, corn, and peanuts This year the Santatra cooperative produced 200lb of Yellow Bourbon coffee. We were able to secure 50lb of it to offer to our customers. We hope you enjoy this taste of the beginnings of specialty coffee in Madagascar. We previously featured the washed version of this coffee which was rated 92 by Coffee Review.