Day 0 - Why Madagascar?

From the start of our coffee journey, we’ve sought out communities overlooked by the big players. Places where coffee has potential but needs a hand to reach the world. Our first step was Daga, Papua New Guinea (and we’re eagerly waiting for that coffee to arrive). Now, the path leads us to Madagascar.

So, why Madagascar?

Coffee is part of the island’s unique nature. Of the 130+ coffee species in the world (you’ve probably only heard of Arabica and Robusta), 60 grow naturally only in Madagascar. Together with Ethiopia, it’s one of the most fascinating countries for coffee as a plant species. But we’re not botanists...we’re drawn to coffee as farming and business. And here, the parallels with Georgia and Daga are striking: a crop brought from outside, a fast rise, and an even faster collapse.

Coffee farming there is a fairly recent story. The French started the first large plantations in the early 20th century. By the 1930s, production was tens of thousands of tonnes. After independence in 1960, Madagascar even made it briefly into the world’s top 10 producers. Coffee made up more than half of export income, and nearly a third of people depended on it.

Then came the fall. World prices dropped, government support faded, and by the 2000s, output was down 4–5 times. Today volumes are somewhat higher again, but the industry never recovered. No functioning factories remain; farmers dry and clean beans by hand, just like in Daga. With no strong export system, coffee is more like a homemade product and most of it is consumed locally. And since the country is poor, coffee farmers are among the lowest-paid in the world.

Over 90% of production today is Robusta. It makes sense since it yields more, needs less care, and often grows wild in the bush. But this dominance is also why Madagascar was left out of the speciality coffee boom. Speciality Robusta is still a rare, renegade phenomenon. Usually, it’s seen as a base for cheap espresso, blends, or instant coffee. But we don’t intend to stick to those rules.

And it’s not only coffee… Today, only one large tea factory still works, but once Madagascar had thousands of hectares of tea plantations. Sounds familiar, right? Much like the story of Georgian tea. Let’s see if we manage to taste some local tea on this trip or even stumble upon an abandoned field....